Ever watch two movies by your favourite filmmaker back-to-back and get the odd feeling that you might have just seen the same thing twice? You're not alone. It could be that they like to use the same actors for every film (like David O.Russell) or favour certain shots, but occasionally they'll re-use entire plots or characters and hope nobody notices (Luc Besson, anyone?). Being wholly original is hard, especially for filmmakers, who have a wealth of history and time-tested techniques to fall back on and make their movie work as a piece of entertainment. They might pull off something unique once, sure. But twice? Forget about it! Once a director figures out a trick that works for them, you can bet they'll keep it in their back pocket for safe keeping until the next time they need to use it, either to establish their auteur status or simply just because they know it's safe ground. The following list of 15 film directors is a collection of artists who, for better or worse, repeat themselves in various ways throughout all their movies. Some are understandable tropes and themes, some are favourite shots and music cues, but some of them are just plain lazy. Some entries might surprise you. Others? Not so much.