10 Great Directors Who Haven't Made Anything Good For Years

8. John Singleton

1991's Boyz 'n the Hood is about as close to a perfect portrayal of life in the Los Angeles gang scene as it's possible to get. It was unflinchingly honest, deeply personal, and showed a mainstream American audience a side to life in the country that they were largely in denial about. It catapulted the careers of its stars and made director John Singleton not only the first African-American to be nominated for a Best Director Oscar, but the youngest ever nominee.

Since then, his career has been a long and depressing parade of bad project after bad project. His immediate followups Rosewood, Higher Learning and Poetic Justice attempted to hit the same nerves as Boyz 'n the Hood, but both their stories and their presentation fell woefully short. Singleton even holds the dubious honour of being behind the worst film in the entire Fast and Furious franchise and takes almost as much blame as Samuel L. Jackson for the unbelievably bad Shaft remake.

Singleton's perhaps guilty of just setting the bar too high first time out, and telling a story that borrowed so heavily from his own experiences left him with a formula he'd never be able to repeat. His only saving grace since 1991 has been Abduction - a film so widely panned by critics that it's kept Taylor Lautner from getting any major roles since.