After watching The Losers last night, I was shocked to see that James Vanderbilt co-wrote it. I loved the work he did on Zodiac and almost couldn't believe that he had something to do with such an awful movie. That prompted me to check out his IMDB page and it actually looks like The Losers was par for the course and Zodiac was the black sheep.

So this got me wondering, what other writers, directors or even actors have glimpses of brilliance in their otherwise average careers? I'm not saying that they are complete hacks, but that most of their work is nothing to go crazy over. With that said, at some point they have shown that they have it in them to do something truly amazing.

Another person that comes to mind is Paul W.S. Anderson. While Event Horizon is nowhere near the greatness that is Zodiac, it was a film that got a lot of things right and made me think that we'd be seeing great things from him in the future. Sadly, that doesn't seem to be the case.

christian slater heathers and true romance are arguably his only 2 bright spots

Gleaming the Cube or FAIL.

Marlon Wayan in Requiem for a Dream (at least until the Pryor comes out...hopefully)

Jan de Bont with Speed

Everything else he directed has sucked.

M. Night Shyamalan

Has made one great film (Unbreakable) and a host of bad ones.

Will Ferrell in Stranger Than Fiction is another one.

Could NOT agree more. Except I would emphasize the word "bad" with something stronger. Not sure how he pulled Unbreakable out of the same mind that thought killer trees would be interesting.

Halle Berry in Monster's Ball

Elvis Presley in KING CREOLE, FLAMING STAR, ROUSTABOUT and a few others.

Marissa Tomei in "My Cousin Vinny"

Adam Sandler in "Punch Drunk Love"

she was good in THE WRESTLER and BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD

I'm thinking good = naked to you!

good does not equal "glimpse of brilliance"

You think the one-note shrill (albeit entertaining one-note shrill) of her MY COUSIN VINNY appearance is "brilliant" compared to the more nuanced and dramatic turns she made in THE WRESTLER and BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOUR DEAD?

Okaaaaaaay...

(Yes, I know she won an Oscar for MCV. Maybe deservedly so, but I still think Miranda Richardson and Judy Davis had her beat...)

Marky Mark in Boogie Nights & The Departed

Cuba Gooding, Jr. in Jerry Maguire.

Cuba Gooding, Jr. in Radio.

Chris Tucker in The Fifth Element

Eric Christian Olsen in Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd

Ethan Hawke in Gattaca.

This, and on a lesser scale, Winter Passing.

Ugh, not even in that. Halle Berry is a horrible actress all around. If you're going to include Halle in Monster's Ball though, you'd have to add her role as Dorothy Dandrige...which I don't because I don't care for her acting at all.

I actually like his role in As Good As It Gets better.

Russell Mulcahy with Highlander. He was the quintessential music video director of the early '80s, and almost single-handedly wrote the language of music videos, and really showed great promise with his feature-film directorial debut. Then he did Highlander II, one of the worst movies of all time. Most of his work since has been utterly forgettable, with The Shadow being the one real exception, IMO.