Curtis Hanson might not be a household name as far as directors go, but he worked consistently over several decades and was behind some noteworthy films during that time. Born in 1945, he was active as both a screenwriter and director between 1970 and 2012, ultimately passing away at the age of 71 in 2016. He wrote films he didn't direct, and also worked in television here and there, though feature film-wise, he amassed 13 directorial credits over 40 years.

What follows is a rundown of those 13 movies Curtis Hanson directed, ranked below, starting with the worst and ending with the best. While not all of them can be considered classics, they do collectively demonstrate Hanson's ability to work within a wide range of genres, and with various high-profile actors to success more often than not. It's not a huge filmography, but it's a relatively solid one, all things considered, and there's certainly a handful of classics contained within.

13 'The Little Dragons' (1980)

Starring Charles Lane and Ann Sothern

The most obscure movie Curtis Hanson ever directed isn't well-known for good reason, as it's also easy to call it his worst film. That movie is The Little Dragons, the second film he ever directed, and can also be labeled his strangest. It takes a comedic and family-friendly approach to martial arts action, and revolves around two young karate students who decide to become heroes, rescuing a friend of theirs who gets captured and held for ransom.

Even a charitable assessment of The Little Dragons would call it entirely by the numbers by kid's movie standards, and there's been little effort on the part of anyone to remaster or even remember this film. Maybe it entertained some young viewers back in the day, but it's otherwise a total obscurity now, and probably only holds curiosity value for being an early credit in the filmography of a director who went on to helm several Oscar-nominated movies some years later.

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12 'Lucky You' (2007)

Starring Eric Bana and Drew Barrymore

Lucky You was not lucky at the box office, with this fairly ordinary and straightforward drama/romance film becoming a notorious bomb. With a budget of $55 million, it certainly wasn't a cheap movie, yet only went on to gross about $8.5 million worldwide... you don't have to be a mathematician to figure out that's pretty dire.

Its narrative follows a professional poker player who finds success in the game, yet is struggling with the romantic side of his life. Lucky You was written by two Oscar-winning screenwriters - Hanson and Eric Roth - and has a remarkable cast that includes the likes of Eric Bana, Drew Barrymore, Robert Downey Jr., Robert Duvall, and Michael Shannon, yet ultimately falls flat in most areas. It's a strangely disappointing film, but is at least a little more competent and polished than some of Curtis Hanson's earlier efforts.

11 'Losin' It' (1982)

Starring Tom Cruise and Jackie Earle Haley

Curtis Hanson's third movie, and his first to feature some stars who - at least nowadays - are well-known, Losin' It is a comedic coming-of-age movie set in Los Angeles during the mid-1960s. It follows a group of teenage boys who get up to the usual kinds of misadventures teenage boys in these sorts of movies do, with the film perhaps most noteworthy nowadays for featuring one of Tom Cruise's earliest starring performances.

Again, it could be something of a curiosity, and is old enough to function as a nostalgic watch which shows how different coming-of-age movies used to be decades ago. But, like Lucky You, it was also a disappointment at the box office and far from critically acclaimed overall, perhaps only having some charm in store for people who know what they're in for and specifically want to seek out something kind of crude and scrappy.

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10 'Sweet Kill' (1972)

Starring Tab Hunter and Cherie Latimer

A B-movie that served as Curtis Hanson's directorial debut, Sweet Kill stands out for being the only true horror movie (and a grisly one at that) the filmmaker ever made. It's a distinctly grimy and low-budget movie with an appropriately unpleasant plot to match its aesthetics, as it revolves around a serial killer with some Freudian problems (to put it mildly), leading to him mixing sex and murder in various unsettling ways.

It was one of many movies produced by Roger Corman (in an executive producer capacity here), and though Corman was able to spin B-movies into box office gold on numerous occasions, Sweet Kill was not one such time. Hanson was vocal in later years about how much he disliked the process of making his debut (and it led to him taking a break of almost a decade until his next directorial effort), but at the same time - and for better or worse - Sweet Kill does sort of work as a nasty and crude horror B-movie.

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9 'Bad Influence' (1990)

Starring James Spader and Rob Lowe

While looking over the filmography of Curtis Hanson, Bad Influence represents the start of things getting a little more solid quality-wise, to the point where it's even possible to call this 1990 psychological thriller underrated. It's a no-nonsense and straightforward thriller about one young man being saved from a precarious situation by a mysterious stranger, only to have his life spiral out of control in unexpected ways through repeated interactions with this other man.

It's possible to see influence from Alfred Hitchcock in Bad Influence, particularly from 1951's Strangers on a Train... but that's not necessarily a knock against the film, as plenty of post-Hitchcock thrillers can feel inspired by the master of suspense. It's solid enough overall, and it's hard to fault the casting, with James Spader serving the role as hapless protagonist well, and Rob Lowe making for a compelling and mysterious figure turned antagonist.

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8 'Chasing Mavericks' (2012)

Starring Gerard Butler and Elisabeth Shue

There aren't too many iconic sports movies that revolve around surfing (Point Break probably doesn't count as a sports movie, either), so that helps Chasing Mavericks stand out from the crowd. This biographical sports/drama film ended up being the last one Curtis Hanson was credited with directing, though his health at the time meant he had to step away from production, at which point Michael Apted - perhaps best-known for the acclaimed Seven-Up documentary films - stepped in to finish filming.

Chasing Mavericks is about real-life surfer Jay Moriarity, an ambitious young man who was mentored by an older and more experienced surfer named Frosty Hesson. It ticks all the boxes one would expect a standard sports biopic to tick, which can make Chasing Mavericks feel a little clichéd overall, though it does work as a relatively emotional film and serves as a decent final entry within Hanson's filmography.

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7 'In Her Shoes' (2005)

Starring Cameron Diaz, Toni Collette, and Shirley MacLaine

There's nothing about In Her Shoes that can be argued as shaking up romantic comedy conventions/tropes, but as an example of a direct and crowd-pleasing rom-com, it largely works. It's about two very different sisters (Cameron Diaz and Toni Collette) being forced to live together while struggling with issues at work and in the dating scene, and the way things are further complicated when their grandmother (Shirley MacLaine) also moves in.

It's well-acted overall, even if the characters aren't particularly deep, and there's some dramatic weight offered through the look at the dynamics between members of a somewhat dysfunctional family. The 2000s was a particularly prosperous time for the rom-com genre, meaning In Her Shoes might feel buried under other films of the time that have held up a little better, but it performed solidly back in 2005 and stands up to date as arguably underrated overall.

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6 'The Bedroom Window' (1987)

Starring Steve Guttenberg, Elizabeth McGovern, and Isabelle Huppert

Like Bad Influence, The Bedroom Window is another tense thriller that can feel a little Hitchcockian in parts, though it's also a slightly stronger movie overall. Its narrative kicks off when a woman - played by the always commanding Isabelle Huppert - witnesses a crime taking place through her window, which then leads to a series of unexpected and uncomfortable events - including potential murder - unfolding.

It's one of many neo-noir movies released during the 1980s, and even if it's not one of the very best, it still delivers the kinds of things you'd want out of a twisty and tense thriller of this sort. It doesn't rewrite the conventions of the genres it belongs to, by any means, but it's well-acted and decently paced throughout, which will make it likely to hit the spot for anyone who finds themselves craving '80s-flavored thrills.

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5 'The River Wild' (1994)

Starring Meryl Streep, David Strathairn, and Kevin Bacon

A fairly well-received adventure/thriller film starring Meryl Streep, Kevin Bacon, David Strathairn, and John C. Reilly, The River Wild follows a married couple who decide to rejuvenate their marriage while giving their son a 10th birthday to remember. Their chosen method is a holiday involving white-water rafting, only things get far more dangerous than intended when the three of them come across some shady individuals during their outdoor adventuring.

It's a little bit like Deliverance, sure, but succeeds on its own terms thanks to the strength of its cast and the tight pacing that ends up providing almost non-stop thrills, once the main narrative kicks into high gear. The River Wild is one of several movies that demonstrates Curtis Hanson might've been most at home making thrillers, with this overall being one of the better entries in his filmography.

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4 'The Hand that Rocks the Cradle' (1992)

Starring Annabella Sciorra and Rebecca De Mornay

One final straightforward and satisfying thriller movie directed by Curtis Hanson worth highlighting is 1992's The Hand that Rocks the Cradle. It performed well financially, making $140 million worldwide against a budget of just $12 million, and had a narrative that revolved around a nanny inserting herself in the life of a family with malicious intent, potentially wanting to replace the family matriarch through psychological manipulation and intimidation.

Perhaps it's all a little preposterous, but it's a slow-burn kind of story that unfolds with confidence, thanks to Hanson's steady/reliable direction and performances from the likes of Annabella Sciorra, Rebecca De Mornay, and Ernie Hudson. Not all successful thrillers from the 1980s and 1990s (when the genre seemed particularly popular) hold up well, but The Hand that Rocks the Cradle thankfully remains a very engaging watch, even today.

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3 'Wonder Boys' (2000)

Starring Michael Douglas, Tobey Maguire, and Robert Downey Jr.

Perhaps what's most notable about Wonder Boys when watched today is how many actors here went on to appear in various successful Marvel superhero movies. This is because this 2000 film stars Tobey Maguire (of Spider-Man fame), Robert Downey Jr. (whose career was revitalized thanks to Iron Man), and Michael Douglas (who plays Hank Pym in the Ant-Man trilogy).

Wonder Boys is certainly not a superhero film, however, and is instead a dramedy about the unique relationship formed between an older English professor/novelist who feels like a bit of a has-been and an up-and-coming young author. With endearing characters expertly portrayed by a great cast, it's a small-scale yet ultimately endearing movie that balances comedy and drama to expert effect, with it being one of Curtis Hanson's most overall critically acclaimed movies.

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2 '8 Mile' (2002)

Starring Eminem and Kim Basinger

A semi-autobiographical music film that earns its R-rating, 8 Mile is easily one of the most well-known movies Curtis Hanson ever directed. It stars rapper Eminem as a character with his fair share of similarities to said rapper, with 8 Mile being set in Detroit during the mid-1990s. Eminem plays a young, aspiring artist by the name of Jimmy Smith Jr./B-Rabbit, with the film being about the struggles of his life and his involvement in various rap battles that could make him a star.

Backed by a talented supporting cast that includes Kim Basinger, Mekhi Phifer, and Brittany Murphy, Eminem plays "himself" well here, and 8 Mile works as an overall compelling look at the Detroit rap scene. It's also a gritty and inspiring movie about following one's dreams within a creative field, and it serves as a sleek and entertaining early 2000s classic that's still worth watching/revisiting 20+ years later.

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1 'L.A. Confidential' (1997)

Starring Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, and Kim Basinger

Not only is L.A. Confidential Curtis Hanson's best movie, but it's also one of the greatest neo-noir movies of all time, and an overall cinematic highlight of the entire 1990s. At 138 minutes, it's certainly not a short movie, but neither does it feel long, as it's a perfectly paced blend of crime, mystery, and thriller genres, all working to tell an engaging story about several murders that might all be linked to a wider conspiracy.

It's all tense, unpredictable, and very exciting in the ways that the very best film noir and neo-noir movies tend to be, with a rich atmosphere and great performances from too many actors to count. L.A. Confidential captures 1950s Los Angeles in a way that feels authentic and lived in, and the story told within its setting is an interesting one involving plenty of great characters. It's hard to imagine the neo-noir genre done much better than this, which is a key factor in why L.A. Confidential is such a classic.

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