As always, Borzage's Moonrise works best when you know his typical thing and how it's informing the noir genre.
Sunshine, too, is informed by Boyle's previous and later films. If you don't know what his movies are generally about (the thrill of life, responding to an element of great power in one's life {drugs, zombies, love, nature}, the necessity of other people) the final third seems silly.
Hot Fuzz can seem like a boring action movie if you don't know what's going on.
The Social Network, in a way. It would be easy to dismiss a Facebook movie if you didn't know who wrote and directed it.
The Searchers could be seen as strictly a racist film if you don't know Ford and what he likes to focus on in the film. It's a lot more about being apart from the community in order to help it.