20 Films Improved By Mike Leigh

Transformers (2007)

The Original: Michael Bay's juggernaut of a movie about vehicles with the amazing power to turn into robots that look exactly like other robots.

Key Scene: Optimus sets the All Spark to work, giving himself enough time to sit down for a nice cuppa.

Van Helsing (2004)

The Original: Stephen Sommers' overblown attempt to tag-team the classic Universal monsters by throwing them simultaneously at Hugh Jackman's eponymous vampire hunter in a flurry of bad CGI.

Aliens Vs Predator (2004)

The Original: Paul Thomas Anderson's "two birds with one stone" slaying of classic sci-fi franchises. Whoever wins, cinemagoers lose.

Die Another Day (2002)

The Original: Franchise-wounding Bondage, as Pierce Brosnan's 007 battles with iceberg surfing, invisible cars, and Madonna as a fencing instructor.

Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959)

The Original: Ed Wood's cult classic about aliens invading a town populated entirely by bad actors.

Titanic (1997)

The Original: James Cameron's Oscar-hogging flood-fest about an ill-fated romance aboard an ill-fated boat.

Street Dance 3D (2010)

The Original: Flavour of the month Cowell-cash-in in which ballet dancers are taught to bust propah moves by Diversity and George Sampson.

The Avengers (1998)

The Original: Jeremiah Chechik's point-missing Hollywoodisation of the whimsical British spy classic, led by a baffled, miscast Ralph Fiennes and Uma Thurman.

Suburban Commando (1991)

The Original: Hulk Hogan-starring family actioner about instellar warrior Shep Ramsey getting trapped in suburbia with Christopher Lloyd's white-collar square.

Dungeons and Dragons (2000)

The Original: Jeremy Irons puts his kids through college as the bad guy in the lame big-screen makeover of the classic role-playing game.

The Passion of the Christ (2004)

The Original: Mel Gibson's flay-tastic recreation of Jesus' last hours.

Clash of the Titans (2010)

The Original: Louis Leterrier's ill-advised remake of the Ray Harryhausen gods 'n monsters classic.

Howard the Duck (1986)

The Original: George Lucas-produced failure to turn a horny alien duck into the next big kids' franchise.

The Matrix Reloaded (2003)

The Original: The Wachowski Brothers' muddled sequel to the bullet-time masterpiece: 50% overblown action, 50% verbose cod-philosophy.

I Know Who Killed Me (2007)

The Original: Lindsey Lohan's infamous attempt at more adult material, in which she plays stigmatic twins terrorised by a serial killer.

Kickboxer (1989)

The Original: Muy thai talented Jean Claude Van Damme kicks, boxes and writes the script. In retrospect, maybe the last of those was a bad idea.

Independence Day (1996)

The Original: Roland Emmerich's flag-waving vision of America defeating aliens on the 4th of July.

Alone in the Dark (2005)

The Original: Uwe Boll's video game horror about Christian Slater's supernatural detective discovering things that go bump in the cinema when the audience walks out.