5. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial
Steven Spielberg is up to his old tricks once again with his 20th Anniversary Special Edition of E.T., one of the more infamous Director's Cuts due to the bizarre choices the director made to make the film less adult and more harmless. For one, the guns in the special agents' hands are digitally altered to resemble walkie talkies to downplay the sense of danger to the children, though he soon enough ended up regretting this. What's really strange is the tonal inconsistency of this cut; Spielberg appears to want to make the whole thing more kid-friendly by replacing the puppet with a CG overlay who is creepily expressive, but then he has also altered the modelling of his spaceship to make it appear more ominous - what exactly is he trying to do here? Unlike most directors, at least Spielberg is man enough to admit when his attempts to improve a classic didn't work, as they invariably do not.