1. Kingdom Of Heaven
Theatrical: 144 minutesExtended: 192 minutes Reception for the theatrical cut of Kingdom of Heaven reaped all the rewards of a cut-happy studio refusing to place faith in a proven auteur (Ridley Scott). By all accounts, it blew, with Scott's original hacked into a baffling Crusades adventure complete with jumpy narrative and underdeveloped characters. Happily, Scott's director's cut (48 minutes extra) jettisons the confusion and turns Kingdom of Heaven into an epic, clearing up why our hero Balian (Orlando Bloom) is already a skilled warmonger when he leaves his petit French village for battle in the Middle East, and why his love interest Sibylla (a hypnotising Eva Green) suddenly loses it at the close, among other things. Scott loves to tinker with his own films post-cinematic release, and Kingdom of Heaven comes a close second to Blade Runner in terms of his success (FYI: Blade Runner isn't featured here because it's a director's cut, rather than an extended cut. I don't make the rules). Visually, the extended Heaven is one of Scott's most impressive features, the grand beauty of 12th century Europe/Asia really hitting home at the full, 192-minute scale. Thematically, Heaven's up there with Blade Runner at asking Scott's Big Questions, refusing to make villains out of either Christians of Muslims while musing on the pointlessness of religious carnage. The cast is also faultless, with Bloom the only weak link amidst the likes of thesping titans Liam Neeson, Jeremy Irons and an uncredited Edward Norton. Don't let the bad press for the 2005 release put you off; Scott's extended cut, his original vision, is something David Lean would have been proud of.