Catwoman and The Chronicles of Riddick are just the latest big-budget turkeys to get eaten up at the box office. Here are ten more celluloid stinkers you should cross the road to avoid...

The Avengers (1998)

Suck factor: 4/10

From Thunderbirds to The Saint, the record of turning British TV series into expensive blockbusters has not been a happy one. But few small-screen transfers have been quite as woeful as this $60m attempt to update the campy exploits of John Steed and Emma Peel, woodenly played here by a miscast Ralph Fiennes and a leather-clad Uma Thurman. Bad guy Sean Connery publicly disowned the ham-fisted result.

Sample review: "This adaptation of the cult 1960s TV series is a leaden, witless fiasco lacking thrills, surprise or excitement." (The Daily Telegraph)

Battlefield Earth (2000)

Suck factor: 9/10

After his career-resurrecting turns in Pulp Fiction and Get Shorty, John Travolta pressed the self-destruct button with this sci-fi adventure, based on a book by Scientology founder L Ron Hubbard yet directed, bizarrely, by one Roger Christian. The bloated disaster which ensued battled to recoup one tenth of its reported $73m budget, but its star was unrepentant, even claiming at one point a sequel was in the works.

Sample review: "A million monkeys with a million crayons would be hard-pressed in a million years to create anything as cretinous." (The Washington Post)

Crossroads (2002)

Suck factor: 6/10

The knives were out for Britney Spears' acting debut from the get-go, but even she must have been shocked by the savaging her gentle all-girl road movie received at the hands of the critics. That said, the pop tart did herself few favours by turning up late to the London premiere and refusing to spend any time with her fans. And was it just a coincidence that the film's release occurred just as she split up with Justin Trousersnake?

Sample review: "So mind-numbingly awful that you hope Britney won't do it one more time, as far as movies are concerned." (The New York Post)

Gigli (2003)

Suck factor: 10/10

The rubbish bins of Hollywood are filled to the brim with misguided vanity projects starring real-life showbiz couples. But Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez's ghastly mob romp deserves special pride of place for its awful dialogue, terrible performances and tasteless plot (a mafia goon teams up with a lesbian assassin to kidnap a mentally challenged youngster). So dire the producer and director came to blows at an early test screening.

Sample review: "Martin Brest's spectacularly ill-conceived 'comedy' could hardly be more of a turkey if it had feathers and a beak." (BBC News Online)

Glitter (2001)

Suck factor: 7/10

All that glitters isn't gold judging by Mariah Carey's first screen role, a rags-to-riches tale that proved such a turn-off with audiences Virgin Records promptly shredded her multi-million dollar contract. The trouble actually started before the movie's release, which had to be delayed by three weeks when its temperamental starlet had a nervous breakdown. Unsurprisingly Wise Girls, Mariah's follow-up film, went straight to video.

Sample review: "Helplessly cliched, predictable and unaware of its own lameness, it could easily become a camp classic." (The New York Post)