Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)

This movie absolutely should not have worked. The plot was thin, the maguffin was a ridiculous lift from a Disney amusement-park ride, Orlando Bloom uttered a lifeless Errol Flynn imitation in lieu of a performance, and Keira Knightley forgot anything she might have known about acting (or possibly she was just stunned by the wooden quality of the script). It was all redeemed by Johnny Depp’s incandescently brilliant turn as Captain Jack Sparrow, proving that a good enough actor can bring life to even the most formulaic crap. Depp didn’t just carry this movie on his back, he spun it on one finger with an insouciant grin.