Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is a terrific actor who just needs to be showcased in more good movies. He is charming and funny with a self-deprecating streak a mile wide, he has an excellent singing voice, and he can play a believable, likeable action hero without veering into brainless muscle-clod territory like Van Damme, Dolph Lundgren, or even Arnold at his worst. The Rundown was a great action-adventure buddy movie, and The Rock kept Walking Tall from sucking. He was the only good thing about Be Cool. I certainly hope Southland Tales finally sees release one day – he plays the lead in Richard Kelly’s action/sci-fi/comedy/musical.
Paul Gross, star of the buddy cop show Due South, suprised me a bit in the movie Men With Brooms, but that was mosly because he went from a straight-arrow nigh-infallible super-perceptive Boy Scout/Cop to being a much more “real” character, a guy who drinks and swears, and makes stupid choices.
That said, he totally blew me away in the TV movie Murder, Most Likely, where he played a crooked cop who may or may not have murdered his wife. This guy wasn’t a good guy, he wasn’t even a good guy with flaws, he was downright manipulative scum.
As far as Anthony Hopkins goes, he blew me away when I saw Catch-22, mostly because I had no idea it was him until his very last scene in the movie, where he turned around to say his parting line, and the lights cast across his face in JUST the right way to make him look 30 years older, and I was all like “OMGWTF!”
Yeah, I know, I watch Catch-22 and the big moment for me is “*DUDE! *That’s Anthony Hopkins!”
Adam Sandler in Click, the movie had some old school Adam Sandler slapstick, but then managed to be very serious and dramatic when it needed to be. I damn near started crying at the line “For Christ’s sake, would you LOOK AT THE MAN?!” The movie knew how to punch you in the gut.
And another vote for Jim Carrey in The Truman Show, just a fantastic movie. He’s not so much just a wacky guy in the movie, as a fun, goofy guy who is trying to figure out why his world isn’t making any sense.
DUDE! No it’s Not!
I thought he was great in Carlito’s Way too, as well as nearly unrecognizable. (Really… it must’ve been a good 15 minutes after his appearance when I realized it was Sean Penn.)
I don’t understand why he didn’t stick with that hairstyle.
How about Cloris Leachman in “Young Frankenstein”? Quote “He vas…my boyfriend!!” (cue the lightening)
Yeah, full frontal different, right? ::drool
OK, release the dogs:
Tom Cruise in Magnolia
**Jim Carrey ** in The Majestic a very sweet and low-key performance from i guy i normally cant stand to watch.
My wife does a spot-on impression of that line,It still makes me laugh
Er… Jon Voight, rather.
Sorry, I’m a retard sometimes. :smack:
It’s ok. I know a guy who bought a Chrysler LeBaron because he thought it had been owned by Jon Voight, but it turned out it was a John Voight. Unrelated to the actor.
Guess you had to be there.
To a lesser extent, Steven Weber in Studio 60. I only knew him from Wings and I thought he did OK in this role.
I was mightily impressed with Matthew Perry in “Studio 60.” I am a huge “Friends” geek, and always liked him in that show, but I didn’t realize the depth of his talent until I saw him in “Studio 60.” I think I’ve mentioned it before here; I think he fell into the actors’ Catch-22 of being so good that he made it look easy, so you didn’t realize how good he really is.
I too thought he was great in the show, but I’ve always thought he was a strong actor, so I didn’t include him. He has not always had parts that show off his talent, IMO, but he is quite good.
I just don’t get the hate for Leonardo Di Caprio, such that people are actively surprised when he gives a good performance. The man is a FABULOUS actor. Is it just because Titanic made so much money?
He’s been nominated for a ton of oscars, and it’s not because the academy of motion picture arts and sciences is full of dreamy-eyed pre-teen girls.
I don’t get the hate either. I’ve heard people say, “Well, I’ve learned to like him since he’s gotten older and doesn’t have the baby face anymore”…as if this had anything to do with his performances.
Jim Carrey in the Truman Show
Tom Hanks in Philadelphia
Mark Wahlberg in Boogie Nights
Adam Sandler in Airheads*
*this one is because I normally think Adam Sandler ruins anything he is in, but I liked this movie. I didn’t *specifically *like his performance over anybody else’s but I didn’t dislike it either, which surprised me. And yes, it’s a stupid movie, but I like it.
I think the same might have happened to Jack Nicholson in The Pledge. It was very surprising to see him actually act as opposed to the generic scenery chewing I was expecting.
Honestly, I could just never take him quite seriously because I remember when his big movei was Critters 3, a movie about an apartment complex infested with alien carnivorous porcupines (think Sonic the Hedgehog, but evil and 50 of him)
You know what? I’d be really amused if someone decided to start the “Screaming preteen girls’ choice awards”
How about John Travolta in Get Shorty?
And, Kevin Bacon in JFK.