Of course, literally the whole point of FACE/OFF was for Nicolas Cage to really throw himself into a scenery-chewing performance – and for John Travolta to then do his best impression of “Nicolas Cage, doing a scenery-chewing performance.”
(My favorite scene in the movie: during a prison brawl, it’s as if Cage has to work at doing an impression of Travolta doing an impression of a scenery-chewing Cage.)
[quote=“ReticulatingSplines, post:13, topic:790450”]
I’m not sure Shatner was even the worst of the Star Trek captains. Cue Avery Brooks:
[/QUOTE]Yeah, but over-the-top emotion when the character is literally having a break-down and collapsing on the floor seems appropriate. (Sorry, I can’t resist defending my favorite Star Fleet captain. :))
That said, your link led me to this, which is delightful: It's a FAAAKE!! no... ITS REAAAL!!!!! - YouTube
Well, it still seemed a little bit…off, but I take your point. I retract that submission and replace it with this one:
This one almost makes me feel guilty, like I’m taking the really low-hanging fruit:
Joe Spinell as Count Zarth Arn in Starcrash. He’s not even the guy with the line ordering the Imperial Battleship to stop the flow of time.
Just released on Netflix, Okja, features a performance by Jake Gyllenhaal that redefines the bar for over the top. It is definitely intended to be cartoonish, and I’m sure Jim Carrey would give it a “bra-vo!”.
Just a little taste on YouTube
That was suggested in post #3. I know I don’t always read every post, but it was post number freaking 3! 
Much of Nickelodeon and Disney’s TV offerings, including iCarly, Jesse, Good Luck Charlie, and especially Drake and Josh. Caused my wife all kinds of grief when she was teaching drama. A lot of her students seemed to think that mugging and shouting were good alternatives to learning and delivering their lines.
Coming back around, Shatner was great on Columbo as – well, a hammy TV star playing a mannered sleuth who solves Columbo-style cases.
So it’s a good enough episode when he’s playing a murderer playing an innocent and Peter Falk is playing a great detective playing a simpleton; but there’s a point where each has obviously seen through the other, yet they still keep up the act even while they’re doing You-Know-That-I-Know-That-You-Know-That-I-Know stuff: it sounds unconvincing – and, well, it is – and Shatner seems playful, or ludicrously confident, or possibly just so deep in character that he’s in fact crazy, it’s hard to be sure.
I nominate the entire cast of Three’s Company – the original and the latter episodes when Chrissie/the Ropers/et al were replaced. My second place nomination is Charlotte Rae in The Facts of Life: “Gurrrrrrlllllssss” (said in her quavery late-stage Katherine Hepburn voice).
The first time I ever came across the phrase “chewing the scenery,” it was an article about Burgess Meredith. To me they are inexorably linked.
He just about ruined Sophies Choice with his hammishness.
And Steve Martin in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels…a horrible over the top performance.