Quote:
Originally Posted by Ham n Cheese  ITT we post actors who surprised us with good acting, typically not known for it.
Stallone - Cop Land (started well, did lots of mindless action flicks, then reminded us all he had talent)
Adam Sandler - Punch Drunk Love
Jamie Foxx - Ray (showed signs in Ali)
John Travolta - Pulp Fiction
Keanu Reeves - Speed (awesomely bad movie, not a great performance, but when I heard it was Ted Logan playing the lead I never expected this)
Jim Carrey - Eternal Sunshine (not his first serious role, but I thought he was amazing in this, much credit to Charlie Kaufman though)
Ben Affleck - Hollywoodland (I thought he was really good, sort of a redeeming role after starting well, going to the shitter, etc - too bad his career as an actor is pretty much dead now)
Tom Cruise - Vanilla Sky (showed talent in many movies in the past, but was blown away by this movie, which is essentially just people talking most of the time, really have to credit the acting in roles like that).
Sean Penn - Dead Man Walking (Spicoli!) |
I am gonna argue some of these, (I hope that is okay):
-Sandler's best acting imo was in Reign Over Me that really surprised me how great he was in that, he should have been nominated for awards for that role.
-Ben Affleck as a director in Gone Baby Gone was the most surprising thing I have ever seen him do, that movie was fantastic, one of the years best.
-Keanu Reeves was amazing in a movie called The Gift. I think that was his best acting role. He played a wife beater and was really convincing.
-Tom Cruise surprised me in Collateral, I thought he was really great in that as the hitman. He played it really cold and lifeless. He was also amazing in Born on the 4th of July.
-Sean Penn blew my mind in I am Sam and Mystic River, those were his best two acting performances imo.
Ok now I will add to the list:
-Casey Affleck in Gone Baby Gone and that Jessie James movie was also very surprising.
-Matt Dillon in Crash was a pretty surprising role. He was very good in that movie, usually he plays a dumbass char in some comedy or just acts poorly.
-Tim Robbins in Shawshank Redemption and Mystic River surprised me how great of an actor he was. Before these two movies I didn't even consider him a really good actor at all. He blew my mind in Shawshank.
-Charlize Theron was just a pretty face and played small roles as the pretty chick but when she played in Monster she was fantastic. That was one of the most surprising roles in a long time. I never would have guessed she could play a character like that.
-Tom Hanks. For years he played in some pretty dumbass movies like the Burbs or Joe vs The Volcano. He had some good performances such as Big and A League of their Own but when he did Philadelphia and Forrest Gump I think he blew peoples minds on how great an actor he really was. Before these movies he really only played in dumb comedy roles like Turner and Hooch and even his good performances in Big and A League of their Own were comedic performances. He never really did anything serious up until he did Philadelphia and then he suprised everyone.
