Performances in movies that blew you away

con___manx1

Christof waltz in django and inglorious bastards.superb actor. Opening scene in inglorious bastards u just wanna kill him he plays d bad guy so well

Coleman Slawski

Coleman Slawski wrote: »

Harvey Keitel in The Bad Lieutenant automatically springs to mind, mesmerising stuff.

Peter Green in Clean,Shaven is probably the finest performance of a mentally disturbed individual I've ever seen.

Greene delivered some truly exception performances and was shaping up to be one of the all time greats till his career just ended. He's appeared in a few interesting projects recently in blink and you'd miss him roles and its got to the stage where he's stuck featuring in cheap direct to disc films that are best described as atrocious. It's such a waste of a great talent, maybe Tarantino can throw him a bone.

Kunkka

MfMan wrote: »

Thought Hopkins performance was hammy;

Hopkins has a little bit over 16 minutes of screen time in that movie and he is what makes it a masterpiece. Nothing hammy about it at all.

enda1

Difficult to choose the number one best but I particularly liked:

-James Woods in Once Upon a Time in America. Thought he was the stand-out adult actor in the film full of standout performances. Special mention to Fat Moe played by Larry Rapp.
-Jennifer Connolly as a young Deborah in OUATIA again. For a child's role she was convincing as the alter-ego to a young Max and a "girl next door" boyhood perfectionist fantasy.
-Kevin Spacey in American Beauty. The coldness of dysfunctional married life was written all over his face. Eerie.
-Daniel Day Lewis in There Will be Blood. Need anything be said that hasn't already?
-John Goodman in The Big Lewbowski. A great personification of the geek freestater. Played a great tragicly comic performance.
-Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the Lams. Evil genius. No remorse.

MfMan

Kunkka wrote: »

Hopkins has a little bit over 16 minutes of screen time in that movie and he is what makes it a masterpiece. Nothing hammy about it at all.

Disagree. Like the film itself, his display was unnecessarily over-dramatic. His restrained performance in Remains of the Day was much better.

Dirty Dingus McGee

Anthony Perkins in Psycho
James Stewart in Vertigo and Its a Wonderful Life
Robert Shaw in Jaws
Gene Hackman in Unforgiven (he's brilliant in everything though)
Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men

deadybai

Al Pacino - The godfather part 2. Best performance in a movie ever. Theres many others that I could mention but this is my best.

Sir Gallagher

markesmith wrote: »

Won't trot out the usual De Niro / Pacinos here. Two of my faves by them are Once Upon a Time in America (De Niro as opium-addled Jewish gangster Noodles) and Pacino in Glengarry Glen Ross, a tour de force performance.

Pacino in GFII is probably my favourite performance ever.

Also, Nicholson in the Shining, Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood, Donald Sutherland in Novecento, Malcolm McDowell in Clockwork Orange, Nicole Kidman in The Others...

The kid in Idi i Smotri (Come and See) is phenomenal, that movie's a must-watch.

Finally, Bruno Lawrence in the Quiet Earth. Okay-ish movie, but the ending blew me away.

Since you mention Glengarry Glen Ross, Jack Lemmon's performance was also fantastic. His performance inspired the character Gil in The Simpsons.

Kunkka

Jack in the Shining is brilliant stuff altogether. The scene when he is walking up the stairs after his wife saying he's going to bash her brains in is absolutely terrifying. His eyes are so convincing. I love that movie

kuro_man

Away From Her
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Away_from_her

+1 on Glengarry Glen Ross

Corcs001

Jim Carrey in The Truman Show is one of my favourites.

Also love Bill Murray in Lost in Translation.

SmokeyEyes

Have to give a nod to Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler too, something about that performance really stayed with me

JP Liz V1

Ellen Burstyn is just sublime in Requiem for a Dream

Seans_Username

Ed Norton in American History X.
Fuck me that was something else. I still remember watching it for the first time when it was on BBC really late one night. Shame he didn't win an Oscar for it, not that it really matters, but it does deserve to go down as one of the best performances in the last 20 years in my opinion

quickbeam

Both Pacino and Cazale in Dog Day Afternoon - perfect film for me. Pacino was good in some of his more famous roles but I think DDA is his best.

At least 11 of the actors in 12 Angry Men (Fonda I thought was actually the weak spot), but special mention for Balsalm, Cobb and Marshall.

Both films mentioned by the same director, probably no co-incidence.

I recently saw 50/50 and have to say that Joseph Gordon Levitt's performance absolutely blew me away - I was not expecting it whatsoever,

The Wild Bunch

Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday in Tombstone was sensational

MfMan

Seans_Username wrote: »

Ed Norton in American History X.
Fuck me that was something else. I still remember watching it for the first time when it was on BBC really late one night. Shame he didn't win an Oscar for it, not that it really matters, but it does deserve to go down as one of the best performances in the last 20 years in my opinion

Original director would probably disagree. Norton apparently had the film edited such that his part was by far the most prominent.

MfMan

quickbeam wrote: »

Both Pacino and Cazale in Dog Day Afternoon - perfect film for me. Pacino was good in some of his more famous roles but I think DDA is his best.

At least 11 of the actors in 12 Angry Men (Fonda I thought was actually the weak spot), but special mention for Balsalm, Cobb and Marshall.

Both films mentioned by the same director, probably no co-incidence.

Good call. Thought Fonda was also the big weakness in Once Upon A Time ...West; much too righteous to portray a villain effectively.

colmufc

I know its nit a film but ive just finished wstching rescue me box sets and the performance by John Scurti in the final episode is amazing completely different from what he was like thru out the show but stunning actor

enda1

I forgot one: Massimo Troisi in Il Postino (The postman).
What a beautiful performance.

Ironman76

My favs are

DDL in There Will Be Blood

Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight

De Niro in Raging Bull

Val Kilmer in The Doors was incredible. Just amazing as Jim Morrison.

Richard Harris as Bull Mc Cabe in The Field.

bottlebrush

Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men

Ironman76

JP Liz V1 wrote: »

Ellen Burstyn is just sublime in Requiem for a Dream

Agreed. Awesome performance.

LuckyLloyd

Sir Gallagher wrote: »

Christian Bales's early work was a little too new wave for my taste. But when American Psycho came out in '00 I think he really came into his own, commercially and artistically.

His performance is hillarious yet disturbing, we see a new sheen of consummate professionalism that really gave his career a big boost.

He's been compared to Di Niro, but I think Christian has a far more bitter, cynical sense of humor.

MfMan wrote: »

Original director would probably disagree. Norton apparently had the film edited such that his part was by far the most prominent.

With respect, who gives a ****? Maybe Kaye's first two cuts were superior, who knows and who cares. The end product is utterly riveting with an astonishing central performance.

========================

One shout I haven't seen is Hilary Swank's performance in Boy's Don't Cry. Forgotten about now but that was powerful stuff at the time. Difficult film to watch in parts, but she goes the whole hog with the role.

SnowDrifts

Another Al Pacino - "Scent of a Woman"

Easy Rod

Ben Mendlesohn in 'Animal Kingdom'.

You just felt a constant sense of threat and menace when watching him on screen. He's far from physically intimidating and even his slight lisp isn't something you'd associate with a villain but Jesus he was creepy.

MfMan

SnowDrifts wrote: »

Another Al Pacino - "Scent of a Woman"

Same as Devil's Advocate, Scarface and Heat, wholly scenery-chewing and OTT.
Why does no-one mention his comparatively restrained turns in Donnie Brasco and The Insider?

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Pat Shortt in Garage, anyone?

Surprising as he's not someone you associate with serious acting and on top of that an amazing performance even for a serious actor.

Kunkka

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

Pat Shortt in Garage, anyone?

Surprising as he's not someone you associate with serious acting and on top of that an amazing performance even for a serious actor.

He was brilliant in that to be fair to him. Good shout

Corholio

Joaquin Phoenix in 'The Master'

This really blew me away, even as good of an actor that I knew he was. He completely inhibited the character of Freddie in the movie, so much that I was genuinely worried for how the hell he just went back to being normal after making that film.

The 'interview scene' with Hoffman is one of the greatest scenes of film in the past 15 years or so IMO.

cosatron

SmokeyEyes wrote: »

Have to give a nod to Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler too, something about that performance really stayed with me

"i'm just a broken down piece of meat". Rourke was brilliant in all fairness. Just seen 12 years a slave and I was blown away by fassbender in it, what a performance, I was in shock leaving the cinema. The first scene in there will be blood, is the best scene I ever seen by a actor. Lewis is a legend and will go down as an all time great. And finally bale in the machinist was amazing.

SuperGrover

Brad Dourif as Billy Bibbit in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

DrumSteve

Paddy Considine in Dead Mans Shoes.

JP Liz V1

James McAvoy in Filth

deadybai

JP Liz V1 wrote: »

James McAvoy in Filth

That film was messed up :eek:

JP Liz V1

deadybai wrote: »

That film was messed up :eek:

McAvoy was superb

bnt

James Cromwell in L.A. Confidential
Takeshi KItano in hana-bi
Frances McDormand in Fargo
Christina Ricci in Buffalo '66
... Maggie Gyllenhall in Secretary.

Fr Tod Umptious

Billy Bob Thornton in Sling Blade.

Adamocovic

Robert DeNiro in Raging Bull and also loved Sam Rockwell in "Moon"

e_e

bnt wrote: »

Takeshi KItano in hana-bi

Great call. He can convey more through a simple twitch than a lot of actors can with an entire monologue.

Da Shins Kelly

Daniel Day-Lewis is great in There Will Be Blood, but I also loved him in In The Name of the Father.

Joaquin Phoenix is fantastic in The Master. The way him and Philip Seymour Hoffman play off each other is amazing to watch. On that topic, Philip Seymour Hoffman is perfect in his role in that film too.

Jim Carey in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is heartbreaking too. A really gorgeous film, with a brilliant performance from Carey that really gives it the emotional punch.

I absolutely love Adam Sandler in Punch Drunk Love. I hate him in pretty much everything, but I love that film and him in it. It's a very pleasantly surprising performance, it's very angry and sad, and I never thought Sandler had it in him. He plays it to perfection, I couldn't really imagine anyone else in the role.

And as someone said already, Bruno Ganz is fantastic in his depiction of Hitler. Must be the definitive portrayal of Hitler on film.

weemcd

I thought Leo knocked it out of the park in Django, that was a film with many standout performances
DeNiro in Raging Bull - perfect
Tahar Rahim in A Prophet
DeNiro again in Angel Heart - chilling performance
Eric Bana in Chopper

Patty O Furniture

Christian Bale -The Fighter

Jennifer Lawrence - Poker House & Winter's Bone

Marlon Brando - On The Waterfront

Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight Rises

Robert De Niro - The Deerhunter

Fiery biscuits

Heath Ledger- The Dark Night

Jack Nicholsen- The Shining

Jesse Eisenberg- The social network

Kathy Bates- Misery

Linan68

Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver

The Wild Bunch

Ben Affleck in Gigli

markad1

Charlize Theron in Monster

SuperGrover

Nicole Kidman in Far and Away

Linan68

Shrek in Shrek