Badmovies.org Forum

We have all seen the 'Miscast Movies' thread here, where actors/actresses were in roles they were unsuited for.

Because I am up at all hours with baby Sera, I thought 'What if we name roles that actors and actresses NAILED and performed beyond what we expected?"

Heath Ledger as the Joker in The Dark Knight (sad that he would have been the next 'big name' for that role, say what you want if you are purist...his performance was outstanding)

I agree about Heath Ledger as the Joker, Paula.

My vote ~ although I am a Trekkie / Trekker from wayyyy back, would go to most of the cast of JJ Abrams' Star Trek, with special mention going to Chris Pine, Karl Urban and Simon Pegg. Not Zachary Quinto though.

fair enough, I liked Quinto a little more than you.  I actually thought Pine gave the 'worst' performance out of the group.  Karl Urban takes the gold though...great.  I hope he has more screen time in subsequent movies.

Harry Potter series has a lot of great casting.  Rickman as Snape was simply the perfect choice.  His standard delivery and tone of his voice was made for that role. 

Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins in The Shawsank Redemption
Tor Johnson in Plan 9 (I'm Serious  :teddyr:)
Michael Keaton as Batman

Sharon Stone in Casino

Ian Mcdermid in Return Of The Jedi as the Emperor.  Just awesome.

Harrison Ford as Han Solo in Empire Strikes Back.  He just hit his stride in the role plus delivered the pimp ass lne "I know" to Leia's declaration of love.  He kind of pussed out by ROTJ and was too amateurish in A New Hope. 

Ewan McGregor as Obi Wan in the prequels...one of the few shining lights. 

McGregor was terrific in Episode III.
Vincent D'Onofrio was unbelievable in Men In Black as the possessed farmer.  He cracked me up with his hyper, twitchy delivery.  I didn't much care for the movie otherwise.

I actually love Tommy Lee Jones in the MIB movies.  His "oh well" attitude toward the earth being destroyed is what made those films work for me.

Lee J. Cobb in THE EXORCIST.  One of my favorite supporting performances ever.

Sir Anthony Hopkins in AMISTAD.  He brought John Quincy Adams back to life.

Another one for Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lechter.

Cloris Leachman and Mark Hamill in Castle in the Sky.  Voice acting, yes, but sure made the movie even more fun to watch.

* Robert Shaw in JAWS
* Oliver Reed in OLIVER!
* Robert Mitchum in CAPE FEAR

And of course, Ian McKellen as Gandalf in the LOTR trilogy.  I really had always imagined Sean Connery in that role, but Sir Ian knocked it out of the park.

Regarding Shawshank Redemption, I liked both performances quite a bit, but I always thought it was interesting that the character Red in the novel is a red-haired white man of Irish decent, and you just know him by his nickname Red. In the film, he is replaced by Morgan Freeman and the justification for his nickname is that his name is Ellis Redding. However, when originally asked by Andy why he goes by Red, he responds with "maybe it's because I'm Irish," a bit of an inside joke for those that read the book.

James Karen in ROTLD.  I absolutely LOVE his character in that film. 

JK Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson in Spiderman.

Hugh Jackman as Wolverine (esp. in first X-Men)

Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully :buggedout:

I always thought Charles Grodin's performance in MIDNIGHT RUN deserved a lot of kudos.  The guy was downright hilarious in many scenes.

Kiefer Sutherland in 24 as Jack Bauer

Pretty much the entire cast of The Big Lebowski  :thumbup:

Alan Trautman as the Tarman in Return of the Living Dead.

(http://www.familylosangeles.com/blog/uploaded_images/tarman-739734.jpg)

Quite possibly the creepiest zombie ever put to celluloid. Trautman moves through this film like no human being should ever move. An amazing physical performance.

Udo Samel in Killer Condom.  His lead performance is so good it outshines the rest of the film by far. 

William Marshall in BLACULA.  You have this ridiculous mishmash movie about an African vampire, and here Marshall is giving a Shakespearean performance that's much more serious than the material deserved.   

That's a good one, somewhat reminds me of Killer Condom actually.  His performance carried the film and is the reason it's worth a watch.

Kathy Bates as Annie Wilkes in Misery. There were times when I actually had to wonder if she was getting off on playing the role, or even if a buried part of her truly was like Annie, down deep.

Naomi Watts as Ann Darrow in Jackson's remake of King Kong. The fact that she didn't receive an Oscar for that performance is unacceptable.

James Earl Jones as Mufasa in The Lion King. Warm and wise, yet regal and commanding, I couldn't have chosen a better voice for Simba's dad.

Keanu Reeves in all the Matrix films. I can only imagine how hard he must've worked and trained to pull off all those mind-blowing action sequences.

 

John Travolta and Samuel L Jackson in "Pulp Fiction".
Simon Pegg in "Run Fat Boy Run".
Jason Statham and Alan Ford in "Snatch"

I can't believe I forgot this one:  George Kennedy in COOL HAND LUKE.  A career-defining performance.  Too bad he went on to make so many inferior movies.

Boris Karloff in FRANKENSTEIN (1931). He kinda set the standered of pathos mixed with horror.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mach-o6aoEo

As much of a fan of Lugosi that I am-To give the part to Bela- and not to Boris-would have been a grave mistake. Karloff IS the Frankenstein Monster-Theres no denying  KING KARLOFF-