Not sure if a similar thread has been posted but in case it hasnt I was wondering what you guys think the greatest acting performnances are. A few that come to mind of recent years include Anthony Hopkins in The Worlds Fastest Indoan, Johnny Depp in The Libertine and Denzel in Training Day. My top 5 eva would almost certinly have Anthony Hopkins in for his portrayal of Hannibal Lecter in Scilence of the LAmbs. Havnt given my top five serious thought though. Discuss.

5 of my favorites:

Marlon Brando - On The Waterfront
Rutger Hauer - Blade Runner
Irene Jacob - The Double Life of Veronique
Meryl Streep - Sophie's Choice
Heath Ledger - Brokeback Mountain

Of course, this could change on a hourly basis...

Giving it no real thought whatsoever off of the top of my head the first 5 that come to mind would be:

Jack Lemmon - The China Syndrome
Paul Newman - The Hustler
Jodie Foster - The Silence of the Lambs
Jeff Bridges - The Big Lebowski
Humphrey Bogart - Casblanca

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4.

5.

Mickey Rourke - The Wrestler

i don't get why brando always gets love for godfather over pacino...

5 i like

Paul Newman in Hud
Maria Falconetti in The Passion of Joan of Arc
Klaus Kinski in Woyzeck (probably the most intense (slo-mo!) 60 or so seconds on film ever imo.)
Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's
Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver

More my favorites then actual best. Though it's debatable I guess.

Jim Carrey - Dumb And Dumber. Seriously.

Anthony Hopkins - Silence of The Lambs

Robert Downey Jr. - Tropic Thunder

Woody Harrleson - Natural Born Killers

Nicholas Cage - Leaving Las Vegas

YES X 10!!!!!!!

!!!

Excellent choice. She pulls off the two characters so well. She manages to portray Veronika/Veronique as individuals with slight/subtle/nuanced differences.

These are the ones that came immediately to mind:


William Cutting




William Munny





Shelley Levene





Captain Jack Sparrow




Derek Vinyard

Not in any particular order but five I can think of in 5 minutes.

1. Patrick Stewart - First Contact - No joke you have to be a dork but if you are you see his true hatred for the Borg, and how they F-d him up psychologically.

2. Heath Ledger - Dark Knight - Cliche but it was really great. Favorite scene is the good cop / bad cop scene when Batman slams his head down and he responds by saying something about not starting with the head because the victim cant feel the next BLAMMO Batman pounds his fist into his hand and he says " See " .

3. Out of time, must go golfing.

that is a solid list bigpoppa...

immediately thought of Jack Nicholson in Chinatown,

then also that little kid, Anton Glanzelius, in My Life as a Dog

I think some of the performances in Better Luck Tomorrow were pretty amazing as well

No particular order

1. Robin Williams - Good Will Hunting

2. Jack Nicholson - As Good as it get

3. Morgan Freeman - Shawshank Redemption

4. Johnny Depp - Pirates of the Caribbean

5. Denzel Washington - Training Day


Theres so many more that I want to include but these are the five that I remembered the most.

DDL- in anything really, but I like Last of the Mohicans.

PSH- Love Liza, thats right

Jack- The Shining

Martin Sheen- Apocalypse now! or West Wing, hell not bad in Badlands either.

Tom Berenger- Platoon

deniro was amazing in raging bull

i think denzel's best work was 'malcolm x' he was awesome in 'glory' also.. i get choked up every time i see him in glory.

i dont think pacino gets enough love for the godfather.. he was amazing also.

i am biased. i know that mickey rourke is great in the wrestler and johny depp is great in pirates of the carribean and daniel day lewis is great as bill the bucher etc. but unfortunately these aren t movies who made an impact for me as a whole...so here from my head the absolutely biased top 5 in no particular order:



christoph waltz in inglorious basterds (he is just incredible in almost every scene he is in)

michael madsen in reservoir dogs (not really fair, cause he is only shining in 1minute of the film, but it made me freeze)

tom cruise in magnolia (you just can believe him that he is the mysoginist pickupartist portrayed)

anthony perkins in psycho (he is spooky as hell imo)

christian bale in the machinist (dont know how he made it, but this is how i imagine someone who is an extreme paranoid insomnia victim)

a few that stick out for me that i don't think have been mentioned:

Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Peter Sellers - Dr. Strangelove and Being There

Nicholas Cage - Adaptation

Robert Mitchum - The Night of the Hunter

Guilleta Massina - Nights of Cabiria

Harry Dean Stanton - Paris, Texas

Kathy Bates - Misery

Dustin Hoffman - Midnight Cowboy

Christian Bale - American Psycho

Bill Murray - Lost in Translation

Gena Rowlands - A Woman Under the Influence

Superb nomination. I was going to mention him myself. Also, I will nominate David Thewlis in Naked. I know Diebitter will agree with me. The performance was just ridiculous.

great movie...cant remember his acting but the movie had some hillarious ideas (what happens if you never cut the umbilical cord )

wow..forgot that...mister b movie himself nicholas cage playing twinbrothers...and you can distinguish them without problems although they/he looks the same...thats pretty impressive

Yeah, these are biased toward recent films, and yeah, two of them are "ties" that include two great people from the same movie.

The only thing that made that movie worth watching imo.

+1

I used to think this was an amazing performance. Then I found out that's just what he's like in real life.


I think Anthony Hopkins could easily make the top 5 on two or three counts. I don't think Shadowlands was mentiioned yet.