I randomly watched Gangs of New York over this week and couldn't help but think about how disappointing this movie was. The budget, Leo's shaky accent, the complete miscast that was Cameron Diaz.

But then every time Daniel Day-Lewis comes on, I just can't turn away. Dude chews up and spits out literally every scene/line he's given. I think it's his best performance. His screen presence is untouchable.

Easily my favorite performance of the past 20 years. Probably ever.

George C. Scott as Patton!

Elizabeth Shue in Leaving Las Vegas

Val Kilmer as Doc in Tombstone.

heathe ledger as the joker
mel gibson in braveheart
arnold schwartzenneger in T2
jim carrey in ace ventura, ace ventura 2, and dumb & dumber

Tempted to say Robert Duvall in anything, but I'll go with "Tender Mercies."

Hayden Christansen in Attack of the Clones

Denzel Washington in Training Day

Also, whenever I think of a great performance, Samuel L. Jackson in Pulp Fiction comes to mind. Is this the best performance ever, no - probably not. But, I thought he did a great job.

Daniel Day Lewis in Gangs of New York.
Daniel Day Lewis in There Will Be Blood.

Mila Kunis - Black Swan

Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch - To Kill a Mockingbird.


Has Daniel Day-Lewis ever been anything but spectacular in a movie?

Denzel Washington in Man on Fire was one of my favorites.

Every time I come across some horrible Kate Hudson movie that's on TV I always think about how good she was in Almost Famous and wonder what happened.

Sometimes a player just fits the role to which he/she is cast. Also good directors are able to pull good performances out of their cast.

Denzel Washington in Training Day.

Leo DiCaprio in Shutter Island.

Michael J Fox and Christopher Lloyd in Back to the Future series.

Robert Downey Jr. in the Ironman series.

Linda Hamilton in T2 Judgement Day.

[This message has been edited by madd_ag_05 (edited 3/22/2012 12:35p).]

mel gibson in braveheart
morgan freeman in shawshank

Natalie Portman in the Professional

Billy Mitchell in "King of Kong"

oh! can't leave out this one!

alec baldwin in glengarry glen ross

DDL my left foot

Edward Norton in American History X
Kevin Spacey in American Beauty
Tom Cruise in Vanilla Sky
Christian Bale in American Psycho
Ed Harris in Enemy at the Gates
James McAvoy in Atonement
Eric Bana in Munich
Gene Hackman in The Royal Tenenbaums

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Hayden Christansen in Attack of the Clones

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His performance wasn't nearly as good as Jake Lloyd.

Tom Hanks in Philadelphia, Cast Away, Green Mile, Charlie Wilson's War

Daniel Craig in Defiance and Casino Royale

Angelina Jolie in The Changeling

Djimon Hounsou in Blood Diamond
Mel Gibson in The Patriot
Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind
DiCaprio in The Aviator
Brad Pitt in 12 Monkeys

Since OP didn't specify movies, I'll go:
Robert Duvall - Gus
Ian MacShane - Swearengen

Gary Oldman: Sid and Nancy
Ray Liotta: Narc
Johnny Depp: Pirates (first flick)
Paul Newman: the Hustler, the Verdict

Christoph Waltz in Inglorious Basterds is the only performance that comes to mind in the past 20 years that I have walked out of the theater absolutely convinced that I'd just witnessed an Oscar worthy delivery.

Tommy Lee Jones in The Fugitive

Natalie Portman in Garden State made a lasting impression on me.

Daniel Day Lewis in Gangs of New York
Jeff Bridges in the Big Lebowski
Gregory Peck in To Kill a Mockingbird
Robert Duvall in Lonesome Dove
Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park

To name a few:

Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight

Bill Paxton in True Lies

Alan Rickman in Die Hard

Tommy Lee Jones in The Fugitive

Robert De Niro in Godfather 2

Heath Ledger in the Dark Knight. It was such a great take on a character that has been done so many times before. While it will be overcast by merely the fact that there is a whole Batman Universe that has existed for forever, it was fantastic.

quote:

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Christian Bale in American Psycho

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Kevin Costner: Rumor has it, water world, the postman, the guardian, dances with wolves

Nick Cannon: Love dont cost a thing, drumline

Common: Just Wright

[This message has been edited by AgAllStar91 (edited 3/22/2012 7:39p).]

I saw a lot of Denzel and Leo on this thread, and this is definitely just my opinion but my problem with both of them is....

Denzel plays the exact same role the exact same way in nearly every single one of his movies. Thats not to say he doesn't play it well, but whenever I see him in a different movie it always justs seems like I've seen it before.

Leo has a slightly greater range than Denzel; however, his accents are absolutely atrocious. Many of the times I think he is placed on these lists because he does a great job of picking his roles.

As for my favorite performances: The most recent performance I can think of that I loved was Nick Nolte in "Warrior". As for all time, probably Will Smith in "Six Degrees of Separation". It remains the only Will Smith role that I ever liked.