Top 20 most over-the-top performances ever

[Jolie_Desastre]

http://www.theshiznit.co.uk/feature/top-20-most-over-the-top-performances-ever.php?page=1

agree? disagree?

 

[TLH]

I agree with a few of them. Cage in the Wicker Man is a great pick -- that film was awful and I have no idea how he agreed to it.

Depends on how you define "over-the-top". It usually doesn't have a good interpretation (at least for me), but if their going for "good performances as difficult characters" then they did a good job.

 

[Jolie_Desastre]

i think they were going for the actors who seemed lost in those performances. like they were living, and breathing the character.

and on the other hand it could mean, yeah...they over did it.

 

[Apollo]

I like over the top performances, it makes the characters more interesting.

 

[Mr. Socko]

I like over the top performances too. There were few things I liked about Van Helsing, but Roxburgh as Count Dracula was one of them. Butler was good in 300, Weaving as Smith, but the very best is Ian McDiarmid as Sidious.

But I do not think Hopkins was over the top at all as Hannibal nor Lewis as Billy the Butcher.

 

[Sentinel X]

How do you make a list about over the top performances and not include any of the actors in Mommie Dearest?....




...yeah. I win.

 

[Drizzle]

The McCounaghey thing had me rolling.

 

[The_Vision]

I disagree with most of them

 

[Figs]

I don't agree with most of those. A good number of those performances I really liked.

Especially Pacino as Milton/Satan. Over the top...nah, I think he played the Lord of Darkness just fine for what the movie needed.

 

[Carmine Falcone]

They forgot to include Andrew Robinson as Scorpio. So extremely over the top, so extremely awesome.

 

[Figs]

They forgot to include Andrew Robinson as Scorpio. So extremely over the top, so extremely awesome.

That's what I'm saying! If those performances are to be considered bad because they were over the top then I guess I'll raise my hand and say I enjoy 'bad' performances.

Most of those characters I enjoyed seeing in those films, and it wouldn't have been the same without them.

Take Rickman for example, I don't think I would have liked Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves much at all if it wasn't for him and Freeman.

 

[Keyser Soze]

Sadly, they missed out one of my all-time favourite OTT performances. Jeffrey Combs as Herbert West in "Re-Animator".

 

[cerealkiller182]

Definitely agree with:

Richard Roxborogh as Dracula, Matt Mac in TCM

But I like a lot of those:

Hannibal, Smith, Stansfield, Bill the Butcher, Frank Booth, and Bad Lt.

I suppose "over-the-top" doesnt mean bad, and 3 of the ones i like are are drug-fueled, so it becomes over the top in a way.

 

[nocomics]

Danny Devito in the second batman movie
The guy who played dracula in Van Helsing as well

 

[Steve Rogers]

Some of those choices were just awful. Or maybe, I just don't recall these performances being over the top. Most of these guys are character actors playing characters, not superstars playing cardboard cutouts, so to me it worked.

But, kudos for someone else finally having the balls to point out Al Pacino. I think everything he does, accept for the Godfather movies, is over the top. I mean, he yells like every line. Is that necessary?

 

[The Shape]

I agree with several of the choices. However, some of those roles required over-the-top performances.

 

[Keyser Soze]

Some of those choices were just awful. Or maybe, I just don't recall these performances being over the top. Most of these guys are character actors playing characters, not superstars playing cardboard cutouts, so to me it worked.

But, kudos for someone else finally having the balls to point out Al Pacino. I think everything he does, accept for the Godfather movies, is over the top. I mean, he yells like every line. Is that necessary?

I don't mind the "character actors" being included. I think it was just the top 20 OTT performances, taking into account both the ones that were SUPPOSED to be OTT, and the ones that ended up that way through hammy acting.

 

[Prefix]

I loved Richard Roxburgh in Van Helsing. So OTT.

 

[M.O.Steel]

Do i Agree:
Yes--pacino, VH dracula, darth sidious
No--stamp, hopkins, weaving, butler, malcovich, DDL

rest is indifferent

 

[Mr. Socko]

I agree with several of the choices. However, some of those roles required over-the-top performances.

I don't think the lists means over the top as in a negative way, just "over the top" I guess.

I loved Richard Roxburgh in Van Helsing. So OTT.

I agree, he was great, he should have only put a bit more menace in it.

 

[The Guard]

I disagree with Butler in 300. He had quite a few quiet moments. He was loud when he had to be, but not excessively so.

 

[Joker]

I disagree with:

Stamp as Zod

Crispin Glover as Willard (for most of the movie he was quite and reserved, it's only after he went insane that he got big)

Butler as Leonidas (for reasons mentioned by The Guard already)

Weaving as Agent Smith (he was very low key in the first movie, and was only over the top when bragging in the sequels)

Hopkins as Hanibal Lecter (how the f**k did this even get on there? He was on screen for about 20 minutes total, and just stood there talking for most of it...how is that over the top?)

Nicholson in the Shining (ok, at the end he was over the top, but he was crazy and being told to do all this stuff by ghosts, so it wasnt purposeless)

So about 1/4 of the list is full of crap.

 

[Carmine Falcone]

That's what I'm saying! If those performances are to be considered bad because they were over the top then I guess I'll raise my hand and say I enjoy 'bad' performances.

Wait, they're actually saying those are bad performances? Hugo Weaving was the only good thing about the Matrix sequels, because he was so ridiculously evil, same goes for Gary Oldman in The Professional. And De Niro in Cape Fear, Peter Finch in Network, Day-Lewis in Gangs of New York and Jack Nicholson in the Shining are all brilliant performances.

 

[Lighthouse]

How the hell did Pacino get it for Devil's Advocate and not Scarface? It's is one of the greatest over-the-top performances ever.

 

[Carmine Falcone]

19. RICHARD ROXBURGH as COUNT DRACULA in VAN HELSING (2004)
He has also the unenviable honour of being the worst thing in Van Helsing: a bit like being the ****tiest Nazi in the Third Reich.

HAHAHA!