Top 10 Surprisingly Good Perfs. of 2003

[Michael Corleone]

Who far exceeded your expectations?

01. Elijah Wood, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
02. Billy Boyd, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
03. Hayden Christensen, Shattered Glass
04. Colin Farrell, Phone Booth
05. Ellen Degeneres, Finding Nemo
06. Ken Watanabe, The Last Samurai
07. Keisha Castle-Hughes, Whale Rider
08. Kevin Bacon, Mystic River
09. Paddy Considine, In America
10. Katie Holmes, Pieces of April

[chinton]

1. Johnny Depp- POTC
2. Uma Thurman- Kill Bill
3. Tim Robbins- Mystic River
4. Russel Crowe- Master And Commander
5. Uma Thurman- Kill Bill
6. Jamie Lee Curtis- Freaky Friday
7. Keisha Hughes- Whale Rider
8. Ken Watanabe- Last Samurai
9. Ellen Degeners- Finding Nemo
10.Crispin Glover- Willard
11. Angela Bettis- May
12. The entire cast of Angels In America


I havent seen the recent releases yet

[flowrchild]

In no order:

1) Evan Rachel Wood- Thirteen
2) Keisha Hughes- Whale Rider
3) The Bolger Sisters- In America
4) Natalie Portman- Cold Mountain
5) Hayden Christensen- Shattered Glass
6) Alec Baldwin- The Cooler
7) Scarlett Johannsen- Lost In Translation
8) Tim Robbins- Mystic River
9) Hope Davis- American Splendor
10) Billy Bob- Bad Santa

[idealdiscountdude]

As of right now, the most surprisingly GREAT performances of 2003 (in order of the level of surprise):

1.Keisha Castle-Hughes "Whale Rider"
2.Eileen Walsh "The Magdalene Sisters"
3.Jamie Lee Curtis "Freaky Friday"
4.Evan Rachel Wood "Thirteen"
5.Johnny Depp "POTC"
6.Bill Nighy "Love, Actually"
7.Nikki Reed "Thirteen"
8.Sarah Paulsen "Down With Love"
9.Alessandro Nivola "Laurel Canyon"
10.David Hyde-Pierce "Down With Love"

[ANavissi500]

These exceeded my expectations...

Amanda Peet - Identity
Lucy Liu - Kill Bill: Volume One
Billy Boyd - LOTR:ROTK
Dominic Monaghan - LOTR:ROTK
Ellen Degeneres - Finding Nemo
Tim Robbins - Mystic River
Marcia Gay Harden - Mystic River

[Sad man]

Keisha Castle-Hughes (Whale Rider)
Evan Rachel Wood (Thirteen)
Angela Bettis (May)
Crispin Glover (Willard)
Tim Robbins (Mystic River)
Marcia Gay Harden (Mystic River)

[RicochetShaw]

EDIT: bah, nevermind

[Hannibal21]

Lucy Liu - KILL BILL
Crispin Glover - WILLARD
Scarlett Johanssen - LOST IN TRANSLATION
Anna Faris - MAY
Tim Robbins - MYSTIC RIVER
Billy Boyd - LOTR: ROTK
Dominic Monaghan - LOTR: ROTK
Mirando Otto - LOTR: ROTK
Ben Affleck - DAREDEVIL
Kevin Costner - OPEN RANGE (surprising in the way that he hasn't given a good performance in years and even though it's pretty typical of him to do a western, he was still AMAZING)

[ilovemovies]

Why do alot of people have Tim Robbins listed? He's a great actor and I expected a great performance from him.

Also haven't seen the movie, but from what I've heard Charlize Theron seems like a shoo-in for this title (except I've always liked her and thought she was capable of more).

My choices:

Scarlett Johanssen, Lost in Translation (always liked her but here she is ABSOLUTELY AMAZING)

Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Billy Boyd & Dominic Monaghan, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Mirando Otto, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Ben Affleck, Daredevil (don't get me wrong, I like the guy but I wasn't sure if he could pull off being a superhero but he did!)

Gerard Butler, Timeline/Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life

[flowrchild]

Originally posted by ilovemovies
Why do alot of people have Tim Robbins listed? He's a great actor and I expected a great performance from him.

Because I'd never seen him in a role quite like that and I thought he did a great job. I was impressed by his performance. Not that I went in expecting him to suck or anything. Just that he really shocked me by how good he was in different sort of role than he usually plays.

[Mike]

Well, I'd say Angela Bettis and Anna Faris for MAY, but those weren't all that surprising, since I expected them to be really good.

I guess maybe Lindsay Lohan (Freaky Friday) and Ryan Gosling (The Slaughter Rule).

[Michael Corleone]

Originally posted by Mike I guess maybe Lindsay Lohan (Freaky Friday) and Ryan Gosling (The Slaughter Rule). [/B]

Good choices.

[TheLoveBelow]

Oh Come on people! Jack Black in school of rock was definitly the suprise of the year! The man got nominated for a freakin globe!


http://us.ent4.yimg.com/movies.yahoo.com/images/hv/photo/movie_pix/paramount_pictures/the_school

[MickeyKnox]

1.)Uma Thurman-Kill Bill
2.)Billy Bob Thorton-Bad Santa
3.)William H. Macy-The Cooler
4.)Johnny Depp-POTC
5.)Bill Murray-Lost In Translation
6.)Kevin Costner-Open Range
7.)Jack Black-School of Rock
8.)Tom Cruise-The Last Samurai
9.)Sean Astin-ROTK
10.)Tim Robbins-Mystic River

[Michael Corleone]

Originally posted by TheLoveBelow
Oh Come on people! Jack Black in school of rock was definitly the suprise of the year! The man got nominated for a freakin globe!


http://us.ent4.yimg.com/movies.yahoo.com/images/hv/photo/movie_pix/paramount_pictures/the_school

High Fidelity convinced me he could be decent, given the right material, so I was only mildly surprised by School of Rock.

[Guy Strong]

1. Uma Thurman, Kill Bill - Vol.1
2. Lucy Liu, Kill Bill - Vol.1
3. Sean Astin, Return of the King
4. Johnny Depp, Pirates of the Caribbean
5. Billy Boyd, Return of the King

[jeo4]

Eleen Degeneres as Dory in FINDING NEMO not only threw me for a loop, but it threw my wife as well. She thinks Dory is hilarious. She's right. When given the right material, Ellen can run away with a part. The film was great overall, but Dory stole the show.

Another surprise at least to me was the many performances in TERMINATOR 3: RISE OF THE MACHINES. I expected that film to completely suck. It was actually a lot of fun. Ah-nuld managed another entertaining performance.

[EvilDeadGirl]

My Top 5 surprising performances that exceeded my expectations would have to be....

Ellen Degeners- Finding Nemo
Crispin Glover- Willard
Angela Bettis- May
Whats his face that played John Conner in T3
Billy Boyd - Return of the King

[Gambers]

Mickey Rourke: Spun The movie sucked ass, but Rourke hasn't been this good since the 80's.

Dean Cain: Out of Time I didn't think that Superman could play such a bastard.

Laura Linney: Mystic River Her Lady Macbeth thing at the end. WTF!?

[urbanlegend23]

Miranda Otto in LOTR: ROTK outshines them all. She was AMAZING and did so much better than she did in TTT...though that was also a very good performance. But here she was INCREDIBLE.

[Sublime]

1. Victor Razuk "Raising Victor Vargas"
2. Mickey Rourke "Spun"
3. Jason Shwartzman "Spun"
4. Christina Ricci "Anything Else"
5. Jack Black "School Of Rock"
6. Crispin Glover "Willard"
7. Jason Biggs "Anything Else"
8. Kevin Bacon "Mysitc River"
9. Lucy Liu "Kill Bill: Volume One"
10. Sean Astin "ROTK"

[EvilComesHome02]

The most surprising performace for me was Jessica Biel in Texas Chainsaw Massacre. She gained soo much respect from me. She really blew me away. I really was reluctant to see it when i heard she would be starring, but she definately proved herself with this movie.

[FilmBuff84]

Jessica Biel - THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (Great acting for a horror film. I agree with EvilComesHome02)
Laura Linney - LOVE ACTUALLY (I wasn't expecting it to be that dramatic, but she was great)
The Rock - WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE (AKA THE RUNDOWN) (Who thought a wrestler would have so much natural charisma on the big screen)
Kelly Rowland - FREDDY VS JASON (She was the one everyone was worried about. and she ended up being the best of the teen characters)