Top 20 Most Over-The-Top Performances Ever

15. WILLIAM SHATNER as CAPTAIN JAMES T. KIRK in STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN (1982)
William Shatner. A. Man. Who doesn't ADHERE. To. The rules of... punctation. Like the REST OF US. As Captain James Tiberius Kirk, Shatner adopts the worthiest hero poses this side of the galaxy, continually staring into space like he's searching for an intergalactic autocue. As most any nerd will tell you, his finest hour was opposite Ricardo Montalban's space bastard Khan in the second Trek pic: with Fantasy Island's finest in the vicinity, Shat himself had to raise his game and raise it high. Unfortunately, he raised it too high. The anguished yell he releases in this clip is too goofy to take seriously, even for Star Trek fans.




14. GERARD BUTLER as KING LEONIDAS in 300 (2007)
One of ancient history's greatest heroes deserved a grandstand performance, but no Oracle could have foreseen just how out-there Gerard Butler would be. His Leonidas is a hero that was born in CAPITALS, whose quietest whisper is still a shout, whose buff washboard abs could grate cheese. Butler delivers the loudest performance of all time as the bellowing Spartan warrior, covering his faithful soldiers in spittle as he bellows his orders like a rabid dog. His Leonidas is a barking loon who out-acted a hundred Persians off the side of a mountain. Oh yeah, and don't loiter around any giant holes nearby him, because he's likely to boot you right into it. Bloody savage.




13. HUGO WEAVING as AGENT SMITH in THE MATRIX movies
From Ancient Greeks to a Trojan. Hugo Weaving's suited-and-rebooted computer virus Smith had the hardest of tasks in the Matrix movies: bringing enough personality to compensate for Keanu Reeves' complete lack of one. Ergo, Weaving delivered sneers by the bucket-load ("Human beings are a disease...") and a surplus of the letter 'S' ("Goodbye, Misssster Anderssssson..."), meaning every sentence was hissed like a cartoon snake. By the second and third movies, we were treated to multiple Smiths, all snarling and grimacing like their work permits depended on it. Lord knows it's impossible to read that Wachowski dialogue with a straight face, anyway.
See also: Priscilla Queen Of The Desert, V For Vendetta




12. ALAN RICKMAN as THE SHERIFF OF NOTTINGHAM in ROBIN HOOD: PRINCE OF THIEVES (1991)
The very definition of a pantomime villain, Rickman gurned, squealed and called for the cancellation of Christmas as the miserly Sheriff Of Nottingham; you half expected him to turn to camera and yell "What are you lot looking at?!" The perennial thorn in the Sheriff's side was Costner's Americanised Robin Hood - a foe smug enough to make even the calmest law enforcer pop a forehead vein - and Rickman sweated buckets trying to bring him down. The result was a character who practically demanded a boo and a hiss every time he entered a scene: a dastardly villain you truly loved to hate. Hans Gruber was evil, but at least he had style.
See also: Die Hard, Harry Potter




11. GARY OLDMAN as STANSFIELD in LEON (1994)
Hire Gary Oldman, and you get an acclaimed character actor who's overflowing with talent - in fact, it quite often overflows on-screen. Take Leon, for example: the character of Stansfield is, on paper at least, your bog-standard bent cop. Not so when Oldman's in town. Stansfield is now a Beethoven-loving nutjob with a penchant for popping pills and capping asses. Tapping that bottomless reserve of crazy, Oldman swans throughout Luc Besson's thriller with enough energy for twelve movies, stopping short of gnawing on the drywall whenever he's on screen. A great performance but one that's undeniably from another planet entirely. Bingo!
See also: True Romance, Dracula, The Fifth Element