You're watching a movie and you heard or read that so-and-so is in it and because it's so-and-so you're not expecting much, but you have to check it out to see if so-and-so makes a fool of him/herself. Next thing you know so-and-so has you spell bound.

A couple of my faves in this category come from the same movie - Sling Blade. John Ritter's performance was great. How he kept a straight face with that hair is beyond me, but he played the role of the gay dollar store manager in a hick town very convincingly. I was surprised by Dwight Yoakam's performance as the a$$hole, redneck boyfriend too. Even though his acting was a little rough around the edges, he nailed the obnoxious, redneck a-hole. Of course Billy Bob's performance was masterful, but his wasn't really a surprise.

So, whose performance surprised you? Was it an established actor in a role you never expected or was it a non-actor who pulled off a great performance?