10 Acting Performances Way Better Than You Thought They'd Be

3. Arnold Schwarzenegger - Maggie

Will Smith Genie
Lionsgate

When you hear 'Arnold Schwarzenegger starring in a zombie movie', you could be forgiven for instantly picturing the legendary action hero mowing down armies of the undead with a machine gun, such is his established screen persona.

What you don't expect is for the former Governor of California to deliver a surprisingly raw and nuanced performance as a father slowly agonizing over how to deal with his daughter as she slowly succumbs to a virus that will turn her into a cannibalistic monster.

Schwarzenegger's career has hardly been renowned for its intense dramatic work, which makes the gravitas that he brings to the role all the more surprising. Best known for dispatching bad guys with a smirk and a quip, it comes as a shock to see the Austrian Oak play a character wracked with emotional turmoil, as he wrestles with how to deal with his infected daughter before it becomes too late.

Maggie isn't a particularly original or exciting take on the zombie movie, but it is nonetheless elevated above mediocrity by Schwarzenegger's stripped-back performance, that both relies on and discards the audience's knowledge of the shoot-em-up genre fare that has largely defined his 40 year career in Hollywood.

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