7. Albert Brooks - Drive
I'm opening a can of worms here, I'm sure, because lots of people thought Brooks did a wonderful job in
Drive, although I never found his performance anything but distracting and somewhat at odds with the rest of the movie, although it's certainly possible that this comes as a result of his years of comedy work - it's really, really difficult not to hear this guy as Marlin from
Finding Nemo or Hank Scorpio in
The Simpsons, you know? Still, I see what the director was going for with this casting decision, and I suppose it was a worthwhile attempt at making Brooks into a character that we hadn't seen him attempting before, that of a Mafia boss (or something loosely along those lines). But Brooks doesn't make it meancing or funny - he just feels like Albert Brooks in every scene, occasionally stabbing people, which ultimately makes him feel out of place when you consider the great performances going on around him.