8. Jack Black - King Kong
In compiling this list, I was quite surprised by how few of the so-called "Frat Pack" made it; it turns out Ben Stiller and his devil children usually stick to what they're 'good' at, appearing in films which are mildly funnier than piles. Jack Black, however, was coaxed away from frivolous comedies by Peter Jackson, who in 2004 was still wiping the Orc Blood off his Oscars when he set about shooting King Kong. The film itself was a much needed reminder that Peter Jackson was not only the man who made The Lord of the Rings, but was also the man who made Meet The Feebles and Braindead. The cloying tonal shifts from lighthearted slapstick to Cannibal Holocaust-style tribal sacrifices rendered the film practically unwatchable, and the film wasn't helped by the fact Carl Denham, the 'director' responsible for the journey to Skull Island, had all the charisma of a stool and the demeanour of a stoner high from sniffing his car exhaust pipe. Apparently, Jack Black based his performance of Carl Denham on Orson Welles, commenting: "I didn't study move for move, it was just to capture the spirit." The problem here is that Welles was a charismatic, talented man who had to fight for every single frame of celluloid he ever captured, and each fight was worth it, for all of Welles' work, whether flawed or not, bears the mark of his unmistakable excellence. If this was the spirit Black sought to encapsulate, he failed. Jack Black's performance didn't remind me of Orson Welles so much as it reminded me of Ed Wood, that deluded laughing stock of the silver screen. Rubbish.