7. Adam Sandler

Who the hell could ever have guessed that Adam Sandler could act? Known mostly for really annoying comedies like Billy Madison or Anger Management, Sandler seemed like he'd never changed. Or age past the maturity of an eight-year-old. I still don't know what director Paul Thomas Anderson saw in Sandler that persuaded him to cast him as the lead of his film Punch-Drunk Love, but there he wasWearing a blue suite and being really nice to a British girl, in a film directed by the guy who brought us Boogie Nights and Magnolia. And he was great. Somehow. Sandler brought a tension and pathos to the role that I don't think anybody could have anticipated, and it turned out to be really something to watch. And, if that's not your speed, Happy Gilmore's pretty funny.