2. Samuel L Jackson
Samuel L Jackson is the coolest man on the planet, swaggering from scene to scene with his booming voice and mean look, spurting profanity with a growling menace, and yet that somehow has become a hindrance. Jackson's legend was born in Pulp Fiction: he was catapulted into the role of pop culture icon and Hollywood superstar, and his bad-ass routine has brought him considerable acclaim, but as a result, his earlier performances in a trio of Spike Lee films - Jungle Fever, Do the Right Thing and Mo' Better Blues - have largely escaped the popular consciousness. He's avoided that sort of challenge since becoming a superstar, ringing out the bad-ass routine to varying levels of success. The Spirit was embarrassing for all involved, Jumper was irredeemably bad and Snakes on a Plane fell well short of the exploitation flick it clearly wanted to be. Jackson has appeared in a few too many lazy action flicks that just waste his extraordinary talent: he has so much more to offer than turning up for ten minutes in Iron Man 2, and being the only redeeming feature of the Star Wars prequels. But on occasion, we see he still has it, and that he can nail those lines with more conviction than anybody. Jackson electrifies in Jackie Brown, delivering Tarantino's dialogue with fierce magnetism and Coach Carter may just be his most powerful performance ever: he dominates the screen and holds the entire film together, showing a gentle humanity to go with his glaring and shouting side. Hi talent is never in doubt, but so seldom is it put to full use. Those enormous cheques from Marvel are hard to turn down, but Jackson's edge is what makes him so interesting and it's been a while since we've seen that. Hopefully his reteaming with Quentin Tarantino's for Django Unchained will change that.