5. Sean Penn - Mystic River
I love Mystic River; it's one of Clint Eastwood's best films, and was the rightful nominee in several major categories (Best Director, Best Picture), just not one which it ended up winning, which was for Sean Penn's performance in the Best Actor category. Penn plays Jimmy Markum, an ex-con whose daughter (Emmy Rossum) is murdered at the start of the film, and it's with this revelation that Penn seems to make a clear effort to try and sink every good thing about the pic. The scene in which Penn finds out his daughter is no more should be unbearable to watch, but not for this reason; Penn overacts to an embarrassing degree, fitfully crying as a fleet of police officers then pile on him to stop him from running to the crime scene. It's a cringe-worthy moment in an otherwise brilliant film, and should have been enough to put Penn not in Oscar contention but Razzie consideration. Instead, Penn somehow beat out Bill Murray (Lost In Translation) and Johnny Depp (Pirates of the Caribbean) with one of the daftest performance - winning or nominated - to ever dance with Oscar.