Don Cheadle: 5 Awesome Performances & 5 That Sucked

1. Basher Tarr - The Oceans Trilogy (2001-07)

When the first Ocean's Eleven came out, it was hard to tell what exactly Don Cheadle was trying to achieve with his accent: if it was consciously designed to be terrible, then he did a remarkably good job. His lilting cockney, which frequently took trips around Greater London and then across the Atlantic at times too, was a comical mess that was surely intentional.

Sadly not - Cheadle had initially wanted to play the role American, so you can probably forgive him for not really committing to the performance of an accent he clearly had no experience with. But why he wasn't just pushed into the background for the sequels is beyond stupid: even when Eddie Izzard appears to play basically the same role with a better accent, Tarr abides. It's only when he gets a chance to play an American character that he sounds anything like a real human.

But it's not just the accent that hurts here: Cheadle is so ill at ease with that part of the performance that the rest of it comes across as jarring and incomplete. Like a rough draft he intended to add some of his usual charm to at a later date.

Which of Don Cheadle's performances do you think deserve to be classed as his best and his worst? Share your picks below in the comments thread.