Burgess Meredith as Mick, most underrated performance. What’s yours?

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Now I admit, I’m a huge Rocky fan

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Rocky is one of my favorite movies of all time. My older sister took me to see it when it came out and I was in first grade...just loved it.

Which meant I was the perfect age for all the rest of them, and loved them too. But...in terms of what that first movie was, who he and Adrian were, etc the rest of the movies are kind of a joke, as much fun as they admittedly are.

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Even if you aren’t a fan of the movies, watch them again and watch the old man. His cadence, his mannerisms, his presence on screen, all of it adds up to the most believable and endearing characters in Rocky.

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Which is why I love Mickey in the first movie so damn much! I re-watched Rocky the other night on cable, and even though I've probably seen it 75 times, I left it on to wait for the scene where Mickey comes to Rocky's apartment, hat literally in hand, to ask to manage him after he found out he got the shot to fight Creed. His remorse and honesty and heartbreak, coupled with Stallone's heartbreak at having never gotten his attention before when he wanted it but really knew he hadn't deserved it...just so damn awesome.

I kind of like Steve Buscesmi in Reservoir Dogs for the category. Buscemi is a solid contender for this as a performer in general - take the terrible, terrible film Armageddon (despite its heroic cast, apart for the HORRIFYING romantic leads, doing everything possible to save this terrible film from its terrible director and screenwriters), to things like Big Lebowski and Con Air.

Ed Norton in Moonrise Kingdom.

William Sanderson in Blade Runner.

Burgess Meredith was pretty good as the Penguin too. Cesar Romero and Frank Gorshin are underrated in Batman as well.

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He was also insanely good in the professional, but I think EVERYONE fawned over him for that performance.

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I remember William Goldman, the screenwriter, commenting on acting and the disconnect between true good acting and what audiences and critics annoit as the best. He cited Rain Man, in which he said Tom Cruise had the much tougher role and did a much better acting job, but Dustin Hoffman got all the credit, accolades and awards for pretending to be a "half-retard".

Doug Hutchison (as Percy) in The Green Mile

Rocky II > Rocky

Fight me

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Gary Oldman as Lee Harvey Oswald in JFK (1991). How Tommy Lee Jones was nominated over him that year I have no idea.

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that's a good pick there ...

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I remember William Goldman, the screenwriter, commenting on acting and the disconnect between true good acting and what audiences and critics annoit as the best. He cited Rain Man, in which he said Tom Cruise had the much tougher role and did a much better acting job, but Dustin Hoffman got all the credit, accolades and awards for pretending to be a "half-retard".

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he was right ... and De Niro's role in Awakenings almost dwarfed hoffman's, imo ...

Morgan Freeman acted his arse off in "Seven"

So much attention was placed the ending that people overlook his performance as a whole

Without Freeman, you have a very average cop movie