2012 Superlatives: Best Performance in a Bad Movie

Last year the Hugo Weaving Award for best performance in a bad movie went to Ellen Page for single-handedly raising Super above take-it-or-leave status with her balls-to-the-wall performance. This year's winner pulls off the same trick, pushing an otherwise forgettable movie into weirdly fascinating territory.

the award goes to...

Guy Pearce in Lawless

Lawless isn't a terrible movie so much as a hopelessly muddled one. Pearce cuts through the murk as a sneering sadistic lawman with a cleanliness fetish and an unsettling lack of eyebrows. He piles on the prissy mannerisms as if he were trying to secure a place of honor in the Villain Hall of Fame through the sheer force of his hamminess.

It's not exactly what you'd call a good acting, but Pearce is the only one involved who seems determined to give the audience their money's worth and he's not about to let piddling concerns like restraint and good taste stand in his way.

More 2012 Superlatives