Peter Falk as Columbo. Might not be known to a lot of the members here, but it was a classic show that was brought back as an afternoon staple about 15 years ago.
Blashpemy! Ford stole what should have been the greatest performance in film history. Tom Selleck as Indy!
Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles? Brilliant. Oh, and nobody plays a whiny, annoying, stick-in-the-mud like Ben Stiller.
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil: The Lady Chablis fucking is The Lady Chablis. I mean, for real... It's the real person from the story playing herself in the movie. It's hard to imagine anyone other than Jim Carey playing Andy Kaufman in Man on the Moon. If you watch clips from the movie back to back with the real deal, Carey's performance is balls on. Also, fun little game for the thread: Can anyone find a movie Nicholas Cage was the right person for?
Dudley Moore as Arthur. I guess we'll see soon enough what Russell Brand can do. I have nothing against Russell Brand. Well, except he won't let me motor boat Katy Perry. Actually, that might be Katy Perry and a so-called "restraining order" that won't let me do that, but I digress . . . Jim Carrey as Ace Ventura. James Dean as Jim Stark. Joe Pesci as Leo Getz. Morgan Freeman as Red. This one's different for me. I can see a few other people playing the role, but the voice-over parts make it memorable for me, with his easy way of 'telling." Anthony Hopkins as Norman Bates. Look how Vince Vaughn failed, even when it was shot-for-shot. Jack Nicholson in The Shining. Those eyebrows alone make that role, and thousand of impersonators later, there's only one Jack. Talia Shire as Adrian. I'm not sure why that worked for me, but I can't see anybody else in that role.
Focus: See avatar. Gene Wilder is Willy Wonka. The Depp version was something peddled by NAMBLA in hopes that they could get closer to little boys with promises of magical candy factory tours. I rest my case...
A lot of times the actor's personality informs the role, so that you think someone is ideal for a part simply because there is so much of the actor in the character. Which is why this is a more fun game to play with preexisting fictional characters in comics and books, or famous people unable to play themselves. Jaknow? Patrick Stewart as Professor X was perfect. Johnny Depp as Hunter Thompson in Fear and Loathing. Ron Pearlman did an AWESOME Hellboy Paul Giamatti's Harvey Pekar was really good and VERY true to the character, if not exactly the man. (you know, the voice)
Easy, every movie he's ever been in. He wins more than Charlie Sheen. Sure he makes duds and takes work now because of a severe money issues. Doesnt mean he hasn't killed it in numerous films. Honestly I never got the running joke that everyone tries to make of this guy. Anti-focus: Since Nic Cage was up for the role and to keep the train going here I think he could have been just as good in The Wrestler as Mickey Rourke. Rourke did an excellent job an had the added benefit that his real life having some similar parallels to the characters life, which fit in great for the marketing and Oscar push. Otherwise I could easily see Nick Cage as a down and out Wrestler.
Yes, yes I did mean Anthony Perkins. Dammit. (Thanks Kubla) Although, Anthony Hopkins as Norman Bates . . . now THERE's a remake.
Chris Farley in Tommy Boy (and pretty much everything else he ever did). No one else could have pulled off his brand of fatman physical comedy.
George C. Scott as General Patton. Gene Hackman as Popeye Doyle. As for the Nic Cage question, "Leaving Las Vegas."
Christoph Waltz was a fantastic Col. Hans Landa. I can't imagine anyone else nailing the tension he added to every scene he was in of Inglourious Basterds.
In television: Anti-focus: Josh Radnor as Ted in How I Met Your Mother. I can't help but think that the writers saw the first season and wished they had named it something different, because his lack of charm and the general strength of the rest of the cast renders his search irrelevant at best. He takes a role we're supposed to identify with and makes it an annoying afterthought; nothing he does suggests I should care about his search.
Speaking of television, Jim Parsons nails Sheldon Cooper so well in The Big Bang Theory. And to me, Christopher Reeve is Superman. There are other actors who can and will do a good job with it and I don't mind Routh, but the way Reeve managed to do the switch between Superman and Clark Kent in mannerisms while still showing you that, yes, it's the same guy and he sometimes is amused and sometimes frustrated by the deception was gold.
The Rock is the only one that comes to mind, but even then. Plenty of good choices so far. I'll throw in Russel Crowe as Maximus in Gladiator as well as Mark Strong in Rock N Rolla as Archie. Oh and although not much is known about the state of the movie, Ryan Reynolds IS Deadpool.
This might be a little bit out there, but as a huge fan of the Tom Clancy "Ryanverse" (at least from Without Remorse up through The Bear and the Dragon, the last two sucked balls), I have always had serious issues with the casting of the John Clark character. He was a major player throughout the series, and he only gets a small amount of screen time, played by Willem Dafoe in Clear and Present Danger, and by Liev Schreiber in Sum of All Fears. I try to reread the whole series every few years, and I always feel like Clark should have been played by Bruce Willis. He's a cold sonofabitch for the most part, and I just think that Dafoe and Schreiber were all wrong. Last I heard, they're talking about a Without Remorse movie in the making, so we'll see who they come up with on their third try.