Alternate Best Supporting Actor 2004: Results

5.  Alex Fong in One Nite in Mongkok- Fong's performance is forced to be very much to the point but he manages to create his character along way quite effectively.

Best Scene: Milo covers up the shooting.

4. David Carradine in Kill Bill Vol. 2- I know I may suffer the same fate as Bill for this, but I have to admit that I don't love this performance. I just like it quite a bit.

Best Scene: The end of Bill and The Bride's duel.

3. Michael Madsen in Kill Bill Vol. 2 - My favorite of the assassins actually as Madsen brings so much heart to his performance.

Best Scene: Budd "wins"

2. Willem Dafoe in the Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou- Dafoe is absolutely endearing and incredibly funny as the Steve Zissou's most loyal man.

Best Scene: "Thanks for not picking me"

1. Philip Seymour Hoffman in Along Came Polly - Well this might come as a surprise to all. Hoffman does not have the great directors behind him that Dafoe, Madsen, and Carradine do. He just has himself, and I loved him the most.

Best Scene: Proxy Insurance speech.

Overall Rank:

1. Philip Seymour Hoffman in Along Came Polly
2. Willem Dafoe in The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou
3. Michael Madsen in Kill Bill Vol. 2
4. David Carradine in Kill Bill Vol. 2
5. Thomas Haden Church in Sideways
6. Peter O'Toole in Troy
7. Bud Cort in The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou
8. Javier Bardem in Collateral 
9. Rip Torn in Dodgeball 
10. Barry Shabaka Henley in Collateral 
11. Ben Stiller in Dodgeball
12. Jeff Goldblum in The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou
13. Colm Meaney in Layer Cake
14. Paul Rudd in Anchorman
15. Toby Kebbell in Dead Man's Shoes
16. Mark Wahlberg in I Heart Huckabees
17. Alex Fong in One Nite in Mongkok
18. David Thewlis in The Prisoner of Azkaban
19. Michael Gambon in Layer Cake
20. Dylan Moran in Shaun of the Dead
21. Stuart Wolfenden in Dead Man's Shoes
22. Nick Frost in Shaun of the Dead
23. J.K. Simmons in Spider-Man 2
24. Jason Bateman in Dodgeball
25. Gary Cole in Dodgeball
26. Bill Nighy in Shaun of the Dead
27. Ulrich Matthes in Downfall
28. Fana Mokoena in Hotel Rwanda
29. Willem Dafoe in Spider-Man 2 
30. Thomas Kretschmann in Downfall
31. Alan Tudyk in Dodgeball
32. Tom Wilkinson in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
33. David Koechner in Anchorman
34. Gordon Liu in Kill Bill Vol. 2
35. Brian Cox in Troy
36. Christian Berkel in Downfall
37. Alfred Molina in Spider-Man 2
38. Peter Serafinowicz in Shaun of the Dead
39. George Harris in Layer Cake
40. Alan Rickman in The Prisoner of Azkaban
41. John Hurt in Hellboy
42. John Turturro in Secret Window
43. Gary Stretch in Dead Man's Shoes
44. Burn Gorman in Layer Cake
45. Joan Dalmau in The Sea Inside
46. Stephen Root in Dodgeball
47. Ben Whishaw in Layer Cake
48. Nick Nolte in Hotel Rwanda
49. Tim Robbins in Anchorman
50. Mark Ruffalo in Collateral
51. Chris Parnell in Anchorman
52. Celso Bugallo in The Sea Inside
53. Luke Wilson in Anchorman
54. John C. Reilly in The Aviator
55. Charles S. Dutton in Secret Window
56. Tony Curran in Flight of the Phoenix
57. Alan Alda in The Aviator
58. Ben Stiller in Anchorman
59. Dustin Hoffman in I Heart Huckabees
60. Chin Ka-lok in One Nite in Mongkok
61. Hank Azaria in Dodgeball
62. Joaquin Phoenix in Hotel Rwanda
63. Len Cariou in Secret Window
64. Sean Bean in Troy 
65. Timothy Hutton in Secret Window
66. Jeffrey Tambor in Hellboy
67. Brad Bird in The Incredibles
68. Anson Leung in One Nite in Mongkok
69. Justin Long in Dodgeball
70. Jason Lee in The Incredibles
71. Nick Roud in Finding Neverland
72. Bruno Ganz in The Manchurian Candidate
73. Michael Parks in Kill Bill Vol. 2
74. Elijah Wood in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
75. Ben Foster in The Punisher
76. Bruce McGill in Collateral
77. Mos Def in The Woodsman
78. Mark Ruffalo in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
79. Samuel L. Jackson in Kill Bill Vol. 2
80. Giovanni Ribsi in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
81. Gary Oldman in The Prisoner of Azkaban
82. Samuel L. Jackson in The Incredibles
83. Ben Kingsley in Thunderbirds
84. Peter Sarsgaard in Kinsey
85. Billy Connolly in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
86. Tim Meadows in Mean Girls
87. David Hyde Pierce in Hellboy
88. Dylan Baker in Kinsey
89. Timothy Spall in The Prisoner of Azkaban
90. Dustin Hoffman in Finding Neverland
91. Will Patton in The Punisher
92. Michael Gambon in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
93. Timothy Spall in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events 
94. Owen Wilson in The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou
95. Brendan Gleeson in Troy 
96. Michael Shannon in The Woodsman
97. Jon Voight in The Manchurian Candidate
98. Steve Carell in Anchorman
99. Rupert Grint in The Prisoner of Azkaban
100. Dean Stockwell in The Manchurian Candidate
101. Ian Holm in The Day After Tomorrow
102. Alec Baldwin in The Aviator
103. Giovanni Ribsi in Flight of the Phoenix
104. Michael Gambon in The Prisoner of Azkaban
105. Roy Scheider in The Punisher 
106. Patrick Wilson in The Phantom of the Opera
107. Christopher Walken in The Stepford Wives
108. Jon Gries in Napoleon Dynamite
109. Bokeem Woodbine in Ray
110. Jon Lovitz in The Stepford Wives
111. Bill Paxton in Thunderbirds
112. Alec Baldwin in Along Came Polly
113. James Franco in Spider-Man 2
114. Karl Urban in The Chronicles of Riddick
115. Karel Roden in Hellboy
116. Warwick Davis in Ray
117. Morgan Freeman in Million Dollar Baby
118. Freddie Highmore in Finding Neverland
119. John Travolta in The Punisher
120. Bryan Brown in Along Came Polly
121. Colm Feore in The Chronicles of Riddick
122. Kevin Pollack in The Whole Ten Yards
123. David Wenham in Van Helsing
124. Linus Roache in The Chronicles of Riddick
125. Efren Ramirez in Napoleon Dynamite
126. Roger Bart in The Stepford Wives
127. Frank Collison in The Whole Ten Yards
128. Garrett Hedlund in Troy
129. Hank Azaria in Along Came Polly
130. Hal Sparks in Spider-Man 2
131. Aaron Ruell in Napoleon Dynamite
132. Kevin J. O'Connor in Van Helsing
133. Richard Roxburgh in Van Helsing
134. Jay Baruchel in Million Dollar Baby

Next Year: 1983 lead

Alternate Best Supporting Actor 2004: Michael Madsen in Kill Bill Vol. 2

Michael Madsen did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Budd in Kill Bill Vol. 2.

Kill Bill Vol. 2 is a strong follow up to the first film as it nicely completes the story of the Bride's revenge well managing to never seem repetitious of the original.

Michael Madsen is not the greatest of actors since he's given some truly terrible performances in his career. The thing is though he happens to be one actor who cannot phone in a performance, if he tries to phone it in he might as well be in comatose by how lifeless he becomes. Thankfully though when he's in a Quentin Tarantino film he seems to decide to actually try. This is certainly the case here as he portrays the Budd the third person on the Bride's (Uma Thurman) kill list due to the fact that he was part of the assassin squad who massacred her wedding rehearsal. Budd in addition to that is also the brother of the leader of the assassin squad Bill (David Carradine). Where two of the assassins carried on their evil ways, another changed but seemed more upset at being called on her crime rather than committing it, Budd is far from his days of being an assassin, now living in a trailer in the desert, and in addition reacts quite differently than the rest in regards to the Bride's quest.

This can all be seen in Madsen's only scene in which he shares with Carradine as Bill tries to warn Budd about the Bride. Madsen is terrific in the way he interacts with Carradine in the scene. There is a certain ease that Madsen brings and alludes well to the fact that they are brothers. There's an underlying warmth between the two as they speak about the Bride's previous exploits. Madsen though is effective in bringing along with this a certain passive aggressive element as he speaks to Bill, and comes off as very realistically how one brother shows his discontent with another. He is equally effective in alluding to whatever tension that was caused by something in the past, quite possibly something to do with the chapel massacre. It is not overly open about but Madsen just suggests the right disregard for his brother's advice. Both actors do very well in quickly establishing the relationship between the two brothers, despite only having this one scene together.

Madsen's best moment of his opening scene though is where Bill insists that the bride will kill him if he does not accept his help, and Madsen's delivery of Budd's reaction is flawless. Madsen particularly carries himself with a Sergio Leone style in some ways particularly when Budd remarks that they do indeed deserve to die. Madsen is exceptional as he shows Budd's living through his own regrets involving the incident in his short speech and we see that Budd has an honest remorse for his actions. What is most remarkable is in an instance where Madsen cuts down the dramatics though and finishes his statement with a silly rhyme saying "But then again so does she so I guess we'll just see won't we". Madsen does not play as though Budd did not mean his first statement, rather that Budd's simply ready to see how the chips are going to fall, and he simply does not have the right to really complain either way. It's a brilliantly handled moment by Madsen and wonderfully shows Budd's particular state of mind.

After that we briefly follow Budd through his sad state of existence in lowly job where he is treated none too well. There is technically a slight comic edge about these scenes as a former assassin has to just has to be chewed out by his crude boss. Madsen makes the beaten down state of Budd so simple, but so honest though that it's hard not to feel sorry for the guy. Despite Budd's predicament he is the only one of the assassins to actually manage to defeat the Bride in the battle as he manages to surprise her. Madsen is terrific in the scene as he shows Budd almost slightly surprised himself at the turn of events. Madsen does not portray Budd as being overly sadistic or anything like that but rather is quite great at showing Budd to be mainly happy at getting the upper hand. Madsen boisterous in the right way in the scene. His attitude is not that of a pompous jerk but rather guy who's has so few things going his way that he's just has to enjoy this moment for all its worth.

Madsen is veryy good here by making Budd far more than simply a name to be checked off the list, even though technically speaking he's one of villains. He even technically does a particularly villainous thing when he buries the bride, but even in that instance Madsen plays it as though Budd is taking no pleasure in it. In fact there again is a regret in Madsen's expression that suggests that Budd doesn't exactly want to it but rather feels that he must. Madsen always brings a great complexity to Budd in each of his scenes, and never makes him a simple evil thug. Madsen makes Budd stand out by bringing such heart to his performance so that when he exits the film I felt sadness opposed to anything else. Actually if he had been felled by the Bride instead of who he meets his end with I might have lost my investment with the Bride. This is because Madsen manages to create such an affecting portrait of a former assassin with a conscience.

Alternate Best Supporting Actor 2004

And the Nominees Were Not:

David Carradine in Kill Bill Vol. 2

Michael Madsen in Kill Bill Vol. 2

Alex Fong in One Nite in Mongkok

Willem Dafoe in The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou

Philip Seymour Hoffman in Along Came Polly

And one more Bonus review for the leading category:

Tom Cruise in Collateral