Dull Surprise: Difference between revisions

** And yet, he has no signs of this in ''[[Bill and Teds Excellent Adventure]]''. So, yeah, he can do things besides Dull Surprise... or at least he used to.

*** Reeves playing [[The Stoner|a stoner]]? May be a case of typecasting.

** Never more obvious than when he played the good guy in ''[[The Devil's Advocate]],'' next to Al Pacino playing [[Satan]]. How can you root for the hero when the villain cares so much more?

** Used pretty well in ''[[Speed]]'', where he reacts to each new piece of danger with chilly competence, only to completely lose it when {{spoiler|his partner is killed.}}

* [[Nicolas Cage]] alternates between Dull Surprise and being a [[Large Ham]]. Usually switching at the wrong times.

* Alicia Silverstone in ''[[Batman and Robin (film)|Batman and Robin]]''.

* Téa Leoni's performance in ''[[Deep Impact]]'' just screams this. Or rather, vaguely suggests it.

* Brandon Routh and Kate Bosworth from ''[[Superman (film)|Superman Returns]]''.

* As an example of [[Tropes Are Not Bad]], Javier Bardem exhibits little to no emotion as the [[Complete Monster|ruthless]] Anton Chigurh in ''[[No Country for Old Men]]''. Naturally, he's a lot more intimidating, and won an Oscar for his performance.

* Gwyneth Paltrow in ''[[Sky Captain and The World of Tomorrow]]'', everyone else in the movie [[Ham and Cheese|had fun with their role]] but not her.

* [[Elizabeth Moss]] in ''[[Get Him to The Greek]]''. [[Justified Trope]]: she's clearly using it to portray her character - an intern - as so overworked and drowsy that she ''cannot'' express emotions normally.

* Paul Walker has always used this as his backup mode of acting, but nowhere was this more evident than in the 5th ''[[The Fast and the Furious]]''. He reacts to the fact that {{spoiler|his girlfriend is pregnant}} with an expression of "meh, that's good too." A pity, because the acting of the cast all around has improved somewhat (especially [[Vin Diesel]], who is now able to show emotions!)

* The limited engine of ''[[Deus Ex]]'', combined with acting that ranged from ridiculously over-the-top (and borderline racist) to the flattest line readings imaginable lead to Dull Surprise in more than a few situations. The creators of the game actually stated that this was done intentionally, to have the player produce the emotions instead of them forced on him.

** JC Denton's deadpan delivery is a constant source of (intentional) hilarity, producing some immortal lines in the process:

'''Denton:''' '''[[Narm Charm|A bomb.]]''' }}

* Several of the bad endings in the original ''[[School Days]]'' game end with Makoto staring blankly at whatever gruesome scene has just happened before him.

[[Category:Bad Acting Tropes]]

[[Category:Surprise Tropes]]

[[Category:Hentai Tropes]]