Sam Rockwell appears in the awesomely weird Moon, directed by the artist formerly known as Zowie Bowie (Duncan Jones), which may prove to be his breakout role. But he's been slogging away in the salt mines racking up great performances in little movies, and a few not-so-great performances in not-so-little movies. (Personally, I'd rather have picked Top Eight/Bottom Three. But I'll confess, I'm a fan.)

1. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
Rockwell plays Gong Show host Chuck Barris in this surreal biopic. Barris was a strange man, who went from NBC page to game show host all the while, according to his autobiography, killing for the CIA. And Rockwell plays strange really well.

2. Choke
This adaptation of the Chuck Palahniuk novel is admittedly not for everyone. Rockwell plays a sex-addicted historic reenactor who fakes choking in restaurants in order to solicit money to pay his mother's medical bills. (There's also a healthy dose of blasphemy, regarding whether his character is or is not the clone of Jesus.) But Rockwell is great, balancing touching and sleaze in a way no one else can.

3. Lawn Dogs
Rockwell plays a guy who lives in a trailer and mows lawns for a living who befriends a rich 10-year-old girl and gets accused of molestation. Not much of a hit, but it did well on the festival circuit, and he won Best Actor at the Montreal World Film Festival.

4. Galaxy Quest
The role that brought Rockwell his first big exposure. He plays a minor actor in a Star Trek-style space opera that's been relegated to the convention circuit. When the crew gets sent to fight a real alien enemy, the parody is spot-on -- as a Red Shirt killed off in his only episode, he's terrified that the same is inevitable in real life, and when the series is revived after they save the world, he moves up from "Crewman 6" to "Security Chief."

5. The Green Mile
This was Tom Hanks and Michael Clarke Duncan's movie, but Rockwell shines as "Wild Bill" Wharton, the death row murderer who's really behind Duncan's wrongful imprisonment.

Bottom Five
I'll admit that this was hard. But even my favorite actors have some not-so-bright spots on their resumes.

1. Glory Daze
A forgettable "wacky" campus romp costarring Ben Affleck, Alyssa Milano, and French Stewart. Think herpes jokes.

2. Charlie's Angels
It's not that Rockwell is necessarily awful as Eric Knox, a programmer who ends up being the villain. But the whole spectacle is so bad that he ends up unwatchable, just like the rest of it.

3. Piccadilly Jim
This misguided attempt to modernize the P.G. Wodehouse novel fell pretty much flat, with a jumbled mishmash of eras and Rockwell playing the role as an outright womanizing jerk rather than a more complex character.

4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Though far from terrible, Rockwell's Zaphod Beeblebrox, the skeevy President of the Galaxy, missed the mark. It's one of those books that maybe should never have been put onscreen; Zaphod on the page could never live up to Zaphod on the page.

5. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Fine, this was back in the early days, when he was just billed as "Head Thug." But still.

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