Great lead performances in terrible movies

Agree that Hopper wasn't the lead, but I thought he'd gotten top billing for himself nonetheless.

Huppert in The Piano Teacher

Colin Farrell in Cassandra's Dream, or at least it was one of the biggest gulfs I've seen between quality of performance and movie (I guess him and Euan McGregor are joint leads)

This isn't really the same thing, but sometimes I feel like I only really appreciate how charismatic certain actors are when I see them in a crappy movie they make watchable/that would be unbearable with most other actors - I thought this while watching Tom Hanks in Turner & Hooch. I thought Baby Driver was terrible, but Kevin Spacey and Jamie Foxx are so charismatic that it almost seems like a good film while they're on screen. John Hamm is good in it as well, but not so good that he makes you forget you're watching a terrible film, that's why I would put him in a different category to Spacey and Foxx

harvey keitel in city of industry comes to mind, he was thoroughly terrific as a vengeful crook hunting down stephen dorff. the movie is pretty generic at best, but keitel gives it his all like it’s tarantino-level.