For much of the 1980s, John Cusack was one of Hollywood's most dependable go-to guys for affable leads in teen romantic comedies -- typecasting that led to some great films (Better Off Dead, Say Anything...) as well as some rather forgettable efforts (Hot Pursuit, One Crazy Summer). But beneath that guy-next-door exterior lurked the heart of a thespian, and over the last 20 years, Cusack has assembled one of the more eclectic filmographies in the biz, starring in action flicks (Con Air), quirky dramas (Being John Malkovich), and even dabbling in horror (1408). With his starring turn in Roland Emmerich's latest big-budget disaster epic, 2012, arriving in theaters this weekend, could there be a better time to give Mr. Cusack's collected works the Total Recall treatment?

81%

Fresh

10. Better Off Dead

Remember in junior high and high school, when getting dumped felt like the end of the world? So does Savage Steve Holland, and in 1985, he took those memories, mixed in some dark, absurd comedy, and came up with one of the decade's most enduring cult classics, Better Off Dead. Starring as ski team second-stringer Lane Meyer, Cusack lent a crucial element of soulful deadpan humor to a movie that would have come apart at the seams without it. Think about it: would you have laughed as hard at Curtis Armstrong's bug-eyed attempts to get high, or the Cosell-imitating, drag-racing Korean brother, or that psycho paperboy without Cusack's quiet desperation keeping it (at least slightly) real? Audiences didn't know what to do with Dead when it was released, but over time, it's developed a following so huge that Film Threat's Brad Laidman echoed the thoughts of most film lovers when he wrote, "I've rarely met anyone who didn't secretly love it passionately."

85%

Fresh

9. Anastasia

Don Bluth (The Secret of NIMH) has never been afraid to take children's animation into dark and rather esoteric places, and 1997's Anastasia -- which uses the massacre of Czar Nicholas II and his family as a launching point for the fantastical adventures of the titular Russian princess -- certainly fits the description. Somewhat ironically, it's also Bluth's highest-grossing film, due in part to the involvement of an A-list voice cast that included Meg Ryan, Kelsey Grammer, Christopher Lloyd, and Cusack as the scrappy St. Petersburg con man who falls for Anastasia. Fox's last, best hope for success in animation, Anastasia did well enough to inspire a direct-to-video spinoff (1999's Bartok the Magnificent) and earned the respect of critics like the Los Angeles Times' Kenneth Turan, who wrote, "Any film that echoes the landscape of Doctor Zhivago is hard to dislike for too long."

86%

Fresh

8. Eight Men Out

Cusack is a lifelong fan of both Chicago baseball squads, and that -- along with his 6'2" frame and natural affinity for the sport -- made him an obvious choice for the cast when John Sayles set about filming 1988's Eight Men Out, an account of the infamous "Black Sox" scandal that tainted the Chicago squad accused of taking a dive in the 1919 World Series. Sayles cast Cusack as George "Buck" Weaver, the team's third baseman, who refused to join his teammates in the fix and essentially serves as the film's overall narrator and conscience; it was the first truly adult role in a career that had consisted largely of teen comedies, and although it was ultimately a commercial failure, it earned the approval of critics like the New York Times' Janet Maslin, who cheered, "For Mr. Sayles, whose idealism has never been more affecting or apparent than it is in this story of boyish enthusiam gone bad in an all too grown-up world, Eight Men Out represents a home run."

88%

Fresh

7. The Sure Thing

After scoring relatively minor roles in Class, Sixteen Candles, and Grandview, U.S.A., Cusack landed his leading man debut in The Sure Thing, Rob Reiner's directorial follow-up to This Is Spinal Tap. Of course, anyone expecting razor-sharp improv comedy was quickly let down by this rather run of the mill teen romantic comedy, but with Cusack and Daphne Zuniga in the lead -- and Nicollette Sheridan in a bikini, not to mention a supporting cast that included Tim Robbins and Anthony Edwards -- The Sure Thing earned a modestly tidy sum at the box office, as well as some surprisingly charitable reviews from critics like Laura Bushell of Channel 4 Film, who wrote, "A sweet film with many laugh-out-loud moments, this is what teen comedies were like before apple pies entered the equation."

89%

Fresh

6. The Grifters

After getting the chance to act with Paul Newman in 1989's Fat Man and Little Boy, Cusack continued his hot streak with The Grifters, the Stephen Frears-directed, Donald E. Westlake-scripted, Martin Scorsese-produced adaptation of the Jim Thompson novel. Aside from the film's lofty behind-the-scenes pedigree, The Grifters also afforded Cusack the opportunity to work with Anjelica Huston and Annette Bening, as well as dirty up his clean-cut Everyman image by playing a small-time con artist caught between his equally larcenous mother (Huston) and girlfriend (Bening). While the movie failed to find a large audience during its theatrical run, it did earn four Academy Award nominations and reams of positive reviews from critics -- including Roger Ebert, who praised The Grifters as "a movie of plot, not episode. It's not just a series of things that happen to the characters, but a web, a maze of consequences."