Amph 50 Best Movie Villains (acc. to The Times): 1. Darth Vader (David Prowse) - Star Wars

The Times Online has a list of the fifty best movie villains. You know the drill; we'll be going one-by-one, discussing how right and/or horribly wrong their choices are, and maybe a bit of who they missed. Here's their intro:

Heroes get all the hype, but deep down, we all love a good villain. I can take or leave the square-jawed boy scout, the do-gooder who gets the girl and saves the day; but the villain is a different kettle of genetically modified laser wielding fish altogether.

Villains have more fun and get most of the best lines. Movie history is littered with fiendish foes, evil overlords and malevolent masterminds we loved to hate. The summer blockbuster is the perfect breeding ground for evildoers and this year?s pageant of box office behemoths provides rich pickings, from robots out for revenge to muggle-hating wizards.

We?ve scoured exotic locations from hollowed-out volcanoes to secret space stations; dodged doomsday devices and nefarious plots, even sat down with some fava beans and nice Chianti; all to bring you the best of the worst.

So sit back, relax and enjoy as we run through the villains that are good at being bad in our list of 50 fiendish movie villains.

Ignoring whatever the heck is going on in the writing of that first paragraph, let's take a look at our first contender.


50. Dr. Evil (Mike Myers) - Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)

They say: "If you take all of the ingredients that constitute an evil mastermind and turn them on their head in a comedic bizzaro world, you end up with Mike Myers the crackpot crimelord. He?s the epitome of camp cruelty and the only villain on this list to own a tank of ill-tempered sea bass."

I say: Any Dr. Evil scene is miles better than any Austin Powers one. I don't much care for the movies as a whole, but Evil is definitely their best creation, and almost every moment I did enjoy was from him and his staff.

 

Ah, yes, the self-enchanted mastermind. His complete rejection of his son in favour of a replica seems to hit a chord.

The upcoming "Megamind" seems to be another riff on this theme...

 

Why make trillions when we could make... billions?

 

Funniest thing in the first film. Worst thing in the sequels.

 

49. Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen) - The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

They say: "There?s a few key characteristics that mark your card as a terrifying movie villain. Cannibalism, a mask made out of human skin and a propensity for slaughtering your victims with a chainsaw are just three of them."

I say: I've never been one for this type of movie, so it's hard to judge, but definitely an iconic example. The video for this one had been removed by the copyright watchdogs.

 

I'm not one for this type of movie, either.

 

This YouTube link is spoilery, but if you haven't seen Rocky IV by now... well you must be me.

49. Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren) - Rocky IV (1985)

They say: "He?s 6?5?, 261 pounds and he killed Apollo Creed. Rocky?s hard punching uber-Soviet makes the weight on our villainous countdown."

I say: I have somehow managed to get this far in life never having seen the Rocky series. I've absorbed most of the pertinent stuff through pop culture but I really need to get around to watching the first.

 

I've never seen any of the Rocky movies either, but I've seen small clips of Rocky IV in Something Something Something Dark Side. I LOLed at what the commentators said during that scene.

 

Rocky IV is pure cheese, but it's good fun cheese and I never tire of it. It's just so ridiculous yet you can't help but be swept up with it.

 

I've seen some of the movies, but not this one.

 

It's Lundgren's physical appearance that really carries the film. Stallone looks like a midget next to him. He just towers over him.

 

I posted this teaser trailer in the Trailer Park awhile back and because a lot of people didn't see this in the mid-eighties it stunned them. Especially the last shot.

Stallone did a brilliant piece of casting with Lundgren. He IS a midget compared to Lundgren's superman status. Lundgren's Goliath was the perfect foil for Stallone's everyman Rocky. As you might expect, Lundgren is no great shakes as an actor but he did provide the Rocky character with a new mountain to climb in terms of story and character.

If you've never seen this teaser trailer, you'll see why Lundgren packed a wallop as a monosyllabic villain.

Rocky IV teaser trailer

I think Lundgren's physique probably prompted the sale of more gym memberships than any other in film history.

The fact that he KILLED Apollo Creed gives him special status in the Rocky legacy.

Stallone's got Lundgren in his new movie, The Expendables.

 

IV was the very first Rocky I ever saw, and I remember being mesmerized largely because of Drago. He's my favorite Rocky "villain," if only for nostalgic reasons.

 

Yeah, Lundgren is just so enormous next to Stallone..it'd be like Vader fighting Yoda, if Yoda couldn't flip around and stuff.


Rocky IV definitely brought the series to a high point when Lundgren killed Creed...you actually see Apollo convulsing violently on the floor.

Although to me, Lundgren's defining moment isn't in IV, and he's not even in the scene-the opening scene of Rocky V strikes me the most. Rocky looks like he just got in a fight with a dump truck; he looks like he lost.

 

All he needs is stainless steel teeth.

 

To be fair to Ivan-the movie makes him a little less villainesque in the actual fight scene, where you see the politburo members harassing him about not having won already.

 

Saw that in theaters. He was so intimidating.

 

48. Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) - The Matrix (1999)

They say: "Hugo Weaving?s virtual villain is the personification of The Man. His bland attire, ruthless precision and belief in the system is the perfect representation of middle-management automata; the real villains of the average moviegoer?s life made flesh for Keanu Reeve?s hero to beat upon before uttering some kind of heart skipping inflection like ?Whoah?."

I say: If anything, too low on the list imvho. I love Agent Smith. His definitive moment is his speech about mankind as a virus to Morpheus - two things he would become later in the series. Oddly his trilogy-long arc is the one that works best for me (though of course the movie is on the whole better as a one-off). Smith is an emotionless computer, yes - except, he isn't. The youtube link they went with wouldn't have been my pick, but just look at his face after Morpheus knocks his glasses off. Neo practically had a clean break from the system when you compare it to Smith's more gradual distinction from his fellow agents.

 

Agent Smith is so awesome. He had me at the "human race is a virus" speech.

 

Way, way too low on this list.

 

Agreed. At the very least, Smith should be in the top 20, maybe even in the top 10 and his real shining moment is at the end of The Matrix Revolutuions.

 

Weaving's finest hour, even if he turns into a smarmy bastard in the second one, and a rampaging lunatic in the third.

Weaving and Fishburne. They maketh The Matrix. So fun to watch. I suppose in that regard, Agent Smith was treated better in the sequels than Morpheus, who basically became boring, despite being given the opportunity to katana an SUV, which has been my lifelong dream for some time now.

 

Great villain. Weaving just buys into the character completely and makes him work.

 

Smith's character arc is definitely more interesting than Neo's, to say the least.

 

46. Kevin (Elijah Wood) - Sin City (2005)

They say: "Who could?ve picked the saviour of The Shire as a skin crawling near mute serial killer with a taste for human flesh?"

I say: Creepy with a capital C.