More Good Bad Guys

Picking up on Cheddar Man's great post about great movie villains, here's my own list where I resolved not to repeat any that he included. Don't get me wrong I loved his list, especially #1, but what fun would repeats be?

5. Big Chris and Little Chris in Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
Something about the dynamic of the traditional tough man (Vinnie Jones moving from soccer thuggery to real thuggery) and his son-in-training was great.

4. Christopher Walken as "Charlie" in Suicide Kings
Make no mistake, Walken isn't stretching any acting-muscles here. Indeed this role falls on the Walken bad-guy stereotype scale as less-insane than King of New York Walken, but more sitting-down than True Romance Walken. What's great about this Walken is he has to be menacing while bound to a chair with 9 fingers. And he is.

3. James Earl Jones as "Darth Vader" in Star Wars
Yeah, I know who's in the suit, Tommy, but that ain't the point! It's the physical presence and the voice that gets the credit. The character has been pop-cultured so much that he generates no fear anymore, but remember how you felt as a kid? The character is iconic, and it is this status that puts him on this list (ahead of Darth Maul, who carried a more physically threatening presence, and better make up.

2. Gary Oldman as "Drexl" in True Romance
Very close to being my #1. Oldman has played some great bad guys in his illustrious career, but his potrayal of the scenery-chewing gold-toothed freaky-eyed and nasty-scarred rasta kingpin in this Tarantino script overshadows any actor crazy enough to come near him. What makes him is great is how he exudes a nasty cobra-like cunning. And he does all this in a 7 minute scene.

1. Ben Kingsley as "Don" in Sexy Beast
If you never thought a small actor could be a physically threatening character (especially one that played Ghandi), see Kingsley in this. I don't think he even really does anything truly physical to any of the characters, but the way the other actors react to him, and that unpredictable unhinged part of his personality make him just scary as hell.

Ahhh... what a fine thread. If only that Chedda Fella was here more often so we could relive these great and aimless chats!

Meaningless addendum: I later noticed that my list has 5 Englishmen in it (well, that counts Prowse and Maul but excludes little Chris), while Tom's top 5 includes an Englishman, an Aussie, an Austrian, a Belgian and a puppet. Where are all the good American bad guys? Add your list in the comments!