Which actor did the best portrayal of a villain?

Sooo weird, this thing was in qual and as I answered it it switched to 'active'. And I didn't get to vote.............

I found Javier Bardem very scary in No Country for Old Men. The only other one of these films I have seen is The Shining.

Hopkins was good. I don't recall any of the other actors in their roles, so I either didn't see them, or they weren't memorable enough for me.

i picked javier bardem because i thought he was frightening and i think kevin spacey in seven was a close second because they were both very real scary

Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men. ...........without doubt, though hannibal is a close 2nd

The Shining by Jack Nicholson

I don't really have an opinion on this.

This was really difficult, but I picked Javier from No Country. Amazing, very creepy performance.

Silence of the Lambs have seen this

Kevin Bacon in River Wild (with Meryl Streep)
Tim Roth in Rob Roy
The shark in Jaws

Jack Nicholson and Kevin Spacey were great!

And it's Cape Fear, not Caped Fear

Hard to say...you've mentioned some good contenders...scary movies.

I loved Jack in The Shining.

> Tim Roth in Rob Roy


He's not playing an American accent in it, is he?

I adore Tim Roth... but I watched a movie recently where he played an American... and he SUCKS with an American accent.

oh, that's a really good list, too hard to pick one... from the first 4 (all were great):

Jack Nicholson in The Shining
Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men
Heath Ledger in Batman: Dark Knight
Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs

Christian Bale in American Psycho -- he was probably just acting like himself.

Robert de Niro in Cape Fear -- meh
Kevin Spacey in Seven - the movie didn't really focus on him until the end, so... great movie, though
Anthony Perkins in Psycho - I guess that was a spoiler Anyway, not so great imho.

> I adore Tim Roth... but I watched a movie recently where he played
> an American... and he SUCKS with an American accent.

Funny Games? ...that was a strange movie.

You know... what's really weird is that I only watched it about 2 weeks ago.... and I can remember almost nothing about it... not the name - or the plot. I remember him going to try to see his parents, and they didn't live there anymore..... With really crappy movies, I tend to wipe it from my memory. I'll look it up.. Okay, I just looked thu his IMDB and still can't figure out what I watched.

I found it! I remember that his name was "Nick".

Bodies, Rest & Motion - 1993

Bridget Fonda, Pheobe Cates, Eric Stoltz...

You wouldn't expect it to suck as bad as it did.... I like those actors... but it sucked.

Jen and I watch a lot of crappy horror movies... last week we put the DVD in for one I'd acquired through trading and the DVD player did something strange. It started the movie at the end credits instead of the title screen. We both sort of went "uh oh..." because this seemed to imply we'd watched it before and the player was remembering where we hit stop. So, we started watching it and it took us almost 10 minutes to be sure we had seen it before. And, I know we must have watched it within the last 3 years. When we saw the giant tank of formaldehyde in the morgue, we knew.

The title sounds familiar, though I don't think I saw that one (and probably never will, thanks for the warning)..

Did Tim Roth have an American accent in Pulp Fiction... probably, and he couldn't have been bad in that!

I watched the pilot for his new series where he can tell if people are lying by their facial expression, it was OK... kind of seemed like they just kept using the trick of people on the team seeing expressions and second-guessing everything including each other over and over, though. He has a Brit accent on this show, at least.

Nope. Think: "Honey Bunny"

I was going to ask if you'd seen it... OK is the rating I'd give it as well. I was thinking that it would be very hard to emulate microexpressions... and the actors prove it's hard. I think what they want to look like microexpressions end up looking contrived.

can't pick one

That's a great scene... though, it gets even better after that too. I should watch that movie again. p.s. you're right.

Yeah, "contrived" would be a good micro-review for Lie to Me. I think I'm going to watch it a little more, though (damn TiVo already recorded another one, I think). I watch a lot of so-so TV. Someone has to do it. I think I've grown kind of fond of shows that are less popular too, since there's less commitment and a kind of excitement associated with them just disappearing. We watch some shows that have been on for years and I've grown to sort of hate them, like a burden I can't get off my back. I'm exaggerating for effect, don't take me too seriously.

It's a great flick... I should watch it again too.... Even tho it's been a couple years since I've seen it, I could probably quote them all through it.

I'll keep watching it because I'm out of interesting things to watch. Another one that I find to be just "OK" is Bones. Seen it? That one bothers me because I notice them acting ... instead of getting sucked in and believing it... but maybe it's the pot!

I've always loved SVU (Mariska crush), and have been watching old episodes online lately... I started to notice a few trends... Do you remember how on the original L&O, Jerry Orbach always had some cheesy thing he'd say right before the scene cut? One similar thing that bothers me about SVU is that every single person they are ever talking to ends the conversation with 'I need to be somewhere' and walks off. How many people would actually do that while being questioned by the police?

And House - which I really like.... But here's the plot in every episode: Someone's sick, they decide on a diagnosis and treatment, inform them they will die, and while treating them they realize it's not what they thought it was....... they decide on a different diagnosis and treatment, inform them they will die, and while treating them they realize it's not what they thought it was....... they decide on a different diagnosis and treatment, inform them they will die, and while treating them they realize it's not what they thought it was....... and then they save them.

I could go on.... lol

Vincent Price as Dracula.

Ah.. You love Tim, you gotta see him in this - he is the ultimate bad guy, really sleazy and slick Pure evil. With a British accent. You're gonna love to hate him. OMG you gotta rent it.

Sounds good. I'll look for it online. I hate to pay for my entertainment

I watched Bones once or twice when it started, but somehow, I escaped it. I think I may have been unimpressed with the acting too.

Many years ago, we used to rent a movie and watch it stoned. We always liked the movie a lot. I think we watched a lot of X-Files stoned too (Friday night!), loved it! But, then, we had to be careful about what we said to other people about how great the movies and X-Files was because we basically like everything when we're stoned.

I've watched a fair number of L&O (including a number of SVUs) in re-runs. Jen would watch them, so I would too. But, it has been a couple years since then. I don't remember the cheesy line before scene cut, but a lot of other shows seem to do that now (notably CSI -- have you seen that CSI Miami montage on YouTube?). We seem to watch a number of shows now that have some sort of wacky thing happen in the opening sequence (House, CSIs, Criminal Minds, etc.) It's certainly a trend and I can even get confused about which show I'm watching because they don't involve the regular people. I don't specifically recall that "I need to be somewhere" thing, but it sounds familiar. Still, I think L&O was mostly really good about the police work stuff. It still seems like one of the most realistic cops shows. ...oh, if you ever get a chance to see The Wire, I highly recommend it. I'm just watching the last season(5) on DVD now and wow, it's just so well done, great writing and acting.

Yeah, House is funny... we like to joke about the patterns we see in it. Like, if you seem them all get convinced that they know what's wrong with the person and you happen to glance at the clock and there's still 15 minutes left. You know they are wrong. Still, in the 2nd season (or something like that) they seemed to try different patterns for the show, we heavier side-plots (that annoying cop or hospital admin) and it sucked. I'm glad they seem to be mostly sticking to the pattern this season. This Obama-post-esque shot of Hugh Laurie got a big laugh out of me: http://www3.obamiconme.pastemagazine.com/entries/1... ... We love to guess what the medical condition might be and I always shout "Lupus!"

That's funny.

We saw Hugh Laurie on some show yesterday... I think it was Friends. He was just a passenger with a couple lines in an airplane.

My cousin gave me her netflix password and there are many things you can watch online. I've been catching up on different shows, but now I may have to start paying for more channels to continue watching what I've caught up on (after I get a couch and a TV - lol).

Have you seen Weeds? I watched the first two seasons on Netflix, but after that - you have to rent them.

He's really more of a silly comic actor, singing and such... House seems like a big departure for him.

Yes, we watch Weeds. It kinds of unravels a bit after a while, but then seemed to come together some too. A lot of shows like that seem to just throw too many things into the mix, too many crazy things happen, then it just seem absurd.

We watch Nip / Tuck too and that show is just a huge train wreck of ridiculousness.

Glenn Close in 101 Dalmatians.

I haven't really seen most of those other movies.

I used to watch house, but the constant belittling of everyone is getting old now............................

oh there really is no best but I will take a shot...nope I cannot choose a 'best'.

Not sure if this qualifies as a villian, but Michael Myers character in the Halloween movies is the creepiest

They are all equally evil villains. Although the portrayal of the Joker was quite a feat and of course the calmness of Anthony Hopkins always gives me goose bumps.