Posts Tagged ‘villains’

31 Dec

Best of 2024: Top 10 Movies

Posted by vagrantesque in Best of 2024, Lists, Movies. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , .

Superhero movies are dead; long live superhero movies.

They will be back – and soon – but for this brief moment in history, we had a real spicy year for varied cinema.

For reasons that may have made themselves apparent in yesterday’s list, I didn’t quite have as much 2024 free time to devote to spontaneous cinema adventures as I had in previous years. This meant at several points throughout the year I was more sensitive to early movie reviews than usual, and ended up completely missing the likes of Moana 2, Alien: Romulus, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, Joker: Folie à Deux, and all three of the new Sony Spider-Man spin-offs. If a sharply positive or at least mildly interesting review did not come across my feed for a new movie and/or a friend didn’t reach out to see it, more often than not I just moved on.

I still reached bang-on 30 new-release films watched in 2024; these are my ten favourites.

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VR BEST OF 2024 DISCLAIMER

This list represents my opinion only. I am not asserting any kind of superiority or self-importance by presenting it as I have. My opinion is not fact. Nobody ever agrees with me 100%. Respectful disagreement is most welcome.

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10. The Fall Guy

A supremely silly yet triumphant time at the movies, ascended stuntman David Leitch and his team of action veterans bring abundant life to one of the most underrated – and unlucky – films of the year. The Fall Guy features plenty of real-life spectacle with a wink or two at the camera, elevated by a Sydney setting that allows for much more than novelty: all the tourist-y hallmarks of the city, as well as some of its lesser-known quirks, are used to their fullest to stage pretty crazy sequences. But the best thing about this well-made gem is its cast; Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Hannah Waddingham, and Winston Duke are all fabulous, but every scene shared by Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt is electrifying. Hilarious, adrenaline-charged fun.

9. Deadpool & Wolverine

Speaking of winks at the camera, the single comic book movie to make it on here does so because everything maligned about the recent Marvel Cinematic Universe movies works incredibly well in the context of a seasoned fourth-wall obliterator. It’s kinda hard to stick the well-worn “too many jokes, weird stakes, unimaginative villains” MCU tags on a movie starring Ryan Reynolds’ already-iconic interpretation of Deadpool, especially when Hugh Jackman plays his even more iconic Wolverine mostly straight as a foil. That pitch makes for a solid core, but the inventive – and pretty impressive – action scenes add plenty of gravy, and the myriad extended cameos not only land on multiple meta-levels, but give us some of the most memorably camp MCU performances in years.

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24 Dec

Best of 2024: Top 10 Movie Characters

Posted by vagrantesque in Best of 2024, Lists, Movies. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , .

For our first dip into cinematic countdowns this year, we have a real eclectic mix of villains, protagonists, and a weirdly high percentage of villain-protagonists. It’s perhaps a bit of a light one for memorable comic relief, which traditionally is well-represented here via cameos and supporting cast members, but maybe that says something about the kind of focused film we were able to enjoy repeatedly throughout 2024 as big-ticket ensembles were few and far between.

While not as spoiler-heavy as the next movie countdown, sometimes I do need to spoil plot moments to talk about why I find certain characters so compelling, so tread lightly.

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VR BEST OF 2024 DISCLAIMER

This list represents my opinion only. I am not asserting any kind of superiority or self-importance by presenting it as I have. My opinion is not fact. Nobody ever agrees with me 100%. Respectful disagreement is most welcome.

SPOILERS MAY FOLLOW.

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10. Kid – Monkey Man

Man, I just love this shot (so did Monkey Man’s marketing team, naturally). The film’s unnamed protagonist doesn’t talk a whole lot, and a significant portion of what might be called his character arc amounts to getting beaten up a bunch, but the astonishing behind-the-scenes story of how Dev Patel and his team got this grimy revenge fantasy flick made is so ludicrously lined with hurdles and pitfalls that it can’t help but come through in the writer-director’s own determined, unwavering lead performance. It’s a wonder to behold, and if it wasn’t so believable Monkey Man would probably just go down in history as yet another John Wick clone.

9. Gambit – Deadpool & Wolverine

I still can’t believe this happened. In a movie that already features a Chris Evans fake-out and an audacious, suspiciously prophetic Wesley Snipes one-liner, Ryan Reynolds and Kevin Feige set straight yet another controversial superhero take from X-Men Origins: Wolverine by putting a properly comic-accurate Gambit on screen – from inherently silly purple headgear to heavily exaggerated Cajun affect. Like, they actually did it. They even cast Channing Tatum, which arguably only works as a joke in a movie so reliant on pummelling the fourth wall that it fully expects its audience to remember that Tatum tried to get a Gambit movie off the ground many years ago. I say “as a joke” because Tatum is clearly so excited to be there that he makes the character work anyway, both as a card-throwing badass and a reliable source of comedy.

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25 Dec

Best of 2019: Top 10 Movie Characters

Posted by vagrantesque in Best of 2019, Lists, Movies. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , .

And so it is on this joyous Christmas Day that we raise our glasses to the cinematic characters that jumped off the big screen and our streaming devices in 2019; holding up parts of a story that were otherwise flagging, stealing scenes on the regular, or simply sticking with us after the credits rolled on their stories. I saw a lot of movies this year so I had a pretty great pool from which to draw.

Whether due to an acting performance, visual design, writing or a combination of all three, these are my ten favourite movie characters of 2019. As is usually the case on these lists, you tend to be more interesting to me if you’re a supporting character or a villain; but there were a few kinda-exceptions to that de facto rule this year.

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VR BEST OF 2019 DISCLAIMER

This list represents my opinion only. I am not asserting any kind of superiority or self-importance by presenting it as I have. My opinion is not fact. To agree with me 100% is rarer than an EA game without microtransactions. Respectful disagreement is most welcome.

THERE ARE SPOILERS ON THIS PAGE!

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10. Jack – Mary Poppins Returns

Step right up and see the majesty that is Lin Manuel Miranda in full flight, snacking on scenery like only a man with musical theatre in his blood can. Taking on the surrogate role of the working-class sage / super Poppins fanboy made famous by the great Dick Van Dyke’s chimney sweep Bert, Miranda’s clear glee at being on the screen in such a huge Disney production helps sell Jack the lamplighter’s contagious energy like nothing else. When you choose to make a sequel that by design repeats the musical beats and character archetypes of its iconic predecessor, direct comparisons were always going to be made; but the Hamilton man holds his own in Van Dyke’s shadow. At the very least, his cockney accent is better.

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25 Dec

Best of 2018: Top 10 Movie Characters

Posted by vagrantesque in Best of 2018, Lists, Movies. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , .

There sure were some characters worth remembering at the cinema this year. Half of them weren’t even from superhero movies! No protagonists this time around – Well, maybe one, technically – It’s almost all supporting characters or villains, which seems to be this list’s default form if left unsupervised. Most of this list is filled by actors who aren’t big names – at least in Hollywood – which is always fun to see too.

There are some spoilers ahead. In fact this might be my spoiler-iest character list ever, simply because so many of these characters are defined by what they achieve (and don’t achieve) in their movies.

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VR BEST OF 2018 DISCLAIMER

This list represents my opinion only. I am not asserting any kind of superiority or self-importance by presenting it as I have. My opinion is not fact. If you actually agree with me 100%, that’s odd, but let’s have a beer. Respectful disagreement is most welcome.

Some spoilers ahead.

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10. Eleanor – Crazy Rich Asians

One of the reasons that Crazy Rich Asians works so well is that it has memorable characters stuffed into every nook of its runtime. I could have gone with Awkwafina’s sweet-hearted comic relief Peik Lin, or Gemma Chan’s near-perfect protagonist-in-waiting Astrid, but I’m going to put Eleanor, matriarch of the uber-wealthy Young family, at the top of this page. In what feels like a grandstand Hollywood comeback role, Michelle Yeoh glides across the screen with measured tact and an arsenal of emotional weaponry she is not afraid to use if it means protecting her family’s legacy. From the opening scene, which well and truly exists in service of the character, to the final moment she locks eyes with our protagonist across a crowded room, Eleanor never completely drops her guard and yet it’s somehow still so easy to empathise with her plight. Yeoh’s graceful performance exhibits danger and safety in equal measure and it greatly strengthens the movie.

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23 Dec

Best of 2015: Top 10 Movie Characters

Posted by vagrantesque in Best of 2015, Lists, Movies. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

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I entered this year’s run of countdowns resigned to the somewhat depressing knowledge that my schedule would prevent me from watching any Boxing Day films, but at the very least that allows for one positive: I no longer have anything stopping me from spreading out my movie-themed countdowns throughout the ten day period, rather than bunching them up towards the post-December 26th half. So I’m going to cling to that positive, and show you my favourite movie characters from 2015.

This isn’t a lengthy or particularly competitive list – Out of what I watched this year I could only come up with one honorable mention – but I do think it’s a strong list nonetheless. Hollywood put some pretty magnetic characters onto the big screen in 2015, and it’s good to see that for once, it wasn’t just the villains that got all the good moments and lines. There are more “good guys” and morally ambiguous folk on my character list this year than any previous edition, so take that how you will.

Also, give that I’m talking about what makes characters memorable, mild spoilers will come up.

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VR BEST OF 2015 DISCLAIMER
This list represents my opinion only. I am not asserting any kind of superiority or self-importance by presenting it as I have. My opinion is not fact. If you actually agree with me 100%, that’s weird. Cool, but definitely weird. Respectful disagreement is most welcome.

SPOILERS FOLLOW.
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10. M – Spectre

Ralph Fiennes is one of those actors who tends to improve the quality of most movies he’s in, which made him a fine choice to replace Dame Judi Dench in a role that she had well and truly made her own for almost two decades. Fiennes’ M is just as visibly affected by outside pressures in Spectre as Dench’s ever was, but his penchant for keeping up appearances is more prominent, making his seething rage at both his political situation and the cocky young upstart at its head tremendous fun to watch. He bares his troubles through gritted teeth and then, when he finally gets to take action, the catharsis is palpable.

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