95 of the top 100 greatest movie characters

Oh the fight is on. It seems that British magazine Empire made a list of the top 100 movie characters ever. This of course could not go without dispute. and thus Yahoo had to throw in their 2 pennies with a list of the top 25.

And I think that both lists have some merit but forget quite a bit. And the order of the characters is just plain dumb. Empire has Tyler Durden (Fight Club) as Number 1, Yahoo goes with The Tramp (Charlie Chaplin's films). While the Tramp is a good choice I think it isn't the best.

So here is my entry into the foray. Without question I will be told I am wrong to varying degrees. But that is the nature of a top list.

1.Harvey (Harvey)- The number 1 spot has to go to the only character that is never seen or heard from, is spoken about in virtually every 3rd line, is the center of attention, and is loveable.
2.Darth Vader (Star Wars series) - this is what bad guys are
3.HAL-9000 (2001) the definition of paranoia and what happens without the 3 laws
4.Morpheus (Matrix) the heart of the entire series
5.Mad Max (Mad Max series) defining the loner
6.Ellen Ripley (Alien quadrology) The most powerful woman character on several levels
7.Hannibal Lecter (Silence of the Lambs) The power of a mind twisted
8.Willie Wonka (original version Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) The joy of childhood in an adult
9.Malcolm X (Malcolm X) The example of what a life can become
10.Captain (Das Boot) The ultimate in determination
11.Popeye Doyle (French Connection) Perserverance personafied
12.T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) Ambition and a dream made real via willpower and planning
13. Lee (Enter the Dragon) The fusion of mind and spirit
14.John McClane (Die Hard series) The worst of being in the wrong place wrong time
15.Han Solo (Star Wars trilogy) Swashbuckling in space
16.Ferris Bueller (Ferris Bueller's Day Off) The perfect in the right place and right time
17.Keyser Soze (Usual Suspects) The least is the greatest among us
18.James Bond (007 series)
19.The Terminator (The Terminator series)
20.Ghengis Noonian Khan (Star Trek: Wrath of Khan)
21.Lieutenant Colonel William "Bill" Kilgore (Apocalypse Now)
22.Indiana Jones (Indiana Jones series)
23.The Tramp (Charlie Chaplin's films)
24.Mr Blonde (Reservoir Dogs)
25.Forrest Gump (Forrest Gump)
26.Harry Callahan (Dirty Harry)
27.Dr. Strangelove (Dr. Strangelove)
28.Ash (Evil Dead)
29.Charles Foster Kane (Citizen Kane)
30.Blondie (The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly)
31.C3PO and R2D2 (Star Wars)
32.Inigo Montoya (Princess Bride)
33.Jules Winnfield (Pulp Fiction)
34.Mr. Virgil Tibbs (In the Heat of the Night)
35.Roy Batty (Blade Runner)
36.Will Kane (High Noon)
37.Norma Desmond (Sunset Blvd.)
38.Arthur Chipping (Goodbye Mr. Chips)
39.V (V for Vendetta)
40.Zatoichi (Zatoichi series of films)
41.The Major (Ghost in the Shell)
42.Inspector Clouseau (original Pink Panther series)
43.Alex DeLarge (A Clockwork Orange)
44.Michael Meyers (Halloween series)
45.Roy Dillon - (The Grifters)
46.Lilly Dillon (The Grifters)
47.Chris (The Magnificent 7)
48.Max Bialystock (The Producers),
49.Yojimbo (Yojimbo, Sanjuro)
50.Jason Bourne (Bourne series)
51.Capt. Hilts "The Cooler King" (The Great Escape)
52.Hans Beckert (M)
53.Rooster Cogburn (True Grit)
54.Ray Charles (Ray)
55.Princess Leia Organa (Star Wars)
56.Atticus Finch (To Kill A Mockingbird)
57.Saul (Soylent Green)
58.Chance the gardener (Being There)
59.Fred C. Dobbs (The Treasure of the Sierra Madre)
60.Jessica Rabbit (Who Framed Roger Rabbit)
61.Dracula
62.Frank White (King of New York)
63.Agent Smith (Matrix series)
64.E.T. (E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial)
65.Jack Torrance (The Shining)
66.The Car (Christine)
67.Snake Plissken (Escape From New York)
68.Lt. Frank Drebin (The Naked Gun)
69.Luke (Cool Hand Luke)
70.George Bailey (It's A Wonderful Life)
71.Mathilda (The Professional)
72.G. Joubert (3 Days of the Condor)
73.Robin Earl of Locksley (Adventures of Robin Hood)
74.Nurse Ratched (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest)
75.Maximus Decimus Meridius (Gladiator)
76.the kids (Village of the Damned)
77.Mystery Woman (Blues Brothers)
78.Alice (Alice in Wonderland)
79.Ensign Frank Thurlowe Pulver (original Mr. Roberts)
80.Ken Pile (A Fish Called Wanda)
81.Witch of the West (Wizard of Oz)
82.Marv (Sin City)
83.Norman Bates (Psycho original)
84.Dil (Crying Game)
85.Damien (Omen original)
86.Lieutenant Commander Philip Francis Queeg (The Caine Mutiny original)
87.Zed (Killing Zoe)
88.Lawrence Garfield (Other People's Money)
89.Mary Kate Danaher (The Quiet Man)
90.John "Bluto" Blutarsky (Animal House)
91.Alice (Resident Evil series)
92.John Robie (To Catch a Thief)
93.Chief Bromden (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest)
94.Old Yeller (Old Yeller)
95.Cujo (Cujo)

Each of the characters in the above films stands out, and their loss is one that makes a vacuum. Though the roles are not always the biggest they are powerful.

Some might dispute the inanimate or anime characters. But that does not prevent the characters from being as real or influential as any other. Some may wonder about why there are so few women. The honest answer is that until relatively recently there just haven't been many roles written where women are prominent or have a truly standout role. Some might discount the characters that reflect real people. But these movies are not the actual person's life and still their characters are larger than life.

And why does my list stop where it does? Well how might you round out this list? What might you change?

From the dark depths to the silver screen - Villains

Ok, let’s be honest. If you had the choice of being Lex Luthor or Superman who would you choose? And when I say be them I mean you don’t get the just the power or just the money. You get the greed, obsession with power, murdering, and the insanity/genius or the must follow the law, universal boy scout, do good by all means life of either man. Think hard.

If you are like me, many will choose Lex Luthor. Or the Joker (not Heath Ledger or the movies but the comic book version), Magneto (ditto comics), the Juggernaught, Green Goblin, Obedia Stane, Darth Vader, Darth Maul, Hannibal Lecter, Dracula, the Kurgan, Stansfeild, John Ryder, Agent Smith, the T-1000, Pinhead, H.A.L., Alex (A Clockwork Orange), the Kingpin, Dr. Doom, Scorpius, the Daleks, Khan Noonien Singh and the list goes on and on. I doubt that anyone from the ages of 11 up to 65 doesn’t remember at least a few of the people on this list. [If you aren’t familiar with all of them just search the web and you’ll find plenty on them all.]

The point is that we all love the real bad guys. The ones with a brain and enough insanity to fill a psych ward. The guys that want power above anything and everything else. Because they all live. They have nothing holding them back, and nothing stands in their way. They are life spinning in chaos on the edge of a blackhole.

Without a real villain, the good guys are just boring losers that you wouldn’t notice if they were you looking in a mirror. (Not that anyone that reads my posts are losers, it’s just a metaphor)

Considering all this, and the fact that movies based on comic books are all the rage right now, how long did you think it would take for a movie to be made based on villains? If you thought 2010 you’d be just about right.

Viper Comics graphic novel Villains has just been picked up by Universal Pictures and will be made into a movie. This is a film from the bad guys point of view. It’s about the life that the good guys never see. The how and why of being evil.

If you read a synopsis of the graphic novel you get a basic story that reads like Apt Pupil.



Unlike Brad Renfro’s accidental discovery and curiosity gone wild, in Villains there is a willful desire to scour the depths of evil and become the object of fear and righteous crusades of superheroes.

This film, if done right will be unlike just about any other film I can name. And it should do well. But the big question is far darker.

If this film does well in movies, if you enjoy it, what does that say about the society and all of us in it? Are we like Renfro, curious and unknowingly opening Pandora’s Box – or are we celebrating a dark core that we desperately try to keep hidden while we routinely follow the monotony of our daily attempts at order and sanity?

If the film touches on that question, then this film will be a must see.

Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and Star Trek all from a different perspective

There’s been a huge hustle and bustle of news and events of late and the tone to many posts I’ve written has been a bit darker than usual. So today I decided to slow down a bit and look at things from a different perspective.

Perhaps the best way to get a different perspective is to view things from a new way of seeing an old idea. So I sought out Youtube and checked out some of the mashed up movies there. I present you a couple of great ideas that Hollywood will never think of, done quite well by people just like you and me (actually I admit I don’t have the knowledge and perhaps the talent to do the videos you see below).

The Universe is big, so what would happen if some of the galactic travelers of sci-fi met up?



What if the culture of the Spartans never died, or at least in a galaxy far away a long time ago? How could they not be the forefathers of the greatest forces in the galaxy?



And for something completely different – and one of my favorites – what if JRR Tolkein wasn’t always a stand up guy?

The Joker - an example of speculating and not collecting

Do you recall back in the day when you would play with a 3 inch Yoda doll that was part of your Star Wars collection? I’m talking about the toys based on the original movie, before they paid attention to which chapter they represented. They were fun and cool and everyone wanted a Darth Vader or Boba Fett (which came out before the second movie as I recall).

Perhaps you were more interested in the G.I. Joe dolls. Each stood about 6” tall and some had special abilities like ‘karate action’ or an ‘eagle eye’ or simply a 'fuzzy' beard. Again this is before the cartoon series that spawned a new version of toys, a mere 3” tall.

If you do recall these toys, or others like them, with joy in your heart don’t search on eBay. The prices these then-modestly priced items go for now will astound most. But some want to search around for the latest in the Batman: Dark Knight series of toys, or the X-Men, Hulk, Spiderman and so on. They should choose carefully.

There are hordes of would be collectors buying up the various items each movie spawns, hoping that one of their purchases will one day broker their dream vacation. A great example of this is the current craze for all goods that are the Joker, bearing a likeness to Heath Ledger. Honestly I think such pursuits are a waste.

Collecting generally happens either because of a rarity of an item, it’s representation of a significant event in time, age, or it’s value as an item of fond memories – even if those memories are second or third hand. That’s why you can sell a good condition Dr. Seuss Green Eggs and Ham first edition book for several thousand dollars. Or why certain stamps are priceless. The same can be said of the above mentioned Star Wars, G.I. Joe, and various coin collections. There is a value that can stand the test of time.

But today there is a rush based on minor activities and passing curiosity. Not unlike the comic book craze in the late 1980’s that caused comic book prices to rise dramatically, and then all but the older, rarer books to have that value nearly evaporate within a year or 2.

Heath Ledger is dead. It is a shame. But he did not die, say like Bruce Lee – at the top of his career, rising in legend and acclaim, in the middle of filming what might have been a classic film. Mr. Ledger died of a drug overdose that he gave himself. No mystery or glamour to it. His death was no Marilyn Monroe event. He was no mega-star. Thus there is no significant event that can survive time.

Thus anyone hoarding the Joker toys is making a massive bet that Ledger will be remembered in an historic manner in 5 years, thus giving a value to their collected items. I’m sure they are also hoping that the millions of other items produced before his death, and more than a few after, will all wind up in the trash as little Jonnie or Jane grow up. But considering many of the Joker items, and Batman as well, were snapped up by hopeful collectors (or speculators might be better to describe them) the chances are slim for rarity. Thus the hope of selling an item in the future to die-hard Heath Ledger fans diminishes.

Since the Joker items have just come out along with the movie, age is something that won’t happen for another decade or more. And considering the trend of Hollywood to ‘revision’ older successful films, it’s highly likely that by the time any item today becomes a fond memory of a middle- or later aged adult, there will be at least one more version of Batman corralling bad guys on either a small or big screen.

So overall the chances of a Heath Ledger Joker item becoming a collectible of worth are unlikely. Now I don’t say this to diminish the memory of Heath Ledger, but this is the most recent and dramatic point that can be made right now.

Collecting is not speculation. It should not be done with the hope of a reward in the future. That kind of wait-and-sell is best suited for the stock market, and your odds are far better there. Collecting should be done for the sheer joy of it.

I recently sold a few of my Magic The Gathering cards. I owned them from my time in California (in the early 1990’s) when I started to play the game and collect the cards after I had broken my leg in a motorcycle accident. I had no idea what the value was then, and even less now. But when I sold them – clearing away some things as I moved into a new house – I found out that just 3 of my cards alone were worth $200. That was more than I had spent on the whole collection. And I honestly had a hard time selling them.

I think that is the real value of a collection. The emotion it provides the buyer, and holds for the seller. If you start a collection for any other reason than that, you’re probably wasting your money and time.

Radio & Television Correspondents' Association dinner w/ Dick Cheney serving jokes

Some people think that politicians and pundits that follow their actions have no sense of humor. At least no on purpose anyway. But that is far from true. And the proof was found at the Radio & Television Correspondents' Association dinner tonight.

There were several normally stolid speakers at the dinner, an event that occurs annually and gives the speakers a chance to pick back at the news media with humor and the occasional bite. Notable were the Vice President Dick Cheney and former Presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

Mitt Romney was especially funny, poking most of his humor at his failed bid for the Republican nomination. Of course a certain Democratic Presidential hopeful didn’t escape comment either. You have to enjoy the self-deprecating humor.



Not to be outdone, though less funny was the Vice President. I especially like the quip his wife makes in reference to his being Darth Vader.



As for Mo Racca, he needs to stick with his day job. He is horrible as a comedian – at the least he was falling flat tonight.

So there you go. Our politicians and the pundits that follow them trying their best at stand-up for a night. Saturday Night Live has nothing to fear, and thankfully this occurs only once a year. If only the Democratic Presidential candidates’ proposals, and the Government’s Darfur stance, weren’t jokes as well. The very unfunny kind.

Robot Chicken does Star Wars - 6.18.2007.1

I’m sure many of the fanboys of Star Wars and Robot Chicken [a show on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim programming. Basically anime for adults.] were watching all night as a special episode, approved by Mr. George Lucas, dominated the channel.

This one night there was nothing but older episodes of Robot Chicken, which can have some very funny and dark skits, with the special episode repeating throughout the night. Of the dozen or so skits, several are old, but there was one I really liked. It resolve the question (if anyone was wondering) of what happened to that ridiculous, waste of space, Jar-Jar. Darth Vader does something every fan of the original 3 movies wanted to do. He chucks him out an airlock!

Sadly this is not without consequence. Still it’s worth it. When you see the skit you will get what I mean.

Other than that the ‘dancing in Bespin’ skit [my reference not the actual] and ‘Boba Fett gets personal’ are my personal favorites. Still I did expect a bit more as Mr. Lucas okayed the use of his characters, in addition to the use of his voice and that of Mr. Mark Hamill. I’m sure those who dislike President Bush will get a laugh out of the ‘Jedi Bush’ skit, which wasn’t too bad. Oh, I can't leave out 'Luke and Laura go Hotel New Hampshire'.

You can see all the skits over at the AdultSwim.com site. Now that you’ve seen my favorites in order, which was your favorite?

On a separate thought, did anyone else see the commercial for the flavored water that featured 50 cent. [I still hate his name] While all of the commercials from this company (who’s name I forget) features entertainers, mostly from sports, in events that are ridiculous this was way over the top.

The basketball player throwing a sheep, football players doing ping pong, and the NASCAR racer in the Himalayas were all ok. A rapper conducting a symphony just doesn’t work. Especially since he can’t even stick to Beethoven for more than 3 bars. It might have worked if he kept with the 5th Symphony, but the fact he doesn’t just brought up in my mind the question of if he has actually ever heard the piece. Kind of defeats the theme I thought.

This is what I think, what do you think?