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The 50 Greatest Movie Villains of All Time

By Jason Bailey on

The true nature of Star Trek Into Darkness’s villain has become perhaps the Internet’s worst-kept secret, but don’t worry — you’ll not have it spoiled here. Suffice it to say that the film’s antagonist is fiercely intelligent, physically brutal, and hellbent on revenge. In other words, this is a great movie villain. But what makes a truly memorable one? Sifting through the scores of iconic movie bad guys and girls reveals that villainy comes in all shapes, sizes, and levels of intensity; ranking them against each other is a tall order, but your Flavorwire was willing to give it a… Read More

Film

From Bin Laden to Miranda Priestly: Famous Actors’ Reflections on Their Most Villainous Roles

By Chloe Pantazi on

Hollywood has always had a flair for creating compelling villains, so it’s only natural that the actors conveying them would covet – or disdain – the experience of being bad. Some actors lose sleep over playing the baddie, carrying their character’s guilt, while others enjoy getting into character perhaps a little too much, and revel in their ability to frighten.

For Ricky S. Sekhon, the actor cast as one of the world’s most hated real-life villains in Zero Dark Thirty – and who wrote about his experience in a recent Times Op-Ed piece – the eight weeks before he took up his role as Osama bin Laden were spent having heart palpitations. Sekhon’s pithy Times piece inspired us to look at other actors’ reflections on playing some of cinema’s most notoriously evil characters. Here’s what we found. … Read More

Film

25 Famous Actors Ridiculing Their Profession

By Jason Bailey on

If you needed one more reason to love Jennifer Lawrence (and frankly, between her candid interviews and terrific performances in Winter’s Bone, The Hunger Games, and Silver Linings Playbook, we’ve been sold for a while), get a load of this quote from her new Vanity Fair interview: “Not to sound rude, but [acting] is stupid… Everybody’s like, ‘How can you remain with a level head?’ And I’m like, ‘Why would I ever get cocky? I’m not saving anybody’s life. There are doctors who save lives and firemen who run into burning buildings. I’m making movies. It’s stupid.’” That’s the kind of sound byte that helps cultivate the always sensible “down to earth” image, but there’s more to it than that; Lawrence’s comments fall within the grand tradition of no-nonsense actors not only refusing to romanticize what they do, but often coming right out and disparaging it. After the jump, we’ve assembled quotes from 25 of our favorite actors who, like Lawrence, refused to buy into their own hype. … Read More

Film

The Year in Film: 2012′s Biggest Movie Controversies

By Jason Bailey on

In perusing this year’s biggest movie controversies, we found ourselves discussing matters a good deal less trivial than last year. Make no mistake, there are some tempest-in-teapot situations here: ratings woes, questions of reappropriation and hagiography, and (god help us all) frame rates. But we also grappled with issues of artistic responsibility and racial representation, and with the ongoing question of the very health of the form itself. Join us after the jump for a stroll through the year’s memorable movie controversies, won’t you? … Read More

Film

The Year In Film: 2012's Best Movie Moments

By Jason Bailey on

As the inevitable “Year’s Best Films” lists pour forth (and ours will join them soon enough) — that while a great movie is an accumulation of first-rate writing, directing, and performance, plenty of films that didn’t make that final cut did offer us the pleasure of a perfect scene. Here, we present our carefully cultivated picks for ten of the best moments from this year’s… Read More

Film

A Beginner’s Guide to Hitchcock

By Jason Bailey on

It’s a very big fall for fans of Alfred Hitchcock. First and foremost, Universal has released Alfred Hitchcock: The Masterpiece Collection, a fabulous 15-disc limited edition Blu-ray set featuring several of Hitch’s masterpieces (including Vertigo, Rear Window, Psycho, and North by Northwest) in gorgeous HD transfers, with copious bonus features. And while his work is available for fresh consumption, there are a pair of new biography treatments as well — on the small screen, we have HBO’s The Girl (with Toby Jones as a rather skeevy Hitch and Sienna Miller as ‘Tippi’ Hedrin), while next week brings the theatrical release of a marvelous new big-screen biopic, Hitchcock (focusing on the production of Psycho, with Anthony Hopkins as Hitchcock, Helen Mirren as wife Alma, and Scarlett Johannson as Janet Leigh).

That’s a lot of Mr. Hitchcock to take in at once, but we’re here to help. If your knowledge of Hitch is confined to a shower scene and a flock of diving seagulls, you’re in luck; we’ve put together a Beginner’s Guide to Hitchcock, earmarking his major motifs, significant films, and relevant facts. Check it out after the jump. … Read More

Web

What’s On at Flavorpill: The Links That Made the Rounds in Our Office

By Caroline Stanley on

Today at Flavorpill, we read David Simon’s take on the Petraeus scandal, as well as some of the former CIA director’s love poems. We learned how to turn our browser into a distraction-free typewriter. We met the Keebler Elves of cannabis. We checked out Popular Science’s annual… Read More

Film

Darkly Funny Behind-the-Scenes Photos from 'Silence of the Lambs'

By Alison Nastasi on

We love exploring behind-the-scenes moments from our favorite television shows and movies, but as Halloween draws near, we’ve been focused on essential horror films. One of the works that will undoubtedly make our list is Jonathan Demme’s The Silence of the Lambs. The always wonderful website This Must Be the Place published a series of behind-the-scenes images from the movie, and it’s somewhat surreal to see the cast — figures we’ve feared for over two decades — laughing it up on set. Hopkins is pictured chuckling behind his steel-toothed mask and crew members pose next to a disfigured female skin suit. Ted Levine, who plays Buffalo Bill, doesn’t break character too much, but we do get to see his on-screen pet dog Precious as a stuffed toy! Put the lotion in the basket, and head to our gallery for more darkly funny… Read More

Film

Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren Deliver in the ‘Hitchcock’ Trailer

By Caroline Stanley on

We took it as a pretty good sign when Fox Searchlight bumped Hitchcock up into a prime fall awards season spot. Now that we’ve seen the first trailer for Sacha Gervasi’s biopic, which is set during the period when the legendary director struggled to get Psycho made, we’re betting that the stellar performances by Anthony Hopkins (as Hitchcock) and Helen Mirren (as his wife Alma Reville) played a huge part in the studio’s decision. The onscreen chemistry between the two of them is almost enough to completely overshadow Scarlett Johansson’s turn as Janet Leigh — until we get to the behind-the-scenes look at the classic shower scene. If nothing else, the film is sure to be nominated for the incredible makeup job that they’ve done on Hopkins, who is completely transformed here (not to mention, much more believable in the role than Toby Jones). Hitchcock, which makes its world premiere at the AFI Fest next month, hits theaters nationwide on November 23rd. Take a look at the trailer, and let us know in the comments if you’re as excited to see this one as we are! … Read More

Film

The 10 Best Stephen King Movies

By Jason Bailey on

Tomorrow is the 65th birthday of Mr. Stephen King — yep, the master of pop horror is now a senior citizen — so break out a party hat, have a slice of cake, and douse yourself in pig’s blood. Mr. King’s gradual progression, over the last couple of decades, from genre populist to critical darling has been a joy to watch. But the conventional wisdom that his books make for lousy movies inexplicably still holds. Make no mistake, they’ve turned his works into some turkeys, as anyone who’s sat through Graveyard Shift, Dreamcatcher, or his first (and so far only) directorial effort Maximum Overdrive can tell you. But his novels and stories have also provided the groundwork for several genuinely great movies — many of them, surprisingly enough, not even set in the world of the supernatural. After the jump, our picks for the best Stephen King movies to date. … Read More