Disney and Pixar Announce New Plans

Plus a new project for the director of Anchorman, a new scary movie, and more

The top story this week is that Disney and Pixar have announced their next three projects after this summer's Brave and next summer's prequel Monsters University. The first project is now titled The Good Dinosaur and will be directed by Up co-director Bob Peterson. It takes place in an alternate reality where no asteroid ever hit Earth and dinosaurs never went extinct. It is unspecified as to whether or not human beings exist in this alternate reality or if it will only be populated by prehistoric creatures. The current release date is May 30, 2014. Pete Docter (Up, Monsters, Inc.) is the director of the still untitled film that is described as:
"Pixar takes audiences on incredible journeys into extraordinary worlds: from the darkest depths of the ocean to the top of the tepui mountains in South America; from the fictional metropolis of Monstropolis to a futuristic fantasy of outer space. From director Pete Docter (Up, Monsters, Inc.) and producer Jonas Rivera (Up), the inventive new film will take you to a place that everyone knows, but no one has ever seen: the world inside the human mind."
The release date for this film has been moved back from May 30, 2014 (now the release date for The Good Dinosaur) to June 19, 2015. Finally, the directing/producing team behind Toy Story 3 are heading up a project that delves into the holiday of Dia de los Muertos. No release date has been set for that film but it is safe to assume that since this is the first anybody has heard of this project that the film won't be released until at least 2015 or 2016. Since Pixar has yet to come out with two films in a year and they are on a current pace of one a year every year since 2006, I'd expect a final release date to be placed sometime in the summer of 2016.

Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (Star Trek, the first two Transformer films, Mission Impossible III, Cowboys & Aliens) have been hired to write the sequel to the unreleased The Amazing Spider-Man. All that is known about the premise is that the origin story of Peter Parker as Spider-Man is continued, suggesting that it will not be finished in this summer's film. On top of this, Alex Kurtzman's directorial debut (from a script by Kurtzman and Orci and Jody Lambert) is set to be released this June called People Like Us starring Elizabeth Banks and Chris Pine. Also, the duo is involved in production on Ender's Game and Now You See Me, both set to be released by Summit Entertainment in 2013. They are also producing and scripting the sequel to the 2009 reboot of Star Trek and All You Need Is Kill starring Tom Cruise and directed by Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity). All this is in addition to their TV pilots set up at FOX, CBS, and ABC and their ongoing TV projects "Fringe" and "Hawaii Five-O."

Director/producer Adam McKay (Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Step Brothers) is in negotiations to take control of a planned remake of the 1974 comedy Uptown Saturday Night which starred Bill Cosby and Sidney Poitier (who also directed). The studio (Warner Bros.) hopes that Denzel Washington and Will Smith will accept the starring roles of a guy and his buddy who go on a desperate search to find the first guy's stolen wallet which contains a winning lottery ticket. Filming will most likely commence in 2013 sometime because of McKay's commitment to the recently announced Anchorman sequel.

Jennifer Lawrence (Winter's Bone, The Hunger Games, X-Men: First Class) is really on the verge of being typecast in a role that she is rapidly outgrowing. She has just accepted a role to star in The Glass Castle, an adaptation of the memoir by Jeannette Walls about growing up in a West Virginia mining town as the daughter of idealistic, nomadic parents. Another role as a poor girl growing up in an impoverished community. She needs to take different roles every once and a while. Besides, the script will be adapted by Marni Nixon who is best known for Fright Night and being the co-writer of I Am Number Four. Since neither of those were praised for writing, this one looks like it will be a dud too. It seems like the production will wait for Lawrence's schedule to open up since she is committed to the X-Men: First Class sequel as well as the three planned sequels for The Hunger Games franchise.

Taylor Swift now fancies herself an actress (Valentine's Day, The Lorax). I'm not sure she's much of an actress, but then again, I'm not sure she's much of a singer either. Or a looker for that matter. Regardless of my negative opinions on Swift, she is in negotiations to take one of the three lead roles in Girls Like Us. In novel form, the subtitle is "Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon and the Journey of a Generation." It is safe to assume that Girls Like Us will be a three-way biopic about the three female musicians and the effects that their music had on the generation that they lived in. It doesn't sound particularly good to me. Especially now that Swift is being considered for the role of Joni Mitchell. Not that I have a particular fondness for Joni Mitchell's music, I just don't have a fondness for Swift as an actress, singer, or piece of eye candy. No news on what other actresses (or maybe just singers) are up for the roles of Carole King and Carly Simon but I, for one, am hoping that the producers look for talent on Broadway rather than on the music scene.

Scary Movie 5 is actually going to happen. Those of us that follow movie news closely know that this has been around since 2009, but now it has been announced that Dimension Films is moving ahead with the plans. The director will be Malcolm Lee (Undercover Brother, Soul Men, Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins). No word yet on what movies will be spoofed, but David Zucker - the director of the last two Scary Movies - has expressed interest in parodying the franchises of Paranormal Activity and Final Destination as well as Child's Play (the Chucky movie). Series regulars Anna Faris, Anthony Anderson, and Regina Hall have all expressed interest in returning for another sequel but no official casting decisions have been made yet. A tentative release date of January 11, 2013 has been set.

Sony Pictures and Will Smith's Overbrook Entertainment have acquired the film rights to an upcoming 2013 young adult book called Boy Nobody. It will probably end up being a starring vehicle for Smith's son Jaden. The author of the book has compared it to a teenage Jason Bourne, it's the story of a "brainwashed teenage assassin who starts to regain his emotions." So it is Jason Bourne, for teens. Isn't this plagiarism? Besides, I'm not really interested in seeing Jaden Smith in many more starring roles for a while. And if you have to, why continue to show off his athleticism rather than his acting?

Production has officially started on The Smurfs 2, already set to be released on July 31, 2013. Almost everyone of the live action and animated cast are signed to return for the sequel, which probably means it was pretty fun to make. I only wish it was as much fun to watch. New cast members will be Brendan Gleeson (as NPH's uncle), JB Smoothe, and Christina Ricci, who will voice Vexy, "a new, evil version of Smurfette." Katy Perry will still be returning to voice the non-evil Smurfette though.

Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol (PG-13)

Directed by Brad Bird

Written by Josh Appelbaum, Andre Nemec, and Bruce Geller

I had wanted to get this review up while this movie was still in theaters, but sadly my noble intentions were undone. I decided to release this because it just came out on DVD and I will probably buy it.

The Mission just got more impossible. With the IMF disavowed due to an attack on the Kremlin, Ethan Hunt (played by Tom Cruise) and a few agents are all that remain to stop a Russian who has wonderful plans to blow up the world with nukes. Though this story may seem to be repetitive of other action flicks, "Ghost Protocol" achieves a higher standard of serious stunts and action scenes while maintaining a joking atmosphere throughout most of the movie. Tom Cruise reprises his role as the agent Ethan Hunt whom is known as one of the best agents in the world. Though his plans are not perfect they always seem to work, and when an actor wants to do his own stunts, it makes for a great spectacle. Simon Pegg is known for Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Paul and a few other assorted comedies, and he brings his light-hearted sense of humor to Protocol. He livens up the dialogue in between the explosions and gun fights. The one actor I really wanted to touch on is Jeremy Renner who plays William Brandt, an “advisor” to the Secretary of Defense. The character is similar to Hunt in that he has the skills, and has the secrets to go along with the skills. Renner’s performance was fairly impressive and he has played many roles in his career, many related with the military or another action-themed job. Acting in The Hurt Locker, 28 Weeks Later, The Town along with many others, the character Brandt was pretty good for Renner to take. He apparently did pretty well as Renner has picked up the role of Aaron Cross in the next addition to the Bourne series, as well as playing Hawkeye in The Avengers. Now because of the questionable quality of Mission Impossible III, I was somewhat skeptical of what GP would bring. What it brought were new characters that added new twists to the story of Ethan Hunt, but of the other agents as well. In accordance with the other movies, some parts of Ethan Hunt’s plans were awry, but comical in a way that caused me to enjoy the movie a lot more than the other three.

Overall Rating: 7/10

The 10 Most Anticipated Movies of the Rest of 2012

I regret not doing this at the beginning of the year. The Hunger Games would probably be pretty high on this list if I had. But too bad, here's the rest of 2012.

Honorable Mentions:
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2 (face it, teenage girls ARE anticipating this one)
Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter
Dark Shadows (another Tim Burton Johnny Depp collaboration)
The Expendables 2 (with more Arnold baby)

10) Snow White and the Huntsman
Key Players: Kristen Stewart, Charlize Theron, Chris Hemsworth
Release Date: June 1st
The trailer for this one is where all the hype is. It's an incredible trailer. Yeah, Kristen Stewart is playing Snow White, but if the movie ends up anything like the trailer, it should be worth seeing anyway.

9)   Ted
Key Players: Seth MacFarlane, Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis
Release Date: June 29th
You may not have heard much about this, but it should be pretty hyped because the writer-director is "Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane. Also, the film stars Mark Wahlberg and Fam Guy alum Mila Kunis, plus the voice talent of MacFarlane himself.

8)   Django Unchained
Key Players: Quentin Tarantino, Jamie Foxx, Leonardo DiCaprio, Christoph Waltz, Samuel L. Jackson, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Sacha Baron Cohen
Release Date: December 25th
Quentin Tarantino does the slave-owning South in this historical fiction. A star-studded cast including Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Samuel L. Jackson, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Sacha Baron Cohen should make for some great acting. The anticipation should build for this in the coming months.

7)   The Dictator
Key Players: Sacha Baron Cohen, Anna Faris, Ben Kingsley, John C. Reilly
Release Date: May 18th
Sacha Baron Cohen brings a new outlandish character to the screen with this comedy. Expect lots of terrorist jokes. Should draw quite a crowd.

6)   Prometheus
Key Players: Ridley Scott, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Noomi Rapace, Guy Pearce
Release Date: June 8th
I'm not really sure if this is a prequel to Alien or not. I don't think it is a prequel to Alien, but it takes place in the same futuristic, fictional universe as the Alien franchise. I don't know what the plot for it is yet, something about the origins of mankind on Earth, but I'm not really that fussed. The trailer and viral videos are endlessly intriguing. I can't wait.

5)   Men in Black 3
Key Players: Barry Sonnenfeld, Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin, Emma Thompson, Alice Eve
Release Date: May 25th
Will Smith always draws a crowd and some hype even if the last film installment of Men in Black was utter disappointment. Besides, with the mobile mansion he demanded to live in on set, he better give one hell of a performance.

4)   Brave
Key Players: Kelly Macdonald, Billy Connolly, Emma Thompson, Julie Walters, Craig Ferguson, Robbie Coltrane, John Ratzenberger
Release Date: June 22nd
When Pixar comes out with something original, it is worth it. Coming off their first perceived failure in Cars 2, I am anxious to see how they rebound here. Besides, I liked Cars 2; it wasn't great, but I enjoyed it for the most part.

3)   The Dark Knight Rises
Key Players: Christopher Nolan, Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Liam Neeson
Release Date: July 20th
It should be good at the very least. On the heels on The Dark Knight and Inception, people are expecting a lot from Christopher Nolan on this one. The trailer doesn't particularly thrill me though. I trust Nolan to make a good film though.

2)   Marvel's The Avengers
Key Players: Joss Whedon, Robert Downey Jr., Samuel L. Jackson, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner
Release Date: May 4th
I've already stated how I used to feel about Joss Whedon (see my review for The Cabin in the Woods). I'm quickly turning into a believer. The trailer looks pretty sweet and the early reviews are calling this the best comic book movie since The Dark Knight and possibly even better. The bar as been raised due to that, the imminent competition as this year's best comic book movie with The Dark Knight Rises, and the success of Whedon's The Cabin in the Woods. It's on like Donkey Kong.

1)   The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Key Players: Peter Jackson, Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Andy Serkis, Richard Armitage
Release Date: December 14th
Most comic book nerds are going to be pissed. But when it comes down to it, if either Collin or myself had to choose between The Dark Knight Rises, Marvel's The Avengers, and this, we'd pick this every day of the week. Peter Jackson returns to the author who made him famous and we can't wait to see the results.

New Director for Hunger Games Sequel

Plus Iron Man 3 casting decisions, new George Washington biopic, and more

The biggest news this week is that Gary Ross, co-writer and director of The Hunger Games, will not be returning to write or direct the sequel Catching Fire. This is good news for all those who, like me, found the direction of Ross sub-par and the writing so-so. Lionsgate, the studio with the film rights to the franchise, has made an official offer to Francis Lawrence (I Am Legend, Water for Elephants). Lawrence edged out Bennett Miller (Moneyball) for the job simply because he was more available (more about why Bennett Miller is unavailable below). Don't expect award-worthy direction for Catching Fire but hopefully the camera won't be placed in the middle of a tornado for dialogue scenes, which would be a massive improvement from Ross. The problem that arises from this is the script. While Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours, The Full Monty) has been hired to adapt the novel, Ross - an Oscar-nominated screenwriter - had intended to spend two months honing the script over this summer. Francis Lawrence is not a writer and the script may suffer for it. This could be a major problem since filming for Catching Fire needs to wrap by early January since star Jennifer Lawrence has an obligation to the X-Men: First Class sequel which starts filming in January and that commitment supersedes her contract with Lionsgate. The release date for Catching Fire is set right now for November 22, 2013. Also, in recent examples set by the Harry Potter franchise and the Twilight saga, the third of the trilogy of novels will be split into two parts, giving the film franchise four movies.

Did you like The Hangover? What if, instead of twenty and thirty somethings, it was cast with sixty and seventy somethings? Well that seems to be the premise of Last Vegas. It's The Hangover for your grandparents. Don't get me wrong, old people can be hilarious and fun to watch (see Venus starring Peter O'Toole for proof), but old guys in Vegas doesn't really do it for me so far. The cast does intrigue me though. Michael Douglas (Wall Street, Fatal Attraction, Basic Instinct), Christopher Walken, and Robert De Niro are in talks to star. This is after talks with Dustin Hoffman fell through. The fourth role is that of an African American ex-military man so don't be surprised if Morgan Freeman or Danny Glover gets cast in that final role.

In other news, Guy Pearce has been cast as Dr. Aldrich Killian in Iron Man 3. This casting decision comes right on the heels of Ben Kingsley being cast as the unspecified villain (though it was specified that his character was not named The Mandarin). In the comics, Dr. Aldrich Killian is the creator of a nanobot virus that is then sold to terrorists. This sets Kingsley up as a terrorist who gets his hands on the virus. Shane Black (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) takes over director's duties from Jon Favreau with Don Cheadle, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Scarlett Johansson all set to reprise their respective roles from Iron Man 2. Production will begin next month and the release date is set for May 3, 2013.

Steve Carell has been attached to play John du Pont, the murderer of Olympic wrestler David Schultz (to be portrayed by Mark Ruffalo) in the upcoming Bennett Miller film Foxcatcher. Channing Tatum is set to play Schultz's younger brother Mark. The script will be written by E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman (Capote). This is an interesting role for Carell, since Carell seems slightly young at 49 to play du Pont who was convicted of the murder at age 59. A minor point. The big point is that it seems to be a serious dramatic role with little to no opportunity for comedy. Will this signal a shift in Steve Carell's career? Who knows.

Director Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan, The Wrestler) has a lot to decide. Currently he is involved as the director of the biblical epic Noah about, you guessed it, the story of Noah's Ark with Russell Crow set to star as the lead. Beyond that, Aronofsky's Protozoa Pictures made a deal with Paramount for a film entitled The General. General is said to be about George Washington more in the spirit of Clint Eastwood's award-winning western Unforgiven rather than a strict historical drama. The script will be penned by comedy writers Adam Cooper and Bill Collage (Accepted, Tower Heist) so I'm not sure how this one will end up turning out. Aronofsky himself is said to be eyeing the director's chair for the Weinstein Co.'s Judy Garland biopic, Get Happy, with Anne Hathaway set to star. Only time will tell which project the Oscar-nominated director will helm.

Warner Bros. is in development on a film featuring the DC Comics character Lobo. Lobo is a bad boy alien mercenary who has a penchant for imaginary swear words. This week, director Brad Peyton (Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island) has been attached to the project. Seeing as his only experience to date is family-friendly movies and none were well-received by critics or audiences, this doesn't seem to be a good fit. If you're a fan of the Lobo from the comics, be prepared for cinematic disappointment.

The Cabin in the Woods (R)

Directed by Drew Goddard
Written by Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard


Apparently, Joss Whedon has a cult following. I'm not exactly sure how though. It's not that he's bad at what he does, it's just I don't see what he's done to earn such trust within this fan base. The first I heard of this following is when a group of my friends got super excited to see this film. I was dumbfounded since the title isn't a title that makes me interested in the film and the trailer sets it up to be another teenagers getting murdered story that we've all seen a hundred times over in practically every horror film ever made. I asked why they were excited to see it and they said, "because Joss Whedon wrote it and I trust him completely to do a great job." I mean, he did the TV shows "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Firefly" which I've heard good things about I guess. But in film, he's only really so-so. He co-wrote Speed which I've heard is good and he was the writer-director for Serenity which was alright. My favorite of his film credits is Toy Story. That's right, he co-wrote Toy Story. But that isn't that well known among my Joss Whedon fan friends. Other than that, he wrote or co-wrote Alien Resurrection, Titan A.E., Atlantis - The Lost Empire, and the Buffy movie, none of which were terribly good. So I wasn't sure where the absolute faith was coming from. Then I looked at some early reviews for The Cabin in the Woods and I heard good things. So I gave it a shot when my friends went to see it on its opening weekend. And let me tell you, I'm glad I did. The trailer does not do the story justice at all. The trailer makes it seem like another teenagers getting murdered in the woods story but it is so much more than that. It pays homage to teen slasher flicks while parodying them at the same time. It is quite refreshing to see a horror film that doesn't take itself too seriously. It's fifty percent horror film and fifty percent comedy. The comedy soars and the horror holds its own. There's a second part to the plot that the trailer doesn't reveal that creates a lot of comedy and makes the horror feel fresh and unique. Because the trailer and the filmmakers don't reveal more than that, I won't either. As for the other plot, there's your typical five teen horror lineup - a whore, a jock, a stoner, a brainiac, and a good girl. They decide to take a weekend excursion to this cabin in the woods that the jock's cousin owns. A horror movie ensues. I know it sounds pretty simple without the other elements that add so much enjoyment to the film but I'm determined not to reveal anything that might spoil it for you. The ending may leave a little something to be desired for some people, but the first two acts make it bearable. The acting is nothing special, but it gets the job done. The direction is the same way. It's the story that is special here. I've been waiting for a horror movie like this my whole life. I'm not the biggest horror movie fan in the world. I'll watch them, but probably only once. If I watch a horror movie a second time, it's most likely because of the people I'd be watching it with rather than the movie itself. For me, the scares disappear after the first viewing and the scares are the only reason to watch a horror movie. This horror movie is one that I might want to watch again for the content. Maybe the scares aren't as scary as they were the first time I watched it, but the laughs are still worth watching it again for. At the end of the day, I'd recommend giving this one a try.


Scores (out of 10)
Acting: 7.5
Directing: 7
Writing: 8


Overall: 8

Top Ten Movie Villains

10) King Edward the Longshanks
Patrick McGoohan, Braveheart
This guy is the epitome of not cool. The real King Edward I was ruthless. In the movie, he's not only ruthless, but sadistic and more importantly, he's a terrible father. He hates everybody. And he's not exactly well liked himself. He was trying to crush freedom and impose tyranny, which, as Americans, kind of pisses us off.

9)   The Shark
Bruce, Jaws
Pure killing machine. All it does is eat people and swim. The only thing that knocks it down to number nine is that it's not particularly malicious. It's just surviving. And it looks fake. It looked fake in 1975 and it still looks fake. But even a fake looking shark was able to drive beach attendance down for years to come after the release of Jaws. And no matter how fake the shark looked, it terrified people of the open water by the theaterfull. You just can't argue with results.

8)   Cruella De Vil
voice of Betty Lou Gerson, 101 Dalmatians
A Disney villain was destined to appear on this list, and few Disney villains can compete with Cruella. For starters, her name includes the words "cruel" and "devil" in it. And then there's her dastardly plan: to make fur coats out of adorable dalmatian puppies. The logic of using puppies is all the more disturbing since you'd probably be able to create more coats out of fully grown dogs. Bigger dogs = more fur = more coats? Or maybe we're just crazy. But the thing that cements her as a top villain is the song. There is an entire song about how evil this character is even before she has any screen time. I can't think of another song that is dedicated to revealing the evil nature of a movie character, and for a list of villains, that's something that makes Cruella stand out.

7)   Adolf Hitler
Martin Wuttke, Inglourious Basterds
To be honest, this one is here more for what the actual person was involved with rather than the movie character. But as far as we're concerned, no compilation of villains is complete without Hitler; thus, his position on this list.

6)   HAL 9000
voice of Douglas Rain, 2001: A Space Odyssey
The cold, high voice was so calm that it had to have evil intentions. Whatever argument you want to make about HAL's malfunction not warranting the evil label, you're wrong. This computer was possessed by an evil force. Our proof: only Bowman and Poole were discussing shutting HAL off, so why the hell did he kill the other three crew members in hibernation? No excuse for that. Programmed evil. And the Daisy song was really creepy. The weirdest thing about this character is that he was perhaps more humanly emotional than his human counterparts.

5)   Pazuzu
Linda Blair voiced by Mercedes McCambridge, The Exorcist

For this guy, I’m going to start you off with an image. Imagine the mass murderer who skins his victims alive, and devours them while they are screaming, drinks their blood, all the fun stuff. Now multiply the bad in this maniac by about 100 times and that’s Pazuzu. Pazuzu is an African demon who first appeared in The Exorcist and appeared in the sequels and prequel as well. Released by the elder priest Lankester Merrin, this thing is the last person/demon/thing you want to see coming at you. WHY? Because you can’t see him coming. He is a supernatural force that wants one thing, the sound of you screaming and dying. Many people develop into the monsters that terrorize others, but Pazuzu was created to be one thing: a curse upon mankind. He was imprisoned in a tomb until released, and he killed the entire village that was situated around the tomb. I do not really know what else to say then, this thing is just bad. The Exorcist was originally a book, and Pazuzu did some stuff so bad that they couldn’t put it in the movie. The book scared me more than the movie! It was that bad. So in closing, this thing/spirit is bad, mkay?

4)   Norman Bates
Anthony Perkins, Psycho
"A boy's best friend is his mother." Never has such a memorable quote been so untrue. I don't know a single male on the face of the planet that would verify that statement. We all love our mothers, but best friend is a stretch of unimaginable proportions. But that isn't why Norman Bates is so high on this list. He's here because (SPOILER ALERT) he's freaking crazy as a penguin in the Sahara. And not just crazy, but violently crazy. (SERIOUSLY, SPOILER ALERT, DON'T READ ON IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW YET) He stabs people wearing his mother's clothes. And despite only witnessing one incident in the film, I think it's safe to assume that it has happened many times before.

3)   Darth Vader
David Prowse voiced by James Earl Jones, Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back
He is perhaps the most iconic villain on this or any list of movie characters. The breathing. The suit. The voice. The quotes. The theme song. Nearly everybody is familiar with Darth Vader in some way. The big knock on Vader is that he does turn out to be kind of a softy in Return of the Jedi. But for the first two films, he embodies pure evil to the point of not being human anymore. First, he kills the hero's mentor, one of the best wise old dudes in movie history. After that, he provides the ultimate example of tough parenting by cutting off his son's hand. And for that, he ranks near the top of any villains list.

2)   The Joker
Jack Nicholson in Batman and/or Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight
Here comes the interactive portion of the list. No consensus will ever be reached about which iconic portrayal of the Joker is the best. New wave kids tend to favor Ledger's performance for the gritty realism and disturbed manner while classic lovers will tend to lean toward the Nicholson performance because of the off the wall manic psychosis and how it resembles the comic book more faithfully. Since most people tend to absolutely love one or the other, we have justified his place on this list, provided that you pick your favorite performance as the final winner for yourself. Because the one thing we can all agree on is that The Joker (whether he is played Nicholson or Ledger) belongs in this spot.

1)   Dr. Hannibal Lecter
Anthony Hopkins, The Silence of the Lambs
There was never any doubt in our minds. This character is nearly a perfect villain. There is no reason we should sympathize with him, but throughout the course of the movie, we all begin to root for Hannibal Lecter. The cadence of his speech, the accent, his tone, everything is just so unsettling and yet you can't look away. He's a cannibalistic serial killer; he rips very personal information from the hero in a despicable way. And yet, he defends her honor and helps her catch a disturbing serial killer. Ultimately, it comes down to the stare. You know the one I mean. The one where he is staring straight into your soul through the screen and the camera and into your very being. It's difficult to hold your gaze when watching it. You really feel the unrelenting stare pierce you and you can't help but feel it. Brad walked by a TV once and had a mini freak-out for a split second because that shot was on the screen. Proof that Lecter belongs at number one on any list of the greatest movie villains.