The 411 Movies Top 5 07.09.10: Week 225 - Funniest Movie Villains

Posted by Trevor Snyder on 07.09.2010

411's Trevor Snyder and Bryan Kristopowitz take a look at the funniest bad-guys in movie history.



In honor of the new supervillain comedy Despicable Me, Bryan Kristopowitz and I thought we'd use this week pay tribute to those special sort of bad guys who are more likely to make you double over with laughter than cower in fear. Here's our thoughts on:

THE TOP 5 FUNNIEST MOVIE VILLAINS

TREVOR SNYDER

HONORABLE MENTIONS: Harry and Marv (Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern), in Home Alone; Doctor Evil (Mike Myers), in Austin Powers; and the Sheriff of Nottingham (Alan Rickman), in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves


5. Biff Tannen (Thomas Wilson), Back to the Future (1985)



If you don't like Back to the Future, you must be some sort of soulless automaton. That's just a fact. Now, although you never hear many people say it, another fact is that Biff is definitely a big part of the reason everyone loves this movie. He's just a great villain, combining everyone's memories of those sorts of bullies (everyone knew at least one) with the "comedic numbskull" role. If you can't understand why Biff belongs on this list, maybe you should "make like a tree, and get out of here!"

4. Ed Rooney (Jeffrey Jones), Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)



What makes Ed Rooney funny to me is how damned determined he is to prove that one of his students isn't really sick, as he claims to be. In the grand scheme of things, it's really not that big of a deal if Ferris Bueller is skipping, but something inside Rooney makes him resent the kid's popularity and he just can't live with seeing him get away with it. And so he'll go to great lengths to try to catch Bueller, even if it includes little obstacles like brutal dog attacks. Like Harry and Marv in Home Alone, a lot of the comedy with Rooney comes from seeing what happens to him, but Jeffrey Jones' performance makes him a memorable character even when he's just sitting in his office, dealing with his secretary.

3. Professor Fate (Jack Lemmon), The Great Race (1965)



Jack Lemmon could do no wrong. He's one of those actors who was just awesome in everything he did. I always wished he had done more zany roles like this, though. His Professor Fate is essentially a live-action version of cartoon villains like Snidley Whiplash and Dick Dastardly (in fact, Dastardly was inspired by Lemmon's performance, for you trivia buffs out there). Like all self-respecting super-villains, Fate has a loyal but bumbling sidekick (Max, played by the also great Peter Falk). Together, the two constantly try to sabotage the heroic do-gooder The Great Leslie (Tony Curtis) during an auto race from New York to Paris. This being a wacky slapstick comedy from Blake Edwards, their plans constantly backfire and end up nearly destroying them, instead. You don't really see villains this over-the-top too much anymore, which is even more reason to re-visit this movie from time to time and cherish Lemmon's work.

2. Mugatu (Will Ferrell), Zoolander (2001)



An evil fashion designer and one-time keytar player for Frankie Goes to Hollywood, who is planning to use a brainwashed model to kill the Prime Minister of Malaysia? Oh, and did I mention he also invented the piano-key neck-tie? Yeah, Mugatu (or should we say, Jacob Moogberg?) definitely belongs on this list. The role of Mugatu was originally written for Andy Dick, who is a fine comedic performer in his own right, but the day Will Ferrell was given the role was a great day in comedic villain history. This was back in the good old days before people were sort of sick of Ferrell. Watching this movie, I don't really understand why Ferrell hasn't played more bad guys. I guess there's always Zoolander 2, huh?

1. Dark Helmet (Rick Moranis), Spaceballs (1987)



Darth Vader is, in the opinion of many, the ultimate cinematic villain. With his bad-ass luck, ominous voice, and dastardly actions, he was never what you would call "funny" (well, OK, maybe a little when Hayden Christiansen played him, but that's a whole other issue). A character like that is just ripe for parody, and Mel Brooks nailed it with Spaceballs, his last truly masterful comedy. Casting diminutive Rick Moranis as the movie's version of Vader was brilliant enough, but giving him that oversized helmet was a stroke of genius. Pretty much every moment Dark Helmet is on screen is pure gold, but he would make this list just based on the "I knew it, I'm surrounded by assholes" scene.

BRYAN KRISTOPOWITZ

HONORABLE MENTIONS: Armand Tucker (Eddie Griffin), in Urban Justice (2007); Frank Crawford/Cornall Crawford (Randy Quaid), in Moving (1988), and Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale), in American Psycho (2000)

5. Col. Daddy Muthah (Andrew Robinson), Trancers III: Deth Lives (1992)



Col. Daddy Muthah is essentially the guy that created the Trancers phenomena. It all started as a super secret super soldier program back in the 21st century, created by Col. Mutha, in response to what he claims to have seen during Vietnam as an Army medic. What's hilarious about the obviously incredibly psycho Col. Mutha is how wacked out he can get when explaining what it is he wants the Trancers program to do. He starts speaking in short sentences, he breathes in a weird way, and his eyes bug out. He even does this when having sex (he bangs a female Trancer in an incredibly disturbing scene). And everyone trusts this guy and they have no problem giving him money and continue to allow him to inject stuff into people. If Jack Deth hadn't escaped and killed a bunch of his soldiers that Senator would have given Col. Mutha all of the money in the world. No one saw the problem with this guy ahead of time? One of Andy Robinson's best villains. Only Robinson could play him.

4. Michael Jennings (Michael Caine), On Deadly Ground (1994)



Michael Jennings is what you could call a typical evil businessman. He only cares about making money and doesn't give a shit what he has to do to make that money. If he has to destroy the environment and kill a bunch of people to get it, well, too bad for those people. Big surprise that Jennings owns an oil company. So why is this scumbag, this "man with no conscience" so dang funny? Because he's played by Michael Caine, and Michael Caine knows when and how to ham it up when the situation calls for it. Jennings is such a giant prick you can't help but laugh at him. He says all of the wrong things, he clearly doesn't believe in anything but the bottom line, and since he's up against Steven Seagal you just know he's going down at the end of the movie and he's going down hard. So, really, you laugh out of pity, I guess. This guy is ultimately screwed. Too bad the real world doesn't work like that.

3. Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton), Beetlejuice (1988)



The great thing about Beetlejuice is you really don't know if he's the movie's villain until the very end. Up until that point, Beetlejuice appears to be nothing more than a charismatic prankster, someone that Adam and Barbara Maitland (Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis) have to deal with as they take on the real villains, the Deetz clan (and Otho. You can't forget Otho). But then Beetle Juice makes a play for Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder), tries to marry her so he can become real, and that's just nasty. The real world can't have Beetlejuice in it. So all of those jokes and whatnot? All part of a plan. Great stuff.

2. Dr. Evil (Mike Myers), Austin Powers Trilogy (1997, 1999, 2002)



Mike Myers is obviously riffing on the Blofeld character from the early Bond movies, especially the Blofeld from "You Only Live Twice" (that Blofeld was played by the great Donald Pleasance). But that caricature thing isn't the funniest aspect of Dr. Evil. What makes Dr. Evil great is that he so clearly is naturally evil (he has evil thoughts, he likes to commit evil deeds, and he's always striving to be just a little more evil than before) but he's also incredibly inept, especially when he's up against Austin Powers. It's simply amazing to think that Dr. Evil ever managed to create the evil organization he did. It must have been Frau working behind the scenes to make it all happen. Dr. Evil is a figurehead, basically, but he doesn't know that. He isn't aware of it.

1. Sheriff Buford T. Justice (Jackie Gleason), Smokey and the Bandit (1977)



Sheriff Buford T. Justice is an idiot. That's the only conclusion one can come to while watching the classic "Smokey and the Bandit." But you suspect that he's only an idiot when he's pursuing Burt Reynolds' Bandit across state lines. Because if Buford was an idiot all of the time how the hell could he be Sheriff? He would have been fired a long time ago. So, really, it's that new idiocy is what makes Justice so great. He also isn't going to quit his pursuit of the Bandit, even when it's obvious that he has no chance of ever catching him. That's just stupid. But the Sheriff is a man of dignity, too. He has an ego. He can't let that kind of thing go.

Well, another week where the Top 5 is admittedly light on 411 writers. So instead we turn to you, dear readers. Agree with Bryan and I? Think we're complete idiots? Leave your comments and your own Top 5's below, and we'll see you with a new topic next week.