This next bunch on the list shows the diversity of our 2008 class with everything from super soldiers to super assassins, from public officials to Nazi officers.
It’s nice to see 2009 seems to have picked up where 2008 left off to some degree. The Oscar holdovers are still out there for those viewers looking for enlightenment or whatever, but each week seems to have also brought with it some form of terrific entertainment so far. Sure, there have been some stinkers, mostly anything resembling a Comedy or the atrocious Unborn, but there’s tons of fun to be had out there with My Bloody Valentine 3-D, Taken, and for animation and 3-D lovers, Coraline is really excellent. If only Taken had been in 3-D so I could really feel like I was there when Liam Neeson was torturing bad guys…
Then again, never mind.
Here’s hoping 2009 can keep up the momentum, especially with Friday the 13th coming up this weekend, Watchmen right around the corner, and then the next thing you know, summer movie heaven will be back in full swing. From the looks of it too, there’s the possibility the dog days are absolutely going to rock this year, especially if somehow G.I. Joe can manage to live up to its Superbowl spot and somehow not suck and then if Transformers 2 can decide it wants to be about giant robots and not about teenage longing or whatever. I don’t care if Shia can pass geometry in time for the prom; I want to see the robots fights, and a lot of them.
With Star Trek, Inglourious Bastards, Up, and Michael Mann’s Public Enemies being virtual locks and X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Terminator Salvation both making strong showings in their trailers, the popcorn season could still end up leaning heavily in the “great“ category even those others fall into Spider-Man 3 territory. Hopefully Night at the Museum 2 and 2012 won’t stink up the joint too badly. Now, if only The Expendables and Ninja Assassin end up as kick ass in actuality as they are in my mind, then this year is going to rock hard!
I’ve got a feeling that a ton of characters from those last two films will be making my 2009 Bad Ass list, but now back to 2008, this next bunch on the list shows the diversity of our 2008 class with everything from super soldiers to super assassins, from public officials to Nazi officers.
The Bad Asses of 2008, Part 2
17. Abomination/Emil Blonsky, played by The Abomination/ Tim Roth – The Incredible Hulk
“Is that all you’ve got?”
Sure, The Hulk actually ends up beating the Abomination at the end of the movie, so maybe he shouldn’t be ranked as high, but when it comes down to it, its not the Cloverfield-style rampage of the Abomination from this movie or even the pretty epic fight at film’s end that I remember, it’s the awesome showdown between Bruce Banner’s green alter ego and Emil Blonsky after he’s been injected with the super soldier serum. Sporting some Transporter-esque moves thanks to Director Louis Leterrier, Roth’s special forces commando goes toe to toe with the strongest being of the Marvel Universe, boldly standing there and taking all Hulk has and coming back for more.
16. Harvey Dent / Two-Face, played by Aaron Eckhart- The Dark Knight
“If you want to kill a public servant, Mr. Maroni, I recommend you buy American.”
Dent’s most famous line in the movie may be the one where he talks about the hero living long enough to be the villain, but it’s the above line that really sold me on Eckhart’s Dent. The moment is so cool and collected, as he takes apart a gun that was just used in an attempt on his life and basically throws it in the face of the mob boss responsible. It’s this moment that gets you on the side of Dent and then it’s the movie’s responsibility to keep you on his side up until the movie’s last sequence, which it invariably does. Dent’s Two-Face is even given a terrific revenge-spree in the movie’s last third, and one that he
completely earns while he deals with the scum who betrayed him.
15. Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, played by Tom Cruise – Valkyrie
“I am involved in high treason with all means available to me. Can I count you in?”
Do you think you would do the right thing even if it meant that possibly everyone you knew and loved would be condemned to death for your actions? What if you knew the one thing you were driven to do was virtually impossible, like say, if your plan was to kill Hitler despite his ridiculous security measures? Now add the fact that you’ve only got one eye and you’re missing a hand to boot. You’ve probably given up by now, right? Well, not Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg! No sir. Say what you will about Cruise being crazy, but he’s downright awesome as Stauffenberg, the real life Nazi soldier determined to bring down one of the worst tyrants in history. Leading the anti-Fuhrer conspiracy, Cruise is as charismatic and straight up bad ass as I’ve seen him in some time, forgoing mushy love scenes for the fierce determination we’ve come to know from him time and again.
14. Mahogany, played by Vinnie Jones – Midnight Meat Train
“Welcome”
I wish that Vinnie Jones would get a Deathwish-type role, especially since I basically consider him the modern equivalent of Charles Bronson. This dude is a legitimate bad ass and has a ton of screen presence, but has yet to get that role that makes him a household name, mostly having to take bit parts or villains. Thankfully, a role like Mahogany in Midnight Meat Train emphasizes everything we love about his villainous characters; He’s an unstoppable killing machine who doesn’t say much, but when he does its highly effective. Jones even manages to work in some pathos into the role. Still, nothing can top just how menacing the guy is when he walks into a room or just sits silently, much less when he’s bashing people’s heads in.
13. Det. Sgt. Ma Jun, played by Donnie Yen – Flashpoint
“My duty is…to fight criminals.”
Speaking of legitimate bad asses, I don’t know that there’s a martial arts star in the world that is doing better action pictures than Donnie Yen is right now. Flashpoint goes from great action police thriller to flat out balls to the wall Hong Kong masterpiece in its last 30 minutes, and there’s one reason; Donnie Yen. I’d put his Detective Sergeant Ma Jun up with some of the greatest bad asses in Hong Kong cinema history, especially big screen cops like Chow Yun-Fat’s Tequila Yuen from Hard Boiled and Jackie Chan’s Ka Kui from the Police Story saga. Don’t believe me? Check out the final fight scene between Yen and Colin Chou (The Matrix sequels, The Forbidden Kingdom). Clocking in at about 16 minutes, this is one of the best fight scenes I’ve ever seen. No shaky cam, no quick cheat editing; just 16 minutes of face pounding, head kicking, ground fighting straight up bad-assery.
12. Hellboy, played by Ron Perlman – Hellboy II: The Golden Army
“Industriable, my ass.”
This movie was pure joy for me, but I think that if anyone else was playing Hellboy he might get lost in the shuffle when it came to the incredible world created by Guillermo del Toro. Fortunately, Perlman was born to play this role, and he makes Hellboy such a normal, blue collar guy, despite being the prophesized destroyer of the world, that you can’t help but love him. Plus, Hellboy has the goods here when it comes down to taking out giant trolls, hulking robot armies, or even immortal elf princes. You’ll believe he has the right hand of doom, especially when he’s using it to crush your face in.
11. Wesley Gibson, played by James McAvoy – Wanted
“What the f*** have you done lately?”
You work 9 to 5. Your girlfriend cheats on you. You hate your boss. You hate you life. This is the existence that Wesley Gibson lives. Then he gets to live out your dream. One day, Angelina Jolie shows up and tells him that he’s really not the insignificant nothing that he’s known all his life, but really he’s a millionaire super assassin with the ability to do superhuman feats and take vengeance for the death of his estranged father. You know what he does? He runs with it, and after bashing in the teeth of the friend who cheated with his girlfriend, telling off his boss, learning to bend the path of speeding bullets in order to kill people, getting to the bottom of his father’s death and then getting a lot of f***ing revenge, we all get to vicariously stick it to the man through Wesley.
10. Randy “The Ram” Robinson, played by Mickey Rourke – The Wrestler
“I just want to say to you all tonight I’m very grateful to be here. A lot of people told me that I’d never wrestle again and that’s all I do. You know, if you live hard and play hard and you burn the candle at both ends, you pay the price for it. You know in this life you can lose everything you love, everything that loves you. Now I don’t hear as good as I used to and I forget stuff and I ain’t as pretty as I used to be but g****** it I’m still standing here and I’m The Ram. As times goes by, as times goes by, they say “he’s washed up”, “he’s finished” , “he’s a loser”, “he’s all through”. You know what? The only one that’s going to tell me when I’m through doing my thing is you people here.”
I can’t be the only one that feels a little sad that Mickey Rourke isn’t going to be giving the Ram Jam to Chris Jericho at Wrestlemania. The Academy Awards could have turned into the greatest wrestling promo of all time, but now that’s just a dream that’s going to fade. In a lot of ways, it could have been this awesome moment, where the fictional Randy “The Ram” and the real life Mickey Rourke became almost the same person, and “The Ram” could have made his one last run at stardom and made it to the biggest event in wrestling. Then again, maybe it could have taken away from one of the purest performances of any movie in 2008. Whether wrestling in hard core matches, or in low rent main events dying from heart failure, this is a man giving everything he has to wrestling and its fans and you can’t ask for much more than that in a hero.
Alright folks, that’s it for this week, see you guys around the horn for the next installment of this long overdue list.
