When The Force Awakens was first released one year ago, I sang its praises, but even I had to admit that the film had, for lack of a...

In the weeks since the release of The Force Awakens, I’ve observed two distinct and powerful reactions to the film’s central villainous...

As played by the incomparable Klaus Kinski, Loco is the definitive Black Hat: cunning as a fox, venomous as a rattlesnake, and dirtier...

Can true evil exist in the absence of malice? Can a character really be considered a villain if he is incapable of comprehending morality...

When you get right down to it, the sadistic sociopath (indirectly) responsible for the creation of the metal-headed hero in Paul...

The dashingly handsome protagonist of Michael Crichton’s 1979 heist movie (played by the always-charismatic Sean Connery) isn’t...

Robbery. Rape. Murder. To Alex DeLarge, it all adds up to a day well spent. This common thug with delusions of “culture” loves torturing...

Played by Orson Welles at his charismatic best, cinema’s most memorable black marketeer manages to charm nearly everyone he...

When I first learned that a significant number of Shakespeare scholars consider Iago–slimy, scheming, irredeemably evil Iago–the...

Of all the henchmen and hired killers buried by suave super-spy James Bond, few are more gleefully sadistic and psychotic than Mister...

In terms of storytelling, what really defines a character as a villain? His actions? Well, consider Putnam, who spends the entirety of...

In the process of developing a personality for the charismatic killer in Quentin Tarantino’s throwback to ‘70s low-budget cinema, Kurt...

4. Suganoichi, Blind Menace: Unlike Zatoichi, Shintaro Katsu’s more famous blind masseur, Suganoichi is rotten to the core. As a boy, he...

I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder if Orion. I’ve watched c-beams glitter in the dark...

A good action scene does not exist for its own sake; rather, it is the culmination of the screenwriter’s meticulously-laid groundwork....

By the end of The Walking Dead’s seventh season premiere, Rick Grimes is a broken man. And it’s his own damn fault. And as I watched the...

From the opening frame to the end credits, a cloud of impending doom hovers over Fruitvale Station—not only because the visual language...

The remake of Red Dawn truly is a war movie for the Call of Duty generation, too preoccupied with the spectacle of bloodshed to...

Man, woman; white, black, Filipino; farmer, college boy–under the leadership of Earth’s “Federation,” all are finally equal....

It ends with a tight close-up on the sweat-drenched face of fencing instructor Araki Mataemon (Toshiro Mifune, a far more versatile...