Latest Movie News From Moviefone |
- Disney Villains: Ranking the Top 30 of All Time
- 'Lost River' Review: Ryan Gosling's Directorial Debut Isn't That Bad
- 'The Captive' Review: Atom Egoyan's Latest Fails to Impress
- 'Maps to the Stars' Review: David Cronenberg Delves Deep
| Disney Villains: Ranking the Top 30 of All Time Posted:  Admit it: Disney princesses and other heroes of Disney animated features can be... kinda bland. But the villains are always fascinating and alluring. Many are seductive and deceptive by nature, and most have much more flair and style than the protagonists who defeat them. Really, it's a wonder that it took so long for Disney to allow filmmakers to twist one of its stories to focus more on the villain than the heroine, as it has with Sleeping Beauty's foe in "Maleficent" (opening May 30).If the Angelina Jolie live-action twist on the 1959 cartoon succeeds, there's a whole Hall of Infamy of Disney evildoers ready for their close-ups. Here are 30 of the worst -- er, best -- Disney animated villains ever. 30. Yzma ("The Emperor's New Groove")  The ancient Peruvian witch may not be the scariest Disney villain, but she's one of the funniest, thanks to a sly performance by Eartha Kitt.29. The Horned King ("The Black Cauldron") The film is one of the more unfortunately overlooked in the Disney canon, and so is this John Hurt-voiced baddie, who's not afraid to take fashion tips from Maleficent -- or to steamroll a kingdom to possess the magical title object. 28. Governor Ratcliffe ("Pocahontas") He's kind of your garden-variety ugly imperialist, as voiced by David Ogden Stiers in his imperious Major Winchester mode. Also, the pig-tail coif really isn't working for him. 27. Kaa ("The Jungle Book")  The python can not only squeeze his victims to death and swallow them whole, he can hypnotize them as well. Loses points, though, for having the same voice as Winnie the Pooh (Sterling Holloway).26. Mother Gothel ("Tangled") Kidnaps infant princess and locks her in a tower for so long that Rapunzel gets a severe case of Stockholm syndrome. Has the lovely singing voice of Broadway vet Donna Murphy. 25. Gaston ("Beauty and the Beast") At first, he's just an arrogant yahoo. But he does have the power to foment an angry, torch-bearing mob. 24. King Candy ("Wreck-It Ralph")  He's modeled after the Mad Hatter in Disney's animated "Alice in Wonderland," but the throne usurper and code re-writer is on a serious power trip.23. Hans ("Frozen") This handsome prince is certainly charming, but it becomes clear that he's just trying to marry for power. His biggest crime: coming between sisters Elsa and Anna. 22. Professor Ratigan ("The Great Mouse Detective") Any rat who has a pet cat is pretty badass. Plus, the rodent crimelord is voiced by Vincent Price. 21. Clayton ("Tarzan")  Ugly imperialism (a la Gov. Ratcliffe), poaching (a la McLeach from "The Rescuers Down Under"), and Gaston's chin.20. Sid Philips ("Toy Story") Sid's just a kid, but his sadistic, diabolically creative experiments with recombined toy parts make him a suburban Frankenstein. 19. Madame Medusa ("The Rescuers") Played by the great Geraldine Page, Medusa hints at untapped reserves of evil. After all, suppose she'd succeeded in her plot -- grab an orphan girl no one will miss and use her to find a hidden gem in a cave too small for a grown-up. What would she have done with little Penny then? Feed her to the pet crocodiles? 18. Shan-Yu ("Mulan")  He's just a man, but he's strong enough to withstand an avalanche -- not to mention, leading a marauding, bloodthirsty army.17. Chernabog ("Fantasia") He's a silent demon, but he makes up for it with the most horrifying theme music ever (Mussorgsky's "Night on Bald Mountain"). He's also pure evil, using his powers to raise the dead and wreak havoc. His only weaknesses: daylight and the strains of Schubert's "Ave Maria." 16. Madame Mim ("The Sword in the Stone") She's included on general craziness points alone. Can turn herself into various creatures, including a scary dragon. Fights a memorable wizards' duel with Merlin. 15. Hades ("Hercules")  Played by the always sinister James Woods (he even looks like Woods), but with more camp and flamboyance than Woods usually musters. He gets way too much enjoyment from making Hercules' life miserable. Oh, and he rules hell, which is named in his honor.14. Judge Claude Frollo ("The Hunchback of Notre Dame") A typical Victor Hugo villain, he's all the scarier for believing himself to be motivated by righteousness. Willing to burn down Paris out of his obsession with a girl he can't have. 13. Shere Khan ("The Jungle Book") The urbane menace George Sanders, whose voice underlies so many suave and sophisticated villains ("Rebecca," "All About Eve"), translates surprisingly well to the jungle, where his jungle-ruling tiger is all the scarier for never raising his voice above a sneer. 12. Queen of Hearts ("Alice in Wonderland")  Lewis Carroll's fantasy-world monarch has a hair-trigger temper and a capricious will, so she's ready to lop heads for no reason at all. Props to Helena Bonham Carter in the live-action version, but she can't hold a candle to the sheer psychotic rage of Verna Felton in the cartoon version.11. Honest John ("Pinocchio") The poor puppet encounters fearsome villains at nearly every turn in the story, from exploitative impresario Stromboli to ravenous whale Monstro. But the worst of all is the misleadingly-named fox who lures Pinocchio into a world of candy-coated sin in the first place. 10. Si and Am ("Lady and the Tramp") Grown-up viewers will cringe at the ethnic stereotyping of the singing Siamese cats, but kids may notice only their unfettered malice and mischief, as well as their ability to make it all look like poor Lady's fault. 9. Lotso ("Toy Story 3")  The Pixar movies have the opposite issue from the rest of Disney's animated features; their heroes are colorful and interesting, while their villains are often perfunctory and pedestrian. A notable exception is this huggable, strawberry-scented demagogue, a teddy bear who turns a daycare center into a fascist dictatorship and nearly gets our heroes incinerated in a furnace. Plus, he's voiced by Ned Beatty, in the same menacing manner of his you-are-tampering-with-the-forces-of-nature heavy from "Network."8. Lady Tremaine ("Cinderella") As voiced by Disney regular Eleanor Audley, the scheming, imperious, vain, power-hungry taskmaster is the kind of woman who gives wicked stepmothers a bad name. 7. Ursula ("The Little Mermaid") The undersea witch with the slimy tentacles, whose seeming helpfulness toward Princess Ariel is actually a ploy to oust King Triton from his ocean throne, is one of the scariest Disney villains ever, thanks to the frightening performance of Pat Carroll. 6. Scar ("The Lion King") How do you follow up an Oscar for playing the chilly and sinister Claus von Bulow? If you're Jeremy Irons, you play a fratricidal lion, and you play him like you were playing Claudius in "Hamlet." (Though Scar also has a touch of Claus, as delivered in the line "You have no idea.") Here's a guy who kills his regal brother, then ruins the kingdom out of sheer spite. That's evil. 5. Jafar ("Aladdin")  The whole character is pretty much a swipe from Conrad Veidt's villain in the 1940 live-action fantasy "The Thief of Baghdad," but he's still delightfully wicked, plotting to marry Jasmine, kill her father, and steal her kingdom. Also, he has the deliciously grouchy Iago (Gilbert Gottfried) for a sidekick, maybe the only Disney-villain henchman who isn't a brainless buffoon.4. Captain Hook ("Peter Pan") Stylish and debonair, Hook is even more dangerous after Pan symbolically castrates him (feeding his hand to the crocodile), now that he has a vicious hook for an appendage. As in all productions of this story, he's voiced by the same actor (Hans Conreid) who plays the Darling children's father; Freudians, make of that what you will. 3. Cruella de Vil ("101 Dalmatians") She has the best name of any Disney villain -- maybe any villain ever. And you can't fault her fashion sense, even if that's what drives her to dognap and try to skin 101 puppies. 2. Maleficent ("Sleeping Beauty") Here's a woman willing to destroy an entire kingdom just because she wasn't invited to a party. Plus, she has the transformational powers of Madame Mim, the voice of Cinderella's stepmom (Eleanor Audley), and those iconic horns. As villains go, Maleficent is pretty magnificent. 1. Wicked Queen ("Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs")  She was the first Disney villain, and she set the bar for all the rest. She has the same magical gift for transformation as some of the other witchy villainesses, but get this: Even though she wants to kill Snow White out of vanity, she's actually willing to destroy her own beauty just for a final chance to poison her stepdaughter. That's how full of hate she is. More than anyone else on this list, she's the one still likely to haunt your nightmares well into your adulthood.Photos courtesy Disney, Pixar This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| 'Lost River' Review: Ryan Gosling's Directorial Debut Isn't That Bad Posted:  As a celebration of the unprecedented number of Canadian films that competed for the Palme d'Or at the 2014 Cannes International Film Festival, Moviefone Canada is highlighting each of these works. When Nicholas Winding Refn's "Drive" hit theatres, it startled many moviegoers that had pegged Ryan Gosling as just another in a long line of pretty-boy actors -- sympathetic with clearly defined abs, but a performer who picked relatively safe projects to delve into. For those paying a closer attention, it was his compelling turn in "Lars And The Real Girl," a tale of a man that falls in love with an anatomically accurate doll, that showed the slightly off-kilter direction that he was heading in. His previous film with Refn, "Only God Forgives," bowed last Cannes and split the opinion of critics; some lauded it as a masterpiece, some saw it as an indulgent if pretty-to-look-at mess. Critics were equally split with "Lost River," Gosling's directorial debut. While Refn's film dug into the dark underworld of Thailand, Gosling sets his sights closer to home, providing a bleak and almost fairy-tale like look at the decaying exurbs of Detroit. It's easy to dismiss the film as a mere vanity project, some star-gazing premiere that's certain to generate press. Others will embrace it for the same reason, anxious to see the poster boy do well. Divorced from such considerations, I'd suggest that Gosling has done a quite admirable job with his first foray. If we saw this sort of thing come from the likes of Harmony Korine, I believe that there would be many reticent to embrace it, but somehow find a way to get past its minor faults. It's as if during festival time that there's cachet for the esoteric, an "I know something you don't" vibe that dismisses the tastes of a "populist" audience in favour of a cloistered festival crowd. Now, there's nobody who's going to look at "Lost River" and think this is going to be a hit at the multiplex. The story is about a mother (Christina Hendricks), her son (Ian De Caestecker), the overtly named bully (Matt Smith), the meek-yet-interesting neighbour (Saorise Ronan) and her infirm mother (Barbara Steele), the seedy boss (Ben Mendelsohn) and the seductive co-worker (Eva Mendes). It's clear that Gosling's star power gets him a lot of fine actor friends, and the ensemble is overall quite exceptional, driving much of the pleasure gained from watching the film. Gosling's script for the film is a mixed bag, a kind of half-baked fable about decay and rebirth. Still, it's shot with a surreal beauty by indie darling Benoît Debie, lenser of the likes of Korine's "Spring Breakers," Gaspar Noé's "Enter The Void" and "Irreversible," and Fabrice Du Welz's "Calvaire." The film plays as a kind of post-apocalyptic dream, the decaying infrastructure providing a gothic-like framework on which the story hangs. Some of the shots are downright hypnotic, from the slow-motion tongues of flame licking the beams of a house, to a startling pink, smoke-filled hallway that feels particularly Freudian. This isn't a film for everyone, and it certainly has its issues. Still, I think it's something to be applauded, miles better than many first-time films. It's indulgent to an extent, but it's also brash without ever coming across as ridiculous. There's a humility to Gosling's filmmaking that I think will serve him well, what seems a real desire to push the bounds of experimental cinema, while still maintaining a coherence that is at least somewhat audience-friendly. If there's one churlish critique, it's that the film doesn't quite go far enough, the menace never quite as biting as it needs to be to make the jeopardy feel real. Still, Gosling's "Lost River" is one of the more interesting films to bow at this year's Cannes, a strange mélange of art film and melodrama that speaks to the emergence of a gifted filmmaker. Who knows what's next for Gosling as he steps out from the shadow of his mentor Refn, but consider me one who is anxious to find out. "Lost River" will probably get a North American release date later this year. As of this writing, there is no official trailer.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| 'The Captive' Review: Atom Egoyan's Latest Fails to Impress Posted:  As a celebration of the unprecedented number of Canadian films that competed for the Palme d'Or at the 2014 Cannes International Film Festival, Moviefone Canada is highlighting each of these works. For decades now, Atom Egoyan has been one of Canada's most celebrated and lauded directors. From massive critical hits such as "Exotica" and "The Sweet Hereafter," he has established himself among the elite of English Canadian film auteurs. Egoyan is no stranger to the Cannes Film Festival, having unspooled many of his films here, and he was an instrumental member of the jury back in '96, when David Cronenberg won his Special Jury Award for "daring and audacity." Egoyan brings crime drama "The Captive" this year, starring Vancouver's Ryan Reynolds along with Scott Speedman, Rosario Dawson, Mireille Enos, and longtime collaborator, Quebec native Bruce Greenwood. Egoyan scripted the film with his friend and previous collaborator David Fraser, incorporating what Egoyan described to me as "Scandanavian crime thriller" elements. In fact, the film feels more like a pilot for a television show than a theatrical film. There's these odd inclusions of what are dubbed "procedural" elements, quirks of character that make it seem like the office life of the main characters is richer than may first appear as they interact with a shorthand repartee. Unfortunately, these asides (most overtly seen in a "puzzle-solving" scene) seem to go nowhere -- it's great we learn about these background characters, but since we never hear from them again in any meaningful way, it all seems a bit pointless. The film is a hard-hitting look at child exploitation and kidnapping, making a kind of clever twist on the myriad of abduction stories that get made every year. Rather than the bad guys using the children for abuse, they're used to form narratives, with the plight of the grieving parents surreptitiously captured for the amusement of the lecherous. Dawson brings tremendous conviction to her role, and almost manages the impossible task of making an Ontario Provincial Police-like uniform look sexy. Reynolds is himself in need of a critical hit, and he certainly brings his A-game, providing the film with much of its emotional impact. I'm always happy to see Kevin Durand, a big guy from Thunder Bay who I'd love to see make it into the big time. For now he's usually used in small-yet-interesting character parts, and here his comic-book like character doesn't give him much to work with, but he gives it his all. Despite these ingredients, the film falls apart under its own weight. The Niagara setting, with its frozen falls, is meant to be a metaphor for the constraint and confinement of all that pent-up kinetic power, but it just makes the film feel too local, too clunky. Just as with last year's "The Art of the Steal," Niagara Falls is an iconic enough small town with so little going for it visually (besides the falls) that it's hard to take seriously as a locale where anything nefarious/interesting takes place. Even generous critics are looking at "The Captive" as merely better than Egoyan's last film, the seriously underwhelming "Devil's Knot." This is a bit of a lull for this director, and while he continues to explore notions surrounding the loss of a child (a theme consistent with several of his works), it's hard to see that "The Captive" does much to add to his cachet. While it's extremely gratifying that this genial and intelligent filmmaker continues to bring works to festivals such as Cannes, I for one continue to hope that he'll connect again with a film like he did with his great works from the '90s. For now, "Captive" isn't very captivating, and that's a shame. "Captive" will get a Canadian release date in 2014. There is no official trailer at the time of this writing. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| 'Maps to the Stars' Review: David Cronenberg Delves Deep Posted: David Cronenberg returned to the festival with his bleak Hollywood tale "Maps to the Stars." The lead performers are John Cusack, Mia Wasikowska, Julianne Moore (Best Actress winner at Cannes!), Sarah Gadon and a young Evan Bird. The performer getting all the attention on the Red Carpet was Robert Pattinson, here making his third performance in a Cronenberg picture (after "Cosmopolis" from Cannes 2012 and the Freudian drama "A Dangerous Method" which debuted at Venice in 2011). The script is by novelist and screenwriter Bruce Wagner, and it provides a skewed look at obnoxious and petulant child stars, the fatuous nature of self-help gurus, and the deeply neurotic and spiritually vacuous nature of life in Hollywood. Much like "Cosmopolis," Cronenberg and his cinematographer craft a cold (some are saying "sterile") look to the film. In the last two films we've got Pattinson in a limo, but where in "Cosmopolis" he was the center of both the visual frame and the film's entire plot, here he's a limo driver, showing Mia W.'s character around as she reacquaints herself with life in L.A. There is one major celebrity playing themselves (Carrie Fisher, no less), but the film never feels like Altman's "The Player" with its cavalcade of famous people. The story is one of manipulation and heartache, with a bit of the supernatural thrown in just to keep things a bit weird. While I personally didn't love the film, it's most certainly the work of a true artist, one completely in control of his craft and still willing to push at the boundaries of storytelling. If it doesn't come together in the end, it remains very much a film to be contended with, even suggesting that Cronenberg is in that relatively rare pantheon of directors who should have all their work seen regardless of the sensibilities of a given release. The ensemble is, for the most, part terrific. Julianne Moore is often called "fearless," but suffice it to say that she holds nothing back in this role, crafting a squirming and at times boorish character that still (thanks very much to Julianne's own charms) avoids becoming so obnoxious that the audience turns on her. A scarred Mia W. brings the right level of cool, and Pattinson continues to impress, clearly moving on from his more populist films into challenging and provocative roles. Whether or not this makes RP a kind of "De Niro" muse for Cronenberg remains to be seen, but for now it's nice to see him continue to stretch himself with his role selection. The film saw mixed reviews from Cannes -- while I didn't like it for some of the reasons I listed above, some found it to be remarkable and insightful, while others who did not enjoy Cronenberg's previous film were simply enervated that it surpasses "Cosmopolis." For a filmmaker that staunchly continues to make films in Toronto, bringing talent from all over the world to experience the excellence of local crews, many take Cronenberg for granted in Canada, while throughout the cinema world he's a prime auteur. While "Maps" is unlikely to garner any major awards, it's still considered by many a top-tier film in contention, one that may have divided critics but should certainly find a boisterous audience that will fall for its charms. "Maps to the Stars" will get a Canadian (and North American) release date at some point in 2014. There is no official trailer available for this movie at the time of this writing.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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