Posted on 04/15/2008
at 02:37 PM
Category: Movies
Posted by Brandi
Full list here
"It’s not the most obvious profession. Yet when the heroes of the new comedy thriller In Bruges – Ray (Colin Farrell) and Ken (Brendan Gleeson) – are introduced as hitmen we accept this completely. They go about their business, hiding out in the titular Belgian town after a botched kill. They drink beer, joke and meet women. And then, eventually, Ralph Fiennes arrives as Harry, the hitman-in-chief. And still, we never once say, ‘Hang on! How many hitmen are there in the world?’ This is because movies are so en-amoured by hitmen that, somehow, we are too. We love their deadly authority and their glamour, In short, we love the thrill of power."
ANTON CHIGURH
JAVIER BARDEM
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (2007)
"OK, so the hair is bad and the face implacable, and it’s not much of a boast to have introduced the word “Friendo” to the language. But Bardem’s killer, lifted by the Coen brothers from the pages of a Cormac McCarthy novel, is undoubtedly the genre’s most intimidating. A psychopath where other hitmen are conflicted, Chigurh has no internal processing, no angst and no regret. At most, he teases, asking, "What’s the most you ever lost on a coin toss?""
THE BRIDE
UMA THURMAN
KILL BILL (2003)
"Thurman’s “The Bride” cut a bloody swath through the Kill Bill films, mostly clad in a yellow tracksuit once worn by Bruce Lee. She’s a jilted member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad and, courtesy of the director Quentin Tarantino, a walking, high-kicking movie reference. Still, she demolishes 88 crazed mobsters, not to mention divesting Darryl Hannah’s rival of her remaining eye."
VINCENT
TOM CRUISE
COLLATERAL
"Despite the greying hair, the shiny suit and the impromptu pop philosophy (“Improvise, adapt to the environment, Darwin, shit happens, I Ching, whatever man!”), there is something perfectly Cruise-like about the hitman Vincent in Michael Mann’s 2004 thriller. As he’s ferried around LA by a luckless cabbie, Max (Jamie Foxx), Vincent reveals a focus, and an intensity of purpose that, though very Cruise, is also, well, terrifying."
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