Comments on: Empire’s Top 100 Movie Characters

By: Drew

Drew — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 22:03:35 +0000

More characters I think should have been on the list:

Max Fischer and Herman Blume (Rushmore)
Dignan (Bottle Rocket)
Milton Waddams (Office Space)
Cole Sear (Sixth Sense)
Buddy Israel (Smokin’ Aces)
David (A.I.)
William Somerset and John Doe (Seven)
Leonard (Memento)
Ben Wade (3:10 To Yuma – 2007)
Derek Zoolander (Zoolander) – If “Dodgeball” is on the list, then Zoolander should be also.
Jack Skellington (Nightmare Before Christmas) – I concede to Aaron’s point.
Jay and Silent Bob (Clerks thru Strike Back) – I group them together since they’re never apart.
And almost every role Benecio Del Toro has played. He’s one of my favorite actors.

By: Aaron

Aaron — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 13:45:43 +0000

Very nice, Bryan. I agree with some of those nominations, too — and the list gives me a few more films I need to see. It also addresses what was woefully missing (and still, I think, is) from either list: Star Trek characters. Khan’s a valuable addition, but did we seriously go 125 characters between two lists without mentioning Kirk or Spock?

And Drew, I hear where you’re coming from, but I disagree. I see no reason why a cartoon character should be disqualified. Ultimately, the quality of a character comes from the strength of their lines and their performance. An animated character has just as much of a shot at the first of those as a live-action one does, and I think many voice actors would give you a pretty nasty look if you implied that a voice performance is somehow less than a full-body one.

Lastly, I’d add that one thing I did like about this list is that they sometimes they took a character as a whole, and sometimes they took specific performances. James Bond, for example, played by many people in over 20 movies, but they singled out Connery’s performance in Goldfinger. I think, at that point, the inclusion of that version of the Joker or that version of Dracula makes it an acceptable thing.

As for the “similar characters” thing…you may have a point there!

Just my rebuttal.

By: Bryan Wolff

Bryan Wolff — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 05:30:14 +0000

I ran across this article and have to say I agree with some of their nominees.

http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/empire-100-movie-characters.html

By: Drew

Drew — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 16:43:12 +0000

I would agree with the majority of this list in it’s selection, just not the placement. And a lot of these characters are too similar to be on the same list – like Hannibal Lector and Jigsaw or John McClane and Martin Riggs.
I kind of think that – even though I loved WALL*E – cartoon characters shouldn’t be on the list. I’d even make a case against E.T. and Yoda (the CGI version). And what’s the deal with HAL-9000? It was just a computer.
These characters are made great by the actors who physically portray them; even when some of them have existed numerously on screen and even before they made it to film (like The Joker or Gollum).

By: Suzanne

Suzanne — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 14:20:53 +0000

I have to admit to not having seen most of those movies, but I think they missed a couple of pretty remarkable characters when they left out John Nash from A Beautiful Mind and John Keating from Dead Poets Society.

By: Lee McKusick

Lee McKusick — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 13:46:36 +0000

Yeah…..no…

James Bond not in the top 10?
Yoda not in the top 20?
Boba Fett at 79?!

Are these people high? =P

And yes, I agree, Dodgeball has no place on any sort of Top 100 Best anything lists…