Top 30 Cinematic Assholes - Page 2

He's an asshole for most of the flick, but there's one particular bit of assholishness that makes me think he should be here:

It's difficult to raise a child alone. We can make it more difficult. In fact, we can make it so difficult that it would be irresponsible for us to leave you in her care. You'll be taken away from her, Hogarth.

Belloq in RAIDERS is a huge asshole.

"So once again, Jones, what was briefly yours is now mine."

"Who knows? In a thousand years, even you may be worth something."

Etc.

Gary Cole as Bill Lundberg in 'Office Space'. Oooooooooo...yeah....I'm gonna need you to come in and work this Saturday, mmmkay?

Regarding Paul Gleason, don't forget CLARENCE BEAKS! in Trading Places.

Gah! I missed that. Sorry.

The Merovingian. Not just an asshole, not just a smug, arrogant, asshole, not just a smug arrogant French asshole....but a smug arrogant French asshole cocky enough to cheat on Monica fucking Bellucci.

Amon Goeth. Don't feel I need to explain this one.

Denathor.

"Do not lecture me about Faramir. I know his uses, and they are few."

Damn.

Holden in Chasing Amy, post-Fingercuffs revelation. She's not your fucking whore, indeed. But mostly, it comes down to that argument in the parking lot. That's just cold.

I dunno. On the surface, what he does in Eternal Sunshine is reprehensible, but there's the implication that he's had a couple of mind-wipes himself and somehow lost his moral compass along the way.

ASSHOOOOLLLLE! Kevin Kline as Otto ("It means Eight"), in A Fish Called Wanda.

I know Adam Sandler fare doesn't get much love around these parts, but Christopher McDonald as "Shooter" McGavin in Happy Gilmore. What a glorious asshole he was.

And I swear, I haven't seen it since I was 14...

Well, with this fantastic discussion, you guys have inspired me to start the William Atherton Appreciation Thread that I have wanted to make fo some time, but I've just been too lazy to.

Great call on Fred McMurray in The Apartment.

My next list of nominees:

I don't know if he counts, because his character avolution is fairly positive and schmaltzy, but Jack Nicholson as Melvin Udall in As Good as it Gets is an incredibly large asshole, especially for the lead character in a modern film. But again, he goes all pussy on us all and begins to evolve.

Robert Shaw as Doyle Lonnegan in The Sting. It was a harmless grift, Lonnegan, why do you have to go and kill Luther up like you do? Accept the loss on move on! But no, you're far too big of an asshole. You deserve what's coming to ya, Lonnegan, and I don't know anyone who isn't completely pleased when it happens.

Zero Mostel's Max Bialystock from the original The Producers. He dupes old women into giving him money. He manipulates a mousy accountant into a criminal. HE PRODUCES A PLAY ABOUT HITLER. What an asshole.

Sam Rockwell as Frank Mercer in Matchstick Men. (SPOILERS FOLLOW) He gains Nic Cage's trust and becomes his only friend. He uses all of that information to send in his girlfriend to act like Cage's daughter. Who cares what emotional investment Cage may have in it all - he wants the money! And then he has the gall to come in with Alison Lohman and screw up the last ten minutes of the movie. Come on!

Jason Isaac's Captain Hook in P.J. Hogan's Peter Pan. Captain Hook is an asshole, but Jason Isaac's Captain Hook is the definitive version of that asshole. He's obsessed with killing a boy. A young boy. That is pretty much his driving force and main goal in life: kill a child. To accomplish this goal, he'll do anything. Isaac's Hook has no problem shooting his men for no other reason than they said something stupid. Plus, he makes a preteen girl walk the plank. WTF?

Richard Roxbourgh as The Duke in Moulin Rouge. He screws with true love, and he closes down the world's best whorehouse. Asshole.

Jeremy Irons as Scar in The Lion King. "Here's an idea! I'll murder my brother and convince my nephew it was his fault, all so I can get the throne! Am I Claudius? No, I'm a frigging lion in a Disney film!" The fantastic dark character design and animation matched with Iron's impeccable voicework is what really makes Scar such and asshole.

Hal Landon, Jr as Captain Logan (Ted's dad) in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. He doesn't care about the future of his son's band, and therefore he doesn't care about the future of the universe. He'll sell his son to military school in an instant. And he doesn't even bang a hot blonde who went to his son's high school.

Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs. He's smart and he's ruthless. Clarice Starling has privileges only because he allows her to. He is a genius and he twists Agent Starling's mind into whatever position he wishes to.

Orson Welles in TOUCH OF EVIL or THE THIRD MAN, take your pick. Depends on how you like your asshole, tubby or obese.

Matthew Glave as Glenn Guglia in THE WEDDING SINGER. You may mock, but I don't think there's been an asshole who got me rooting for Adam Sandler that damn hard in the entirety of the rest of his collected works. That guy is a colossal prick.

Also, Alan Rickman in ROBIN HOOD: PRINCE OF THIEVES. A magnificant asshole, so outlandishly dickish that you want him to skewer Costner even as you're muttering "man...what an ASSHOLE.".

Ooh ooh! Eriq La Salle in COMING TO AMERICA. Soul Glo my ass.

i don't know, I think Tarkin and Scar (from Lion King) are great villians, not really assholes ...

Ben Affleck as O'Bannion in Dazed and Confused.
Ben Affleck as Shannon Hamilton in Mallrats.

Affleck is great as an asshole, but not much else.

For you, dear sir.

Just let your SOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUULLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL GLOW!!!

Fuck yeah.

Tom Skerritt in Contact.

That guy is a son-of-a-bitch.

Looks like the majors have already been covered. Put me down for seconding(Thirding...etc.) the following:

Spacey in Swimming with Sharks: "See this notebook paper? This is worth more to the office than you...."

Hart Bocner (Ellis) in Die Hard: " I negotiate Million Dollar deals every day...I think I can handle this Euro Trash."

Alec Baldwin in GGR: "Good father? Fuck you! Go home and play with your kids..."

How about Aaron Eckhart in IN THE COMPANY OF MEN? There are a wealth of flaming assholes in almost any Neil Labute film.

How did this thread get so far w/out the Labute double team of Aaron Eckhart/Chad in In The Company of Men and Jason Patric/Cary (a personal antihero of mine) in Your Friends & Neighbors ?

Too obvious?

Also, I'd like to nominate David Thewlis as Johnny in Mike Leigh's Naked.

Marcos in 'Nine Queens' For those who haven't seen it, the things he does most definitely qualify for this list.

Gene Hackman in 'The Royal Tenenbaums' although he kind of redeemed himself towards the end, he was still an asshole for the majority of the film.

Robert Deniro in 'Raging Bull' Jake LaMotta was a total fuckup but he still qualifies I think,

If I could only watch one asshole's performance for the rest of my life, it would be Dwight Yoakam's in Sling Blade. That guy is pure scum, he fucking beats up his crippled friend for fun.

Not really, he was more of a son of a bitch.

Dang it, Charlie beat me to it.

When it comes to onscreen Assholes, my two faves are Kubrick Assholes: Alex De Large and Barry Lyndon.
Alex is clearly just an outright asshole, and the manner in which Barry blows smoke into his wifes face in the carriage just after they are wed is top class Solid Gold Assholedom all the way.

F.Murray Abraham's Salieri was an Asshole: He killed Mozart for fucks sake!

Elijah Wood was definitely uber-asshole in Eternal Sunshine. You can't defend him by saying that he has had a few mind wipes himself because he still knew what he was doing every step of the way, and what he was doing was being an Asshole.

Also, Dragon Ma's avatar made me rememeber how much of an instant Asshole Frank Oz is in The Blue Brothers.
Major Asshole
"One prophylatic.....soiled"

Got here too late for Glenn Gary Glenross or Your Friends & Neighbors, so I'll nominate Bradley Cooper in Wedding Crashers.

Also, Vince Vaughn in Made. I don't think I've ever felt such anxiety from a fictional character before. I wanted to choke the shit out of his character so badly.

What about Quagmire? He's not evil, but that's kind of the point of this thread.

The first person I thought of was Ed Norton in Rounders. If someone mentioned him, my bad, I kind of speed read the thread and was amazed I didn't see him.

Super-duper seconds to Salieri, but then Tom Hulce's Mozart was a pretty big douche himself. . .

Nurse Ratchett. Nice.

Exactly what I was thinking.

A big hell yeah to Ed Norton's character in ROUNDERS. In fact, he is almost the archtype of what you're getting at here, a character who is almost neutral in villainy, just a pure selfish manipulative asshole.

Cary Grant's Walter Burns in His Girl Friday. The guy is so chock full of assholey goodness... He spends the entire film repeatedly framing his ex-wife's fiancee for various crimes just so he has a little extra time to win back Rosalind Russell's affections. And all while spitting out a constant stream of snappy dialogue.

Ted Knight as Judge Smails in Caddyshack. The living embodiment of the word "asshole." Bow your heads, dogs, you are not worthy to stand in the presence of a man such as he.

Rob Lowe in WAYNE'S WORLD. A well-dressed asshole.

Chuck Barris in 'Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind'. Hell, even the Julia Roberts character would qualify.

Oh and I second Clint in 'High Plains Drifter'. He is an asshole personified. However, failing that I'd say Clint in 'The Beguiled'.

Ralph Feinnes in Schindler's List.

Douche.

Cameo assholes: The diner guy in SUPERMAN II and Brad in SUPERMAN III.

I wasn't in Superman III.

No, Lex Luthor didn't come back until SUPERMAN IV.

I walked right into that one.

I have to give internet props to Charlie Brigden for making me literally laugh out loud, which happens very rarely.

I give my props to Millette. If he wasn't a balding connoisseur of penes, my jokes wouldn't be as funny.

Did you just call me some kinda communist, Charlie?

You know what? Bringing some nostalgia into this..

Starscream. That guy is a fucking asshole.

True. But Hot Rod is up there. Hell, he was the one that actually caused Prime to die.

Yeah, but that was an accident.

Starscream KICKED MEGATRON OFF THE SHIP!

IN THE FACE!

Wouldn't you be pissed off if your leader's amazing transformation was to turn into a gun that had to be fired by someone else? He's a fighter jet, but this asshole (Megatron) wants him to hang around until he needs a trigger finger!

Serpentor. Just came in and really didn't get the ship righted at all, now did he?

How about Ash from Alien? Asshole Mark IV

I liked Clarence from Robocop too...

"Lifetime Achievment Award for Top-Notch Assholage" goes to: Ronny Cox in Total Recall.

The beguiled Clint probably fits Bob's asshole-profile better than High Plains Drifter - High Plain's Clint had all that revenge and metaphysical crap going on.