The nominations for the 2007 Kaedrin Movie Awards were announced last week. This week, I’ll be announcing two winners every day, culminating in a post with my top 10 movies of the year and possibly some other wrap-up posts.
Best Villain/Badass: Anton Chigurh, played by Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men
This was a more difficult decision than I originally thought. The diabolical Chigurh was the first villain that came to mind for this category, but a couple of other villains really deserved some consideration. I didn’t really consider Ben Foster for the win, but I did want to recognize his twisted turn as Charlie Prince in 3:10 to Yuma (he turned out to be a much more compelling villain than Russell Crowe’s Ben Wade). I did seriously consider Stuntman Mike from Grindhouse, but while he does make for a great villain, he doesn’t turn out to be that much of a badass… Billy Mitchell, a man who made a name for himself by playing video games, might not seem like your typical villain, but I actually did seriously consider him for this award. Just about every time he opens his mouth, I wanted to punch him in the face. I think he’s definitely the runner up, which is really saying something, as he’s in a documentary film about Donkey Kong (i.e. not a source of villainy you’d expect). In the end, no one could really compare to the chilling, unstoppable killer played brilliantly by Javier Bardem. He’s a shoe-in for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar (assuming the Oscars happen this year).
Best Hero/Badass: Nikolai, played by Viggo Mortensen in Eastern Promises
A much better year for heroic badasses (even if a few are borderline “heroes”), this was a really hard category. King Leonidas and Jason Bourne were on the shortlist, but I ended up going with Viggo Mortensen’s Russian gangster, mostly because of that one spectacular no-holds-barred fight sequence in which Mortensen’s character takes on two armed attackers and wins… despite being naked for the whole fight. There are other moments of badassery in the movie, but that one scene says everything you need to know about Mortensen’s character. The movie is overall flawed, but this character is what makes it watchable.
Up next: Best Comedic Performance and Breakthrough Performance. Check back Monday for the winners.