January 15, 2007 Wretched hives of scum and villainy John Hughes' movies have several trademarks that attract a loyal audience: Great soundtracks, teen characters who act more like adults, actors who feel like the girl or boy next door, and deliciously evil villains that we love to hate.
Who's your favorite villain from a John Hughes movie? There are several from which choose. Leave a comment and we'll share them on our upcoming podcast on "Some Kind of Wonderful," which has my personal pick for best villain. Tune into the podcast to find out why.
STEFF Movie: Pretty in Pink (1986) Actor: James Spader Also a villain in: Less Than Zero, Mannequin, Baby Boom. Signature line: "The girl was, is and will always be nada." Biggest crime: Trying to sabotage Blane's relationship with Andie; spitting blood in the school hallway.
HARDY JENNS Movie: Some Kind of Wonderful (1987) Actor: Craig Sheffer Also a villain in: I can't think of any. Signature line: "That's Hardy Jenns ... with TWO 'n's" Biggest crime: Turning everyone against his ex-girlfriend, Amanda Jones; setting up Eric Stoltz to get beat up; breaking into the girls' locker room.
ED ROONEY Movie: Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) Actor: Jeffrey Jones Also a villain in: Who's Harry Crumb? Signature line: "So THAT's how it is in their family." Biggest crime: Breaking into the Bueller household; feeding Ferris' flowers to the family dog.
RICHARD VERNON Movie: The Breakfast Club (1985) Actor: Paul Gleason Also a villain in: Trading Places, Johnny Be Good. Signature line: "You think he's funny? You think this is cute? You think he's "bitchin," is that it? Let me tell you something. Look at him - he's a bum. You want to see something funny? You go visit John Bender in five years. You'll see how goddamned funny he is." Biggest crime: Sentencing Bender to endless detentions.
CHET Movie: Weird Science (1985) Actor: Bill Paxton Also a villain in: Nothing I can think of. Signature line: "How 'bout a nice greasy pork sandwich served in a dirty ashtray?" Biggest crime: Blackmailing his little brother for his college money.
RON RICHARDSON Movie: Mr. Mom (1983) Actor: Martin Mull Also a villain in: Take This Job and Shove It Signature line: "Are you gonna make it all 220?" Biggest crime: Trying to seduce Michael Keaton's wife.
DAVIS McDONALD Movie: She's Having a Baby (1988) Actor: Alec Baldwin Also a villain in: Married to the Mob, Working Girl, Great Balls of Fire Signature line: "You're the only one I ever loved." Biggest crime: Trying to break up Kevin Bacon's marriage.
So who's your favorite villain? Leave a comment with your vote.
[Sources: IMDB.com, John Hughes Files]
Posted by Chris the CandyFanMan (Member # 3197) on :
Actually my favorites are ones not mentioned before: the Wet Bandits ("That's WET Bandits, W-E-T..." "SHUT UP MARV!!!"). A lot of people tend to dismiss them as one-dimensional fools, but there's much more to them than meets the eye. Not only are they greedy and unconcerned about the feelings of the people they rob (clearly shown by Marv's complete disconcern for their bills by leaving the water running after each hit), but we get more than enough glimpses that they can be violent and dangerous men when agitated (note how brutally Harry kicks Marv around when things aren't going right). One gets the feeling they would have seriously hurt Kevin or worse even if he hadn't resisted their efforts to get in the house (lest we forget, Harry comes seconds away from coldly shooting him in the face at the end of Lost in New York). Thus, they more than deserve what befalls them each time.
And while I'm on this, do we also want to include Bug ("What's his last name, Spray?") on this list? Sure, he's not as villainous per se as some of the other characters mentioned on this thread, but he clearly commits a grave crime in betraying Tia's trust in him and thus also deserves his introduction to Buck's golf skills at the end (would have been interesting to see if he ever followed through on his threat to sue him for everything).
Posted by TheResurrection (Member # 2326) on :
Chet, Rooney and Vernon are my favs.
Posted by P.S It's Paul... (Member # 1022) on :
OK - gonna bump this one, as it needs more input.
I reckon you need to separate bad-guys from jerks. as an example, Bug was a jerk - not especially bad, but after what any other guy in his situation would have been after.
From the list above, I'd have to single out the following for true badness: Hardy Jenns, Chet, and Davis McDonald. Their actions were very much because they were bad people, not because they were in any way stupid. **** Vernon's character was built over many years getting the finger from years of student rebellion, and was a default action rather tnan direct vindictiveness, I felt. Same with Rooney - constant challenges to real authority causing a backlash.
Chet however, didn't need to be mean and nasty - he just was because he thought he could get away with it. That's bad.
Davis's actions in She's Having A Baby also could have been avoided by a simple choice not to go that road - but his own agenda meant screwing with other people's lives and marriage - that's bad.
and Hardy Jenns? Possibly the worst of the three, his value system was all screwed up to the point where anyone with less money than him (or more accurately, his parents) were less of a person, and therefore there to be walked over. His manipulation of the central characters and also the preiphery of his 'friends' marks him out as a real sleazeball, and truly bad.
So glad he got slapped in the end.
Posted by Kash (Member # 297) on :
Davis MacDonald wasn’t really a bad guy; he was just a cad and a bounder who was hopelessly immature and couldn’t accept that Jeff had a responsibility to his family…in many ways, it was his NOSTALGIA that made him do the things he did, let that be a lesson to you all
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