What are some good movies with actors usually known as good guys playing bad guys?

[SpandexFan]

Some of my nominations:

COLLATERAL

Good Guy to Bad Guy: Tom Cruise

IMO, it's one of Cruise's best acting jobs. Plays a terrific psychotic hitman. Good movie, and great performance by an actor who is known for his prettyboy good guy image in films such as Top Gun, Cocktail and Days of Thunder. Upstages Jamie Foxx who isn't a bad actor himself.

3000 MILES TO GRACELAND

Good Guy to Bad Guy: Kevin Costner

Okay, a little bit of a cheesy movie. A poor man's True Romance. But Kevin Costner does a fine job as a psychotic Elvis-wannabe career criminal, when he usually plays the humble less flamboyant good guy in his films such as The Bodyguard, Swing Vote or Dance With Wolves. Costner plays one of the more likeable and unpredictable murderers I've seen in action films.

PACIFIC HEIGHTS

Good Guy to Bad Guy: Michael Keaton

No one has ever accused Keaton of not being able to pull of a crazy persona, but whether it be Batman who has a little bit of a psychotic dual personality thing going in a good way, or even some of his comedies where he's a little bit erratic, he's still usually the good guy in roles such as The Dream Team, Mr. Mom and Gung-Ho. In Pacific Heights, he's crazy and pure evil, and has a fine performance as a strange nomadic neighbor intent on ruining the lives of his landlords.

ONE HOUR PHOTO

Good Guy to Bad Guy: Robin Williams

Like Keaton, Williams can play crazy people with little effort, and while I thought he did a good job in Insomnia, I'm more impressed with his role in One Hour Photo. He plays a pathetic loser who doesn't even realize how much of a creepy bad guy he has become. A little bit of a different role for the legendary comedian who is usually a punchline to a comedy or a likeable good guy in a dramatic role such as Good Morning Vietnam, Awakenings or Good Will Hunting.

Your nominations?

 

[gwynplaine]

 

[CB Fan]

Denzel Washington-Training Day

 

[gwynplaine]

Silence of the lambs.
Sexy Beast (with Ghandi himself, talk about a good guyt

 

[gwynplaine]

What lies beneath with Indiana Jones as the bad guyt:.
There are actually a lot of those. Directors like to mess with expectations, I suppose.

 

[Sawyer]

Batman Begins (Liam Neeson)

 

[Episode29]

Robert Walker - Strangers on a Train

 

[SpandexFan]

Denzel Washington-Training Day

That's definitely a good choice, and speaking of Denzel, an earlier film of his in which a usual good guy plays a great bad guy is Virtuosity where Russell Crowe -- the usual good general or leader -- plays an AI computer character designed from the personalities of some of the most infamous villains and serial killers in modern history. Of course, Denzel plays his usual good guy cop role in this film.

 

[gwynplaine]

Spiderman 2.

 

[gwynplaine]

Psycho.

 

[SpandexFan]

What lies beneath with Indiana Jones as the bad guyt:.
There are actually a lot of those. Directors like to mess with expectations, I suppose.

Yeah, that or Mosquito Coast are about as evil as I've ever seen Harrison Ford play in a movie.

 

[gwynplaine]

Mr Brooks.

 

[gwynplaine]

Robert Walker - Strangers on a Train

. A perfect movie.


Also, back on topic, Mat Damon in the talented Mr Ripley.

 

[gwynplaine]

Eric Bana in Star Trek.

Robin Williams in Insomnia (even better than in One hour photo imo.)

 

[Laderlappen]

One of the greatest films of all time...Upon A Time In The West.

 

[dude stannis]

No one has mention Once Upon a Time in the West yet? For shame! (Shame to me, because Laderlappen got there first!)

Some other goodies:

Planet Terror - Bruce Willis
Demolition Man - Wesley Snipes
Universal Soldier - Dolph Lundgren
The Abyss - Michael Beihn
American Gangster/Training Day - Denzel Washington

Some (terrible) films you guys (rightfully) forgot to mention:

Doom - The Rock
Batman & Robin - Arnold Schwarzenegger
WAR - Jet Li
Death Proof - Kurt Russell

 

[cerealkiller182]

Universal Soldier - Dolph Lundgren

Disagree since he is most known as The Russian in Rocky V.

 

[thedeadite]

Russell Crowe, super early in his career, played "Hando" in 'Romper Stomper'.
If you haven't seen it, it's all about a gang of racist skinheads (key word racist..all skinheads ARE NOT racist!!!) which Hando is the leader of. I would say it's probably his most menacing role, and he's absolutely HUGE in that movie. I didn't even believe it was the same guy when I saw 'A Beautiful Mind'.
Not a great movie, but I like it.

 

[hitmanyr2k]

Michael Biehn - Johnny Ringo in Tombstone

 

[dude stannis]

Disagree since he is most known as The Russian in Rocky V.

Most people know Arnold as the Terminator. The fact is Dolph has spent 99% of his career as the good guy.

 

[BatMatt]

Most people know Arnold as the Terminator. The fact is Dolph has spent 99% of his career as the good guy.

Just remember Arnold as the Terminator was good more than he was bad

 

[hitmanyr2k]

Can't believe I forgot this one...

Kevin Bacon - Sean Nokes in Sleepers.

Spoiler

I don't think I ever enjoyed seeing a villain get shot up as much as I did with this character lol

 

[Etienne]

Jim Carrey - Batman Forever

 

[dude stannis]

Just remember Arnold as the Terminator was good more than he was bad

But if they're aware of the character they know he's been a bad guy twice out of 4 times.

 

[gwynplaine]

Ethan Hawke in Taking Lives.