Celebrity Infatuation

Celebrities are just people being broadcasted into our lives via the media. Let's try and not hang on every little word they say. I mean come on, all the stuff they come up with is scripted anyway. Do not try and draw parallels with characters on television shows. There, I've said my bit....

Movie Villians--Chapter 3--Castor Troy

This international criminal mastermind was, ahem... faced with a bone-chilling scenario one dark night. He awoke in a medical clinic after spending days in a coma following a dramatic gunfight with Sean Archer (John Travolta) and dozens of his fellow federal agents. Kept alive by the government, Castor Troy (Nicolas Cage) discovered something that makes the "kidney removal" urban legends pale in comparison: someone had taken his face... off. *insert face removing gesture here*

In Face/Off, the truth was that Castor and his brother Pollux had planted a bomb somewhere in L.A. and only they knew its location and how to disarm it. With Castor seemingly a vegetable, Sean Archer entered a top-secret prison posing as Castor Troy, complete with surgical alterations and Castor's own face in place of his own. As soon as Archer uncovered the bomb's location from Pollux, his mission was complete. But that's when Castor Troy unexpectantly woke up...

Castor would undergo the same procedure Archer did, this time taking Archer's face and assuming his identity. As a top federal agent, "Sean Archer" would be unstoppable and hold significant power, taunting the real Archer and leading raids against his terrorist rivals; at one point, he even slept with Archer's own wife. As a notorious terrorist, "Castor Troy" would be locked away in prison forever. Until he breaks out, of course.

With murder, kidnapping, and many other forms of terrorism under his belt, Castor Troy was already a very clever and extremely aggressive sociopath, but having his face stolen truly put him over the edge. Castor had once tried to assassinate Archer, but accidentally killed Archer's son in the process. Castor couldn't understand why Archer would take things so personally, but he would when Archer dropped Castor's own brother from the top of a building to his death. Castor's ability to withstand pain and improvise in many deadly ways certainly makes him a vile entry on the Mofo scoreboard. But oddly enough, some people will only remember some of his most evil deeds... committed by Sean Archer.

Bill the Butcher--A Few Potraits

Movie Villians--Chapter 2--Bill the Butcher

For many outside the United States, the shores of America represent opportunity and freedom. For William "Bill the Butcher" Cutting, seeing foreigners enter this land is right on par with cockroaches scurrying across your kitchen floor: they are unwelcome guests and ought to be exterminated by the rightful owner of the place. As a hardcore "Nativist," Cutting - portrayed by Daniel Day-Lewis in an Oscar nominated performance - controlled the Five Points section of New York with an iron fist, and personally led a number of New York's worst gangs into battle against their Irish counterparts, led by Priest Vallon (Liam Neeson). Fighting by the rules of the streets, the Priest would die and the Natives would win.

Every year on the anniversary of the battle, The Butcher would celebrate this victory and invite a select few. Many years later, the tradition would continue, and one mysterious young man would appear and hope for an invitation of his own. His name is Amsterdam (Leonardo DiCaprio) and he is the Preist's son, hell-bent on revenge. His plan is to get close to The Butcher and gain his trust, then kill him in front of everyone at the annual celebration. In the meantime, however, Amsterdam would begin to understand why so many support the Natives and their shrewd practices. In the streets, many things do not come easily, but they come easier when you're on the right side.

For Bill the Butcher, he was a businessman with political ties, and he was a merciless fighter and leader of his own giant gang. He did have some sense of honor and his growing admiration for Amsterdam would show his softer side. Indeed, Amsterdam's personal vendetta would become vastly more complicated. The Butcher is still the Butcher, though, and his viciousness is undeniable and unrelenting when challenged. In the end, Amsterdam's victory is somewhat hollow because of how deep the Butcher cut psychologically. For a young man who saw his father cut down when he was a boy, to kill the only other man to treat you like his son seems, well, foreign.

Source:movievillains.com

Movie Villians--Chapter 1--Agent Smith

After having free reign over The Matrix, Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) finally met his match in a savior also known as Mister Anderson (Keanu Reeves). The Matrix is a construct of our world created only to harvest human beings and their energy - essentially, to make batteries out of people. But a few humans were able to escape the hold of the elaborate computer program keeping them "asleep" from the real world. Before escaping, they had to get by the agents - counteractive programming, if you will - who were led by Smith.

Once awakened, humans were able to build up a resistance against the machines while also evening the odds against them back in the Matrix. No longer shackled by the chains of the harvesting machines, humans could check in and out of the Matrix, fighting agents and hoping to free more minds. One such mind was Neo, a.k.a. Mr. Anderson. He had the ability to move and fight like the agents, and for some reason, was able to destroy Agent Smith at one point. Or so he thought.

Smith became a rogue program, resurfacing in various spots all over the Matrix without being under the control of the machines. Just as Neo did, Smith began to learn that the boundaries of his programming could be broken and discovered new powers, including being able to clone himself, copying his self on top of another program, i.e. another person in the Matrix. This led to the frightening paradox of Smith finding himself in the real world, having taken control of a mind and sabatoging a rebel ship, leading to a showdown with Neo.

As his numbers grew, so did Smith's superiority complex. He already felt he was a supreme being, above humans and all other life forms, but his hold of the Matrix expanded once he took over the Oracle's program. With seemingly boundless knowledge and abilities, Smith once again found himself facing Neo, this time for control of the Matrix. In the end, the Smith program was terminated, obliterated by Neo and the machines in a rare union between humans and their sworn enemies. But we all know, if Smith rose before, he can certainly rise again.

Source: movievillains.com

The Ripper's Victims

The Ripper

Jack the Ripper! Few names in history are as instantly recognizable. Fewer still evoke such vivid images: noisome courts and alleys, hansom cabs and gaslights, swirling fog, prostitutes decked out in the tawdriest of finery, the shrill cry of newsboys - and silent, cruel death personified in the cape-shrouded figure of a faceless prowler of the night, armed with a long knife and carrying a black Gladstone bag.

—Philip Sugden, The Complete History of Jack the Ripper