10 Most Likable Movie Villains Of All Time
6. Half Of The Inmates From Con Air
Con Air is one of those rare films in Nicolas Cage's streak as an unlikely action star that also finds him not overacting like a maniac (See: Face/Off, Snake Eyes, 90 percent of all Nic Cage films). In it, he plays Cameron Poe, a former U.S. Ranger flying across country with a bunch of convicts because the director really wanted that name for the movie.
The cast features a grab bag of various bad guy archetypes, but the only truly despicable felons in the bunch are the group's nihilist leader, Cyrus "The Virus" Grissom, serial rapist Johnny 23, and mass murderer Billy Bedlam. The rest of the gang actually seem like guys you might want to grab a drink with. (While keeping an eye on your wallet, no doubt.)
Diamond Dog may be Cyrus' right-hand man, but he's always the coolest guy in the room. Pinball is just another petty criminal caught up in the system who accounts for pretty much every intentionally funny moment in the movie. And Swamp Thing is just a cooky, good-time weirdo who's playing on the wrong side of justice.
Even Garland Greene, aka "The Marietta Mangler", whose gruesome crime spree "makes The Manson Family look like The Partridge Family" is a supremely likable guy while he's onscreen. Then again, it's difficult for anyone played by Steve Buscemi not to be likable. (Except, as noted previously, that non-tipping bastard from Reservoir Dogs.)