3. Patrick Swayze Makes A Really Good Pedophile In Donnie Darko
Well, no, obviously there's no such thing as a really good pedophile, but you get what I mean. Patrick Swayze, who made his career playing heartthrobs who were alive and cool in the '80s, had been relegated to small parts in low-budget crapfests when he took the part of a pedophile in Richard Kelly's
Donnie Darko. Had he been a huge box office draw at the time, I doubt he would've accepted the role in the first place, but as Jim Cunningham, a motivational speaker-come-teen councillor, Swayze rules. He makes Jim into somebody we can really
believe. Playing "creepy motivational speaker" was, as you'll agree, totally against the types that Swayze spent much of his career playing, which is why his casting in the role is a relative stroke of genius. Swayze channels the perfect levels of self-righteousness and patronising jerk as to irritate the hell out of us - so much so, in fact, that it's easy to forget that you're actually watching Patrick Swayze. And even though we think Cunningham is a douche, we're still not expecting to learn that this character has a "kiddie porn dungeon" in his house, 'cause, hey... it's Johnny Castle!