9 Unfairly Underrated Movie Villains From The 21st Century

Wes Anderson fans will wrongly attest that it was their precious king of quirk, with his 2014 release The Grand Budapest Hotel, who first unearthed the comedic potential of one Ralph Nathaniel Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes (no seriously, that's his full name). However, anyone who has seen In Bruges will confirm that Martin McDonagh beat him to the punch by quite some way.

Yet this fact remains frustratingly unacknowledged. The reason for this is that, outside of its native UK, the sublime black comedy has flown under the radar, having earned a paltry $7 million in the States. By extension, not enough people have had the chance to experience Fiennes' masterful turn here.

Even worse, those who have seen it tend to downplay his contribution, as he's kept largely off-screen for the first half of the film. If anything however, it speaks to the strength of his performance that we remember him so intensely anyway.

In the movie, Fiennes portrays Harry Waters, a legendary figure in the criminal underworld, known for his explosive, hair-trigger temper and astonishing outbursts. His volatile rants are certainty hilarious, as he goes about dispensing crass one liners and getting as much mileage from the F-Word as is humanly possible.

But it's actually Harry's twisted and oddly rigid principles that earn him a place on this list, as they to help distinguish him from being just another generic, shouty gangster. Indeed, once the film elegantly moves into its sombre third act, Harry too becomes a more layered and serious character, one who will stop at nothing until he's satisfied his own perverted sense of justice.