4. Commodus - Gladiator
Gladiator has received a lot of backlash ever since it won the Oscar for Best Picture back in 2001, but I maintain my belief that it is one of the finest entertainments of the last twenty years, a high point in Ridley Scott's career, and an immensely enjoyable and successful reinvention of the classic Sword & Sandal epics of the 50's and 60's. Gladiator has so much going on - grand battles, thrilling fight scenes, arresting imagery, lavish production design, and an epic scope - that the villain had to truly stand out if he were to leave any lasting impression. And Joaquin Phoenix delivered on that front, in spades. Still relatively unknown at the time having only a handful of feature film roles under his belt at this point in his career, Phoenix had carte blanche to create an iconic villain. And he delivered on that potential, in spades: Phoenix's Commodus is one of the most chilling, memorable villains in any blockbuster film in recent memory. Phoenix truly seems to revel in Commodus' wickedness; his performance is effortless, and it looks as though Phoenix genuinely had a lot of fun embodying this character. Not one to miss out an opportunity on some rich character work, though, Phoenix also manages to inject the villainy with a little pathos, portraying Commodus' inferiority and his father's disappointment in him as the crux of his thirst for power. Phoenix ended up landing a much-deserved Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination, but did not win.