TImoth Dalton in The Rocketeer
No wonder Dalton's James Bond
always seemed like such a Gloomy Gus:
Inside the impeccable British agent, a flamingly decadent villain
was dying to get out. As the evil Neville Sinclair, Dalton easily
upstages G-rated leads Bill Campbell and Jennifer Connelly — especially
when he declares his love for the Fatherland (a thought that seems to
turn him on a lot more than Connelly does).
Samuel L. Jackson in Jungle Fever
As Gator, the crack-addled brother of Wesley Snipes' buppie hero,
Jackson (who has had small roles in three previous Spike Lee films)
proves far more arresting than the interracial romance at Jungle
Fever's core. Burning through our liberal expectations, he accents
the coarse, criminal selfishness of the drug-enslaved: When Gator
dances to scrounge cash, you're seeing the thin line between
desperation and psychosis.
William Sadler in Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey
Sporting a head as
white and shiny as a light bulb, Sadler's Grim Reaper becomes the
heartiest partier in the cosmos. As the terrorist villain in Die Hard
2, Sadler pursed his lips and glowered. Here, there's more joy in his
mischievous double takes than in any of Bill and Ted's Valley Boy
patter.
Linda Hamilton in Terminator 2: Judgement Day
Okay, so it's hard
to ''steal'' scenes when you're already the costar. Nevertheless,
Arnold Schwarzenegger has a way of terminating any competing
charisma, and that makes Hamilton's riveting presence in T2 something
of a feat. With her rippling pecs and gun- crazy ferocity, she
manages to elbow herself into viewers' imaginations — right alongside
Arnold, a mountain of hardware, and the most eye-boggling special
effects the movies have seen in years.
