h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

All the Australian made ones, I'd guess.

Ahem.

Yes, I could see that answer coming.

This why I included the words 'internationally famous'. The Mad Max film fr'instance.


Geggs

Christopher Ecclestone (?) in Gone in Sixty Seconds.

At least, his character was supposed to be english, but his lines were dubbed by someone doing a very unconvincing job of being English, with an accent that wandered freely up and down the M1.

Otto

Australian accents in film?
Apart from Crocodile Dundee and The Dish?

Hmmm...

Terrible effort by James Coburn (??) in The Great Escape...

Timothy Dalton-The Shadow
Brian Cox-Manhunter (Hannibal's first outing)
Joss Ackland-Lethal Weapon 111
Tim Roth-Pulp Fiction
and possibly the first example:
Boris Karloff- Frankenstein

Ahem.

Joss Ackland in Lethal Weapon 3- supposed to be sith afrc'n, I'll think you'll find.

Internationally famous Australian movies-Mad Max 1/2/3, Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Gallipolli, Muriel's Wedding, Strictly Ballroom, Breaker Morant, SFX 1/2, Walkabout, Crocodile Dundee 1/2, Romper Stomper and that's just of the top of my head. The Aussie film industry is better and more sucessful than you'd think. I'd like to add Encounter at Raven's Gate, but nobody's ever seen it.

Does anyone remember the name of that Aussie film wher a young Mel Gibson playrd a mentally-impaired fella who had an affair with an older woman?

A few points. Mel Gibson is American, not Australian. His parents moved out there so that the kids wouldn't get called up for Vietnam. He did have an Aussie accent, but it's mellowed as he's got older. The film 'the third man' is referring to was called "Tim".

Joss Ackland was in "Lethal Weapon 2", not 3. His character *was* South African, an accent he can do fairly well as he spent a fair amount of his youth there, AFAIK.

One of the oddest is the American actor John Lithgowe putting on an "English villain" accent in "Cliffhanger".

"Boris Karloff- Frankenstein"

Did he actually talk in that film? I thought he just went "ugh" and "uuuuuurgggh" a few times.

Having watched the Disney version of Pocahontas (whilst babysitting my sister!) I can see how all children are being brainwashed into another generation of British badguys. The boss of the British was evil!

That and the British from the "The Patriot".

re: Gibson film: Yes, it was called 'Timmy', and it's the only film he's ever done where that dumb grin he always seems to have on his face hasn't looked out of place

I was gonna mention that Zagreb, weird wasn't it? A good demonstration that 'English' really is short-hand for 'nasty villian' in American films

Robin Hood, Men in Tights.

One bright spark in the whole film:

"But why should we follow you?"
"Because unlike some Robin Hoods, I can speak with an English accent".

Whatever happened to Ceyrs whatshisname anyway?

Tom Wilkinson in Rush Hour,
Stephen Berkhoff in Beverly Hills Cop
The bloke who owns the genetic engineering firm in MI2, and I think the main protaganist was a Scot, does that count.
A lot films coming out of Bollywood have a English bad guy

One could also mention that as well as showing the English as bad guys, other nations who are against the british as whiter than white. In real life Eleanor of Acquitane conspired with her uncle-in-law to have her husband (Henry II) murdered by shoving a red hot poker in a place where red hot poker's do not really belong. But there is no mention of this in Braveheart (she's the French one who sleeps with William Wallace)

Villans with a British Accent?

The fish Joe in 'Help! I'm a Fish' (Alan Rickman - again!)

Btw: if you haven't seen this film, it's animated, get it out on vid or DVD right away. It's fab.

As an American, I'd say that it is somewhat ridiculous for a high number of bad guys in so many movies (mostly action-based films come to mind) to have a British accent. However, one could consider it something of a mixed blessing... after all, many women in this country consider a man with a British accent to be rather sexy. Perhaps it's that seductive quality which lends to a more sinister bent in those films.

And it's also a bit of balancing out... after all, when Patrick Stewart made a huge splash here, the ladies were just enthralled. *pout*

-Eagle 1

But Patrick Stewart played the bad guy in Conspiracy Theory

Just remembered... Ben Kingsley in Sneakers.

Which was surprising in and of itself. Ghandi plays the bad guy. Weird!


Geggs

True... I was just saying that British guys are apparently sexy here in the U.S. It's enough to make a sensitive American male regreful that he hasn't the wit or presence to be in one of those period pieces like "Pride and Prejudice" (that his wife likes so much).

-Eagle 1

So has having an english accent overtaken smoking as the dead giveaway when the real evil baddie hasn't been revealed yet?

Or are the really evil b*****s the english ones that smoke?