Underrated Men and the Girl Who Loves Them

I've always been a sucker for guys with character. I think I've mentioned before how big of a weirdo I was when I was a kid. While my friends were pawing through Tiger Beat to drool over Brad Pitt, I was swooning over Gabriel Byrne, Indiana Jones, and Batman.

I also had hearts instead of eyes when it came to Brad Dourif.

I can hear you now, "Who's Brad Dourif?"

That's Brad Dourif

Brad Dourif is one of my absolute favourite actors. Ever since he traumatized all the kids in my school when he played Chucky in Child's Play, I've thought he was the bee's knees. He makes some of the worst movies you'll ever see but I really admire him for how much he loves acting and how he is often the best bits of the worst films because of it (Looking at you, Death Machine). Brad has been typecast as the go-to-person when you need an unhinged psycho. I reckon he is continually cast as a villain because he has the most insane blue eyes I've ever seen. Even as he enters his 60s, his baby blues haven't lost the intensity they had when he was 20 (they even gave Chucky the doll Brad's crazy eyes).

I'm constantly hoping that my local Comic Con will book him just so I can go to his autograph signing and gush, "Brad, you are awesome. I've seen so many of the movies you probably wish you could gather up and burn." And then I get him to sign my copy of Dead Certain.

But you should really see his good movies. He was great in Mississippi Burning, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, and One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (which was his second film role and got him nominated for an Oscar). Even the original Child's Play is great if you can get past the bit of your brain yelling, "It's just a doll! BURN IT" while you watch it. Here's hoping that Brad gets a few more movies under his belt that AREN'T directed by Rob Zombie before he retires.

You know who else rules yet doesn't get as much love as he should? Vincent D'Onofrio.

Even his name is fun to say.

Like my absolute favourite actor in the universe (Tim Roth), Vincent became widely known after he took a role on a TV show. He plays the incredibly awesome, rubber necked Detective Goren on Law and Order: Criminal Intent. But I've loved him ever since he played not-Thor in Adventures in Babysitting (I'm still bitter they didn't get him to make an appearance in the new Thor movie even though they got the TV Thor to cameo). I also think his role as Edgar the Bug in Men in Black was one of the greatest things he ever did.

Vincent is in it for the acting rather than the fame and, as a result, he has made a bunch of bad movies as well. Most of which I've seen. But, like Brad, VDO is often the best bit of the worst movies he's in (And I must admit he was dead sexy in Naked Tango where he played a dapper pimp and and in The 13th Floor where he played a bad-ass Agent Smith rip-off that infects his real-world computer nerd self).

My favourite VDO works are Happy Accidents (which has a bit of a roll-your-eyes premise but he's pretty good in it), The Cell (very pretty and scary cinematography wise), Men in Black ("Dude was that ugly before he was an alien?"), and the Criminal Intent episode "Frame".

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I love Bono. Seriously I do. But I think the rest of U2 tend to get a bad rep because of him.

The Members of U2 that aren’t Bono. AKA the Awesome Ones

It’s unfair that the non-fan tends to see U2 as Bono and The Back-Up. What makes them distinct has very little to do with Bono and a lot to do with the back-up.

Back in their early days before Bono learned to sing, the intensity and urgency of the music came from Larry, Adam, and The Edge with the song Stories for Boys being one of the highlights of their early career. The song is like a battle between the three for the listener’s attention with Larry hitting his kit as hard and as fast as he can while Edge’s light and airy guitar duals it out with Adam’s hard and gritty bass. There are u2 songs that are my favourite due to personal reasons and there are U2 songs that are my favourite because of how much love I have for how they are played. Stories for Boys is one. With or Without You is another. I really hate when I catch it just as it’s starting on the radio because, no matter what, I have to stop and listen to the whole thing. Whereas Stories for Boys is a battle between the three, With or Without You is the three working in harmony. Just how they build it up to the summit then bring it back down just blows my mind every time. I want to get the Joshua Tree on vinyl just so I can nerd out over that song.

I also love it when they get to be highlighted individually. Adam’s bass intro for New Year’s Day with the bass turned high on the stereo has annoyed my mom for many moons. My favourite work of Larry’s is Mofo (which was all him, no drum machines for our boy). And for Edge, I have to go with Mysterious Ways. I have no idea how he makes the sounds he does for that song but I know I love it.

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And lastly, I can't make a list of underrated guys without mentioning my favourite underrated guy.

Christian of WWE fame

Seriously, give this man a title. Give him two. Give him all the titles and close wrestling forever.

First Loves

You always remember your first love. I had my heart stolen and split by two guys when I was a little girl.

I was quite the loud-mouth brat from the ages of 2 to the present and my mom's go-to way of dealing with me was to throw a movie on. My mom really loves crappy romantic comedies and spent the 80s loving Shelley Long. So I watched a lot of Hello Again when I was a child (which was on TBS hourly in the late 80s).

Thus, my mom started my crush on Gabriel Byrne.

Try not to get lost in dem baby blues

As I turned 3, I was certain I was going to marry Gabriel when I was older and told my dad to prepare the dowry. It was his eyes that cinched it. In my three short years on Earth, I hadn't encountered blue eyes. Gabe's were the first ones I remember seeing and I thought to myself, "THEY COME IN OTHER COLOURS!?"

With Gabriel Byrne and U2 alive and well, I thank the Universe every day for Ireland.

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My mom also loved action movies. I reckon I would not be the person (and nerd) I am today if she hadn't thrown on this movie.



The first time I saw Tim Burton's Batman, it blew me out of my light-up shoes and I knew that I'd never be the same person again. I was 4. It started my lifelong nerdity, my love affair with cinema, my obsessive need to make a film just as good as it, and it gave me a huge crush on Batman. Not on Michael Keaton, BATMAN. As a 4-year-old, I was really impressed with Batman's quest to rid his home city of all the things that were bringing it down. He had encountered the horrible things the city had to offer when his parents were killed in front of him. Rather than escape from it, he decided to face it and take it on so that no other kid would have to go through the same thing he had.

I grew up on a reserve and I hated it. I disliked how terrible it was with the rampant alcoholism, domestic violence, violence in general, and drug abuse and how I perceived that nobody but me seemed to care or wanted to change it. Seeing Batman 89 probably set me on a more positive course in life since it gave me hope that there were people out there that cared and wanted to change the horrible things in life. It also gave me a feeling that there were people out there watching out for others.

Yeah Batman blew up a factory and threw a mook down a church tower but he got results. And, hey, I was a weird kid so it seems appropriate that I'd have a strange role model that inspired me to do good in my community (non-violently of course).

I admired Batman. But since I was already betrothed to Gabriel Byrne, I left it at a respectful admiration (as well as a crush since HELLO, have you SEEN Michael Keaton's eyes in that cowl?)



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There have been other loves over the years but my heart still belongs to the original two. Over Christmas, my dad and I were reminiscing after he found a bunch of my old toys in the crawl space. Randomly he asked me if I still planned to marry Gabriel Byrne like I had wanted when I was 3.

Considering Gabe looks like this at 60



I wouldn't be against it.