Dave Bautista is willing to risk it all.
Not one to settle for familiar roles, Bautista has proclaimed often that he does not just want to be a movie star, à la The Rock, but rather is aiming to have the career of a real actor, with a depth of character to his roles that will continue to expand. With two movies this year that showed entirely different sides of himself and his ability to be a genuine character actor — Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery and Knock at the Cabin — Bautista, even at age 54, is growing his legacy and gaining notoriety as just that, a true actor.
10. Owen Davidson — Master Z: The Ip Man Legacy
Even in taking an high-octane action role, Bautista isn’t just there as a muscle-bound villain in this spinoff from several Ip Man movies. Well, he’s there for that, too, but with the charismatic nuance and ability to even lift a scene all on his own that we’ve come to expect from Bautista. Playing a corrupt cop, Owen Davidson, Bautista plays the villain role to a T in trying to manipulate all sides and working with corrupt cops to frame the movie’s hero, Cheung Tin-chi, after the latter has a run-in with and defeats a plethora of gang members.
The film accrued a lot of favorable reviews and is considered a must-watch for fans of martial arts, with director Yuen Woo-ping providing a masterclass on the genre. Bonus: If you feel in love with Michelle Yeoh and Everything, Everywhere All at Once, you’re in for an extra treat here.
9. Mr. Hinx — Spectre
It’s not a huge role, but once again, Bautista gets to show some ability to layer a character. Playing an assassin working for the villain, Spectre, Bautista’s Hinx gets to be the guy before the guy that Bond has to go through to save the girl and the day. The way Hinx saunters into a room early on and brutally murders a man in front of Bond (and many others) before calmly wiping his hands clean and sitting down is chilling. Hinx and Bond get their showdown on a train, where Bautista gets his only real line of dialogue before meeting his end, and the delivery of said line is perfect.
8. Diaz — Riddick
Playing a much more subdued character amidst the third installment of the Riddick trilogy, Bautista has a chance to showcase his acting ability without much in the way of dialogue. As Diaz, he is a bounty hunter who is second-in-command to the much more animated Santana (Jordi Mollà) that investigates an emergency beacon set off by Riddick (Vin Diesel). After travails and threats lead to Riddick killing Santana, Diaz joins Riddick in attempting to flee the doomed planet, along with Colonel Johns (Matthew Nable), before sabotaging Johns and attempting to kill them both. It does not end well for Diaz, though.
7. Glossu Rabban — Dune
There’s rumor that Bautista will have a bigger role and hence, more screen time, for the Dune sequel in the works, which is wonderful news. As Glossu Rabban, Bautista needed to show an edge that went beyond his “bad guy” roles in the past, while also a devotion and emotional attachment to being on a hell-bent cause that, and he did just that. Even if his screams of retaliation and blood lust were the thing that we took away from the movie, he was the perfect casting job to play Rabban, which will lead to him leading the forces against Paul Atreidis and company in Dune 2.
6. Scott Ward — Army of the Dead
A Zack Snyder-led zombie flick where Bautista plays a mercenary six years after a zombie takeover, what more do you need? His character, Scott Ward, is recruited to recover $200 million from a Las Vegas casino before the military nukes and destroys the whole city. There are lucid and intelligent zombies encountered during the mission, giving more to the film than the typical mindless zombie flick. Ward, with some guidance from his estranged daughter Kate, and his small crew have to traverse and strike a deal with the zombie queen, before an epic battle takes place in the casino near the film’s end. Ward ends up being bitten and turned into a zombie, but not before he can give the recovered money to Kate, who in turns has to kill him.
5. Detective Victor “Vic” Manning — Stuber
Lately, it’s been bandied about that Bautista is seeking a role in a rom-com. This is about as close as we’ve gotten so far, with this buddy-cop duality with Kumail Nanjani. Bautista’s character is a vengeance-seeking cop who has to take a small leave after getting corrective eye surgery, leading him to take a ride with Nanjani’s character, Stu, who is an Uber driver.
The two pair up to take down the drug lord responsible for the death of Vic’s former partner, with hijinks along the way.
The wit falls a little short, but overall, it’s a fun ride with some laughs, some stakes, and that zany odd-couple pairing that has driven the buddy-cop genre for, well, decades now it seems. They didn’t quite hit the level that was expected with some of the Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart team-ups that garnered some success, but the movie also just didn’t get enough fanfare and hype upon its release, leading it to fall by the wayside. Give a few years, this will cycle back into streaming and become a modest hit.
4. Sapper Morton — Blade Runner 2049 (and 2048: Nowhere to Run)
For those familiar with Bautista’s recent rise, this story might already be in your mind. Yet it’s worth revisiting not just the movie as a whole, but Bautista’s small gem of an appearance catapults the entire 2049 storyline forward while giving us a depth of information in such a short time. It’s this role that put Bautista on the radar for his future casting by Rian Johnson and Denis Villeneuve. Even better, if you missed it the first time around, go check out the short film (one of three) that precedes Blade Runner 2049, 2048: Nowhere to Run, which focuses on and features Bautista’s character more in depth.
Ryan Gosling’s character, K, is the new Blade Runner on a mission to do something he can’t totally grasp his mind around, except that he needs to obey orders and take out a rebellious replicant. Upon arriving on a dusty planet that seems nearly barren, he encounters Sapper Morton, who brings us up to speed in an emotional soliloquy that essentially fills in the storyline from when the original Blade Runner concluded up to this point. The sorrow-drenched and inspired speech he gives about miracles is mesmerizing, and lets the audience not just know, but feel, what happened after the original came to a close—namely, that somehow, a child was born between a human and a replicant.
3. Duke Cody — Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Playing a character we’re meant to roll our eyes at and be a bit grossed out by, Bautista brings the character fully to life while also filling in the gaps of the person behind the facade. Even while sauntering around in a speedo — complete with holster and gun to boot — he shows sensitivity and vulnerability. To not hate a “men’s rights activist” character portraying the levels of fake machismo and bro-culture that Cody has is evidence further of Bautista’s strengths, namely, giving real fleshed out soul to characters that could just be one or two-dimensional.
Since it’s still fairly new, we won’t spoil what goes down in this Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) murder mystery, but Bautista’s Cody is a standout even in a star-studded cast.
2. Drax the Destroyer — The Guardians of the Galaxy franchise (and beyond)
Armed with nothing but dry wit, family values, and rage, somehow Drax becomes an empathetic character. Delivering lines that make everyone laugh, ones that aren’t funny on their own, shows his knack for humor and situation. The evolution of Drax from the first Guardians of the Galaxy on through the sequel and Avengers movie (and the bonus Christmas special) has been a real joy. James Gunn would be wise to let Bautista and Drax steal a bit more of the spotlight from the over(over)played Star-Lord bits that started to wear out halfway through the sequel would be wonderful. Here’s hoping that Drax (and Mantis) got to run the show in the Christmas special not just because Chris Pratt was too much of a prat to demean himself to such a role, but that it was a choice by Gunn to let the duo of Drax and Mantis — who show worlds more emotional depth that Star-Lord — to have free range.
1. Leonard — Knock at the Cabin
Too soon to put this one at the top? Not at all. Sure, the movie has its pitfalls and drawbacks, as we’ve touched on here across the website, but it’s easy to be blinded to those things while the movie is in progress thanks to the captivating powerhouse performance of Bautista as Leonard (afterward, those things come back into focus). Leonard is one of four people who believe they have been chosen to save the world from the apocalypse, each sharing the same visions and dreams of what is to come. They have to invade a cabin and force a family of three to choose one of them to sacrifice, something that weights heavily on Leonard even as he fully believes it is what must be done. He is the (sort of ) voice of reason and leader of the group, and the way he interacts with the others, both on his side and those forced to make the choice, exudes compassion and sorrow all while remaining steadfast and determined.
Published: Feb 15, 2023 11:44 am