The 6 Greatest Roles of Kurt Russell

This week's assignment from the League of Extraordinary Bloggers is stunningly beautiful in its simplicity:

Kurt Russell

Since the field's wide open, I'm going with a pictorial trip through the man's greatest roles. Probably not any surprises here, but my aim is to celebrate, not educate. Let me know in the comments if I missed something.

In chronological order:

1. Snake Plissken (Escape from New York, Escape from L.A.)



2. R.J. MacReady (The Thing)



3. Jack Burton (Big Trouble in Little China)



4. Wyatt Earp (Tombstone)



5. Col. Jack O'Neil (Stargate)



6. Michael Zane (3000 Miles to Graceland)



Honorable mention: The jungle boy on that one episode of Gilligan's Island.

What's your favorite Kurt Russell role?

LXB | March Madness: Jason Bourne vs Snake Plissken

For the first three weeks of March, we're going to answer the question, one match at a time, of who would win if 12 movie tough guys were airdropped into an abandoned city and only one could escape.

As it should be, fights are getting tougher in Round 2. Jason Bourne is the Captain America of this tournament: he's as perfect as any human can expect to be without having actual superpowers. And then there's Snake Plissken who's so at home in this "airdropped into an abandoned city" scenario that it's practically his briar patch. If anyone was designed to excel at this contest, it's Snake.

It's a tough battle and it goes on for a while with Snake's running around and using the environment to his advantage, but in the end he's neither as smart nor as good at hand-to-hand as Bourne.

LXB | March Madness: Snake Plissken vs Frank Martin

For the first three weeks of March, we're going to answer the question, one match at a time, of who would win if 12 movie tough guys were airdropped into an abandoned city and only one could escape.

This is the hardest fight to call yet. So far, the Round 1 bouts have been unevenly matched, but Snake from Escape from New York and Frank from The Transporter are pretty close to each other in terms of badassery.

I think Frank probably has the upper hand for straight-up fighting ability. It reminds me a bit of the Bruce Lee/John McClane fight. Snake's an awesome scrapper, but Frank's got more moves.

The difference between this bout and that first one though is that Frank is no Bruce Lee. I don't imagine him dominating Snake the way that Bruce Lee would John McClane. He'd make it awfully tough on Snake, but in the end he's beaten by Snake's resourcefulness and willingness to do whatever it takes to survive. It's a close fight (and I'm willing to be argued with), but I think Snake would take it.