Robert Patrick vs. Ray Liotta
Battle of the Steely-Glaring Psychos

It's not like they're identical twins. You don't think of classic Ray Liotta roles -- such as Henry Hill in Goodfellas, Detective Lt. Henry R. Oak in Narc or...er, Capt. T.C. Doyle in Operation Dumbo Drop -- and automatically substitute Robert Patrick into those parts. Okay, maybe Dumbo Drop, but really, that movie was all about the elephant. Look out below!

For starters, Liotta is often described as "beefy" (or, better yet, "husky") while Patrick is blade-thin. And, if you want to get all McLuhan-esque about it, Liotta is a very "hot" actor, given to veins-a-poppin' rampages, while Patrick has an aura of frosty cool, perhaps due to his breakout role as the mercury-ish T-1000 Terminator in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, or his stint as the near-comatose John Doggett on the post-Duchovny The X-Files. While Patrick flashes you a freezing glance over the top of his beer, Liotta smashes the bottle against the wall, or your skull -- whichever is handier.

Yet they are paired, if only because Liotta seems so obviously to be standing in Patrick's way. We love Liotta; we've loved him ever since he screamed "Karen! Karen, we needed that money!" in Goodfellas, in that sing-songy, buzzsaw whine of his. We love him so much we went to see the entirely goofy Identity -- in which he raged, beefily.

But when we look at pictures of Patrick -- who is soon to be co-starring in Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, in a typical, seventh-billed, Patrickish kind of supporting role -- we wonder, Why isn't he more famous? Sure, he had T-1000. (And a dozen subsequent cameos, which must have got tired real fast.) Sure, he had The X-Files. Sure, he had From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money. But really, couldn't he be doing more?

Then a single word pops to our minds. We don't know where it comes from, or where it might take us. All we know is: Liotta.

Liotta! Liotta! Liotta! Oh, those intense eyes! Oh, that almost but not quite star career! Oh, that expertise at playing just-on-this- side-of-sane psychos! Oh, those gritted teeth and fiery glares! Liotta is a one-man industry for portraying...well, just the kind of parts Robert Patrick might collect like bottlecaps, if Liotta hadn't gotten there first, and done it a little bit better.

So why do we need a Robert Patrick, clever and whip-thin and dangerous though he may be, when we've already got what we want? When, frankly, we've already got a whole lotta Liotta?

Advantage: Whole lotta Liotta