Robert Carlyle vs. Tim Roth
Battle of the Diminutive British Chameleons

What feels like about nine months ago, I started seeing the trailer for the brand-new James Bond movie, The World is Not Enough. As soon as the image of Robert Carlyle as the latest Bond villain Renard flitted across the screen, I realized one thing.

Tim Roth's career is over.

Tim Roth had a good run of it, though. He's alternated his Compelling Psycho roles -- in movies like Pulp Fiction and Murder in the Heartland -- with Sympathetic Softie in movies like Heart of Darkness. He's proved what a good sport he can be by pitching in on big-budget schlock, most memorably as the foppish villain of Rob Roy. Finally, he's also just about the only British actor whose American accent is so convincing that even I believed for years that he was faking a British one in Pulp Fiction.

Robert Carlyle has had fewer big-screen roles, but already nearly any one of them is more noteworthy than anything Tim Roth has done. You like the Compelling Psycho? Check out Trainspotting. In the market for a Sympathetic Softie? Try The Full Monty or Priest. And is there any big-budget schlock schlockier than a Bond film? Survey says: No. In the 90s, playing a Bond villain is a rite of passage for many a fine actor looking to make his name, along with a dumptruck full of cash.

Hollywood doesn't really need that many short, unconventionally attractive British dudes to play villains, fops, alcoholics, 30s gangsters, amateur male strippers, and guys with multiple sclerosis. In fact, one is plenty. Which means that we're holding the Concorde for you, Tim Roth. Don't dally.

Advantage: Robert Carlyle.