Spotlight On: Anthony Hopkins

This week's spotlight is on one of my all-time favorite actors, Anthony Hopkins. I just think that he is absolutely brilliant in everything that he is in, whether is is being scary or crazy, or sad or happy, he is just amazing. He has such a long a great career and I look forward to seeing even more movies with Mr. Hopkins. Here are my favorite movies of his.

Magic

I really loved this movie. Hopkins plays a ventriliquist named Corky, who can't stop talking to his dummy Fats. The main reason I love this movie is for Anthony Hopkin's performance. It is basically two hours him talking to himself and it is just creepy and unsettling and fantastic. One of the best scenes in the movie is when his agent asks if he can make Fats stop talking for five minutes. You'd think it would be easy, but you end up seeing how hard it is for Corky not to talk to Fats.



The Elephant Man

I just watched this movie again about a week or two ago and it still makes me bawl my eyes out. Hopkins plays a man who takes the "Elephant Man" aka John Merrick out of the circus freak show and takes care of him in his hospital. While I think that John Hurt as Merrick has the stand out performance in this film, Hopkins is great as always as a man who grows to care for him.



The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Anthony Hopkins plays the famous dead hunchback Quasimodo in a TV movie version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The best parts of the movie were definitely when he was talking to Esmeralda.


The Silence of the Lambs

Anthony Hopkins is best known for his role in this film, and with good reason. Hannibal Lecter is one of the best movie villains of all time. Hopkins is one of the very few people to win an Oscar for a horror film role. He is a murdering cannibal, but is also a brilliant forensic psychologist. I liked both Hannibal and Red Dragon, but neither of them come close to being as amazing as The Silence of the Lambs. It is just a classic performance in a classic movie!



Dracula

People say that he goes a little over the top in this movie, but I love Anthony Hopkins as Abraham Van Helsing. My favorite scene in the whole movie is the scene where he kills Lucy. (It would be the shadow scene, but that gets bumped down to second place because Keanu Reeves is terrible...)



The Mask of Zorro

I loved this movie when I was a kid and used to watch it all the time. I haven't seen it in forever (I believe that the last time I watched it was on VHS), but I remember loving the sword fights, the love story, and the scene where he is training the new Zorro how to fight. Hopkins just has that great voice where you just want to listen to everything he is saying.



The Wolfman

"Terrible things Lawrence...you've don't terrible things." In the original Wolf Man, Lawrence Talbot's father kills him, but in this version, he is the one who past the werewolf curse onto him. I don't care what anybody says, I loved the remake of the Wolfman! I thought it was entertaining, it has a cast of actors that I love, the Wolfman make-up looked really cool, and it was just awesome!



Thor

Seriously, who else would they have gotten to play Odin? Hopkins was just great casting.



Upcoming: He has a lot of really interesting looking movies coming out, but the one I'm really excited for is Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho where he plays, guess who...Alfred Hitchcock! One of my favorite actor's playing one of my favorite directors!

Best Werewolf Movies

In celebration of Halloween and my werewolf costume, here is my list of my 13 favorite movies featuring lycanthropes.

13. Cursed

This is one of the corniest horror films ever made, but it is a total guilty pleasure for me. I mean, you don't see many movies where a werewolf gives you the middle finger.


12. The Company of Wolves

This Little Red Riding Hood story has the strangest werewolf transformations I have ever seen. The weirdest one is probably the one with Stephen Rea where he peels his skin off.


11. Underworld

While this movie is mainly about vampires, I was much more interested in the Lycans. I loved Michael Sheen as Lucian, the lycan who once had a vampire bride that was murdered by her own father for loving a werewolf. I haven't seen Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, but I am really curious to because the backstory of the werewolves was something that I found interesting from the first film.



10. The Wolfman

This movie didn't get the best reviews, but I actually love it. I love Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, and Emily Blunt, and I thought that this movie was really cool. "I will kill ALL OF YOU!"

9. Trick r Treat

This movie was cool because I had no idea that they were werewolves until they started transforming. I thought that they were just a bunch of college girls looking to get laid, but they were actually looking for victims. Awesome. You can find that scene HERE

8. Silver Bullet

A bunch of really great werewolf films came out in the 80s and Silver Bullet was one of them. I haven't seen this movie since I was a kid, but I used to love this movie. Here is one of the best scenes in the whole movie.



7. Wolf

Here we see Jack Nicholson as a man who gets bitten by a wolf and finds himself turning into a lycanthrope.



6. The Howling

Another classic 80s werewolf movie. Those were the good days when they used practical effects instead of CGI, so all the transformation scenes look really cool, like the one HERE

5. Curse of the Werewolf

This is one of my favorite Hammer horror films, starring the handsome Oliver Reed. My favorite scene starts below at about 2:38.



4. The Wolf Man

This is the classic 1941 Universal horror film starring Lon Cheney Jr. as Lawrence Talbot aka The Wolf Man. "Even a man who is pure in heart and says his prayers by night, may become a wolf when the wolfsbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright."



3. Dog Soldiers

This movie is really cool. It is about this group of soldiers trying to fight off this pack of werewolves in the middle of nowhere. This movie goes old school and has the werewolves walk on two legs.



2. Ginger Snaps

I love this movie. It is about these two death-obsessed sisters, and one of them gets bitten by a werewolf. So, she slowly starts turning into a lycanthrope, and that includes growing a bit of a tail.



1. An American Werewolf in London

Best. Werewolf. Movie. Ever. That just goes without saying. This movie features the best werewolf transformation scene ever, has a great story, some great gore effects, and is also really funny at parts. It is not only the best werewolf movie, but is one of the best horror films ever made. I love love love this movie!

Horror-A-Day: Day Eight

Anthony Hopkins is amazing. I mean, this entire movie is basically just him talking to himself (well through a dummy...), and it is creepy as hell. It is about a magician's assistant who bombs when he first tries to go on his own. So, he starts doing his act with a dummy called Fats. His agent gets him a chance to have his own TV show, but he refuses when he finds out that he has to be examined by a doctor. We eventually find out that it is because he can't stop talking to Fats. One of the best scenes in the movie is when he gets busted by his agent when he is arguing with Fats. His agent tells him to get help and challenges him to not let Fats speak for five minutes. He couldn't even make it half way. Hopkins is great in that scene because you really get a sense of how uncomfortable he gets when he can't talk to Fats. Here is another great scene. I really want to buy this movie now...

Spotlight On: Laurence Olivier

This week's spotlight is on Sir Laurence Olivier, a man who is often considered to be one of the greatest actors of all time, and certainly one of the greatest Shakespearean actors. While I do love him in his Shakespeare roles, I love him even more in the other types of films that he is done. In his younger years he played a lot of literary romantic heroes, and in his older years he played some great villains. He has worked with some of my favorite directors, like Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick, and has also appeared in film adaptations of some of my favorite books. As a bonus, in his younger days, he was also incredibly handsome... Here are some of my favorite films/ roles of his.

Fire Over England

This was the first film that Olivier did with his (future) wife Vivien Leigh. It is said that it was during this film that they first fell in love and became the Brad and Angelina of their time. Here Olivier plays a British man who becomes a spy for Queen Elizabeth. While I didn't much care for this movie as a whole, I thought that Flora Robson was a great Elizabeth, and that the scenes with Larry and Viv were cute.



The Divorce of Lady X

I thought that it was funny to see Olivier in this kind of role, because you don't see him much in romantic comedies. This is the type of role that you would normally see Cary Grant in. Having said that, I thought that this movie was actually really funny, and made me wish that Larry would have done more roles like this. My favorite scene was when he was first talking to the man who he believed was Merle Oberon's husband. Whats really neat about this movie is that its the only color picture that I've seen with him when he was this young.



Wuthering Heights

Now onto my favorite film adaptation of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights. I love love love this movie and have probably posted about it a million or so times already. Olivier is wonderful as Heathcliff, a man who goes from lovesick stable boy to revenge seeking aristocrat after the love of his life abandons him to marry a rich man. And even though the words are changed a little, he is my favorite actor to ever recite Heathcliff's "I cannot live without my life" speech.





Rebecca

In 1940, Olivier starred in one of my favorite Alfred Hitchcock films. He plays a rich man who is still haunted by the memory of his dead wife, even after remarrying.





Pride and Prejudice

In this adaptation of Jane Austen's famous novel, Olivier, of course, plays Mr. Darcy. Although I was disappointed in how they made Mr. Darcy's aunt seem like a good guy in this version, I do really like this movie. Oliver made a perfect Mr. Darcy.



That Hamilton Woman

Here is another film that paired Olivier and Vivien Leigh, who by this time was his wife. This movie was very gloomy and had an unhappy ending for both characters, but like Fire Over England, I loved all the scenes with the two of them together.



Henry V

Not my favorite of Shakespeare's plays, but Olivier is great as the title character. What's neat about this movie is that it starts out as an actual play in the film and then transitions into the film settings. This movie also has great use of Technicolor, so it all looks amazing!



Hamlet

Laurence Olivier is the only actor to ever win an Oscar for playing a Shakespearean role, and he did so for playing Hamlet. I thought that it was odd that this version didn't include Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, but to be honest, if I had never read Hamlet I wouldn't have even noticed. I thought that this was a great film adaptation of the famous plays, and one of Olivier's best performances.



The Prince and the Showgirl

This is a comedy that he did with the lovely Marilyn Monroe. There is actually a movie coming out sometime this year that is about Monroe while she works on this film. Monroe will be played by Michelle Williams, and Olivier will be played by Kenneth Branagh. I thought that Branaugh was an interesting choice because he has also done a bunch of Shakespearean films. I think that this is one of Monroe's best performances, and Olivier is great as the stuffy Regent who courts her.



Spartacus

I was so disappointed when I found out that my favorite scene in this movie doesn't have Olivier's actual voice. Something was wrong with the audio when they restored this scene to the movie, so they had his voice dubbed by Anthony Hopkins because Olivier had already passed away. I must say that Hopkins does a great job, though, because I had no idea the first time I watched it. If there wasn't the stupid Production Code at the time, then this could have been in the original cut of the film, and we could hear Olivier's actual voice in this scene.



Sleuth

I love this movie! It is so cool because it only has two actors, Olivier and Michael Caine, and they are both brilliant. What I really love about this movie is that I can't really decide which one is the bad guy. I kept switching back and forth between the two. Olivier really gets to show his vicious side when he makes Caine's character think that he is going to kill him. Love it!



Marathon Man

Olivier REALLY gets vicious in this film, where he plays a Nazi who tortures Dustin Hoffman with dental tools while asking "Is it safe?" I already hate going to the dentist, and after watching this movie, it just makes me even more nervous...



Clash of the Titans

Here Olivier plays Zeus, leader of all the gods. Even though the special effects are totally cheesy, I do have to admit that this movie is kind of a guilty pleasure for me.

My Review: Thor

Thor is the superhero that I probably know the least about, so I wasn't really sure what to expect with this film. I just knew that it had a decent cast, and I was curious as to how Kenneth Branagh would do directing a superhero film. This movie turned out to be really cool! Like I said, the cast was cool with Chris Hemsworth as Thor, who I had only seen in Star Trek before this. I must say that he is fiiiiiiine!!!! There's also Anthony Hopkins as Odin (perfect!), Natalie Portman as Jane, and other actors including Stellan Skarsgard and Idris Elba. When watching the movie I wasn't quite sure if it was Elba or not, but when they had the end credits I was proved right! I thought that he was great as the gatekeeper, guardian guy. Anyways, this movie had great special effects, and was surprisingly funny at parts. I loved how there were little references to the upcoming Avengers film. For starters, there was a cameo by Jeremy Renner, who will be playing Hawkeye and there was, of course, a mention of Mr. Stark by the head of S.H.I.E.L.D. Frankly, I'm surprised that you didn't see Nick Fury anywhere. Avengers is going to be so cool!!!! The one thing that bothered me a little is how fast Thor and Jane fell in love. It was pretty much like "you're hot" "you're pretty" "I love you!" Speaking of Jane, I swear Natalie Portman is in everything!!! This was the fifth movie with her that I have seen this year alone!!! This follows Black Swan, No Strings Attached, Your Highness, and Hesher. So far I have liked all of them except for Your Highness. I am really curious about how Thor will match up with the rest of the supers in the Avengers movie, but I'm sure that it will be cool. My rating: 8/10

My Review: The Rite

If you have never seen any movies about exorcism, then this movie might scare you. If you are like me and have seen several movies about exorcism, then this movie will seem relatively tame in comparison. Anthony Hopkins is great as always as an exorcist who is teaching this younger priest how to perform exorcisms. The young priest is not really sure what he believes in, but starts getting spooked by this young pregnant girl who is believed to be possessed by the devil. So, some demonic voices and contortions ensue, and everything that comes with being possessed I guess. I wasn't really all that impressed by the exoricism scenes. I mean when you've seen things like this....



and this...



and this...



a little back bending and roaring from a girl isn't really all that scary. I mean, the only thing that made it different was that she was pregnant, which did bring an uneasy feel to her scenes. Interestingly, there was a bit of comic relief in this movie, which I thought was strange during a horror movie like this. During the first exorcism, Anthony Hopkin's cell phone rings. When you're in the middle of an exorcism scene I don't know why you would want to break away from the horror element of it. Anyways, even though there is a great performance by Anthony Hopkins, this movie has been done before, and done better. My rating: 5/10