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!

My Favorite Movies of 2011

One of my favorite things to do is to go to the movies. I went to a shitload of movies this year and really enjoyed writing my little movie reviews after I got home. This year I only gave one movie a 10/10, which is my number one movie on the list. (Check it out below...) The five movies that I gave the lowest scores to were Sucker Punch, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, Breaking Dawn Part 1, The Rum Diary, and Your Highness. Anyways...here is my list of the 10 movies that I enjoyed the most in the year 2011.

10. The Muppets

This movie was totally cheesy, but I loved it anyway. I've always loved The Muppets and this movie just put me in a really good mood. When ever I leave the theater after seeing a movie that I really like I end up walking on sunshine all the way home, and that was definitely the case with this movie. It was made even better by having the always adorable Jason Segel. I was bummed that I didn't get to see this movie with my little sisters, but they probably already know all the words to Man or Muppet because that song was stuck in my head all through Christmas break so I was singing it all the time.



9. Like Crazy

This movie stars Anton Yelchin and Felicity Jones as two young people who try to make a long distance relationship work after the girl overstays her visa and is no longer allowed in the United States. This movie has lots of really cute and sweet parts, but also a lot of parts that are really sad. They have to deal with jealousy, breaking up and then missing eachother and getting back together and trying to lift the ban on her visa while they are both leading really separate lives in their different countries.



8. Fright Night

This movie really surprised me. I love the original Fright Night, so I was really curious about how they would update the movie (since the old one is VERY 80s). I think that Colin Farrell makes a very sexy vampire, and I liked the way they changed the character of Peter Vincent. He went from old school vampire hunter in the original to a Criss Angel-type magician in this one. I just think that this movie is really fun to watch.



7. Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil

This was definitely one of the funniest movies that I saw in 2011. It is about these two rednecks who this group of college students think are serial killers. In reality, they are just on vacation while the students accidentally kill themselves one by one. I just love it because you see so many movies like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre where this group of kids get murdered by random rednecks who live in the middle of nowhere, and this movie is a comment on those.



6. Young Adult

I absolutely love Charlize Theron and I think that she was amazing in this movie. She plays a YA novel writer who goes back to her hometown to try to get back together with her ex-boyfriend (who is married with a new baby). The best scenes in the movie were definitely the scenes with Theron and Patton Oswalt, who plays a guy she never really talked to in high school, but confides in about her mission to get her ex back.



5. Jane Eyre

I loved this book so I was super excited when I saw that this movie was coming out. I think that the casting for this movie was perfect and that Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender were both really great as Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester. In the book Mr. Rochester is described as unattractive, so casting Fassbender wasn't staying true to the novel, but I really don't care! Fassbender is soooo sexy as Mr. Rochester and he is definitely the best part of this movie.



4. Rise of the Planet of the Apes

I never thought that a CGI monkey would make me cry, but when Caesar draws his window on the wall it just got to me! Anyways, I always think that prequels are a rediculous idea, but Planet of the Apes was a good movie to make a prequel to since it takes place after so much has happened. It was really cool to see the beginning of how apes take over the Earth. While I love me some James Franco, the real star of this movie is Andy Serkis as Caesar. You see him become more and more human as the film progresses and (SPOILER ALERT!) when he finally talks it is NUTS! I just love how I can watch a whole movie of apes talking and think nothing of it, but when he shouted NO! I just went "WHHAAATTTTT!?!?!?!"


3. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

I know that a lot of people were really annoyed about an American movie version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, but I was always super excited. Although I love Noomi Rapace and thought that she was great as Lisbeth Salander, I just did not care at all for the Swedish films. I think that Daniel Craig was the perfect choice to play Blomkvist and that Rooney Mara did an amazing job as Lisbeth. It also has one of the coolest opening sequences ever! I really hope that David Fincher directs the movie versions of the next two books as well.



2. X-Men First Class

There were a shitload of superhero movies that came out in 2011, and X-Men First Class was by far my favorite! I thought that the casting was perfect for all of the characters with the exception of January Jones as Emma Frost (I'm sorry I just don't like her). The star of the movie was definitely Michael Fassbender as Magneto and I'm not just saying that because I love Michael Fassbender. Magneto is one of the more interesting X-Men characters and he is just a badass in this movie! I am bummed because I can't find a Youtube video of that scene where he kills those German guys in Argentina...Whatever...here is another cool scene. I loved the parts with Magneto and Mystique and am hoping that we see lots more of them in the sequel!


1. Bridesmaids

Fooking hilarious! I saw this movie in theaters with my mom and we were both laughing our asses off the entire time! I thought that the entire cast was brilliant, even the people with smaller parts. This is one of the funniest movies to come out in a long time. I laughed my ass off the first time I saw it, laughed my ass off again when I saw it at the movie theater in Coffman with a full crowd of people, and continue to laugh my ass off whenever I watch it on DVD. Love this movie!

Just Finished Reading: The Fall

I have been without working internet for the past three weeks, so that is the reason for the lack of posts. Over my Christmas vacation I read three different books, with the first beeing The Fall, the second book in the interesting Del Toro/ Hogan vampire trilogy. With this book we get more creepy vampires with their long stingers coming out of their mouths. The most interesting character in these books is Setrakian, an old vampire hunter. In my mind I picture him as Christopher Plummer. It was cool learning more of his backstory in this book. This book also ended with a bit of a cliffhanger with Eph's ex-wife (who is now a vampire) having his son... I guess I'll have to read the third book to find out what happens next...

My Most Anticipated Movies for 2012 (Part 1)

I'm going to this this three months at a time because my list always gets too long and I end up forgetting some. So... here are the movies I plan to see in January, February, and March of 2012.

JANUARY

The Devil Inside

Its been a while since I've seen a movie in theaters that actually scared me, and I'm hoping that The Devil Inside will do just that. Although I'm getting sick of all these exorcism movies, this movie does look pretty freaky. The first time I saw the trailer it did give me a bit of a fright. Of course, so did the trailer for Don't Be Afraid of the Dark and that movie was kind of shitty.



Underworld: Awakening

I still haven't seen Underworld: Evolution all the way through, but I have until January to watch it. This movie actually looks pretty cool. I'm loving the little werewolf/ vampire hybrid girl, and Kate Beckinsale looks awesome as always in her black leather suit.



Haywire

This really isn't my type of movie at all. I think that the plot of this movie is something that has been done a million times before and it doesn't really look all that interesting to me. Why do I want to see it then? Well for starters it has Ewan McGregor and Channing Tatum...definitely some eye candy. And oh yeah...MICHAEL FASSBENDER. If that handsome Irish actor is in a movie, you know my ass is going to be in those theater seats.



We Need to Talk About Kevin

This is a book that I was planning to read because I heard that it was both really good and really disturbing. Now I guess I don't have to because I can go see this movie.(And all the literary snobs cry...) From what I have read about the plo,t the trailers that I have seen haven't really given too much away about what this movie is really about. I guess it is about parents dealing with the fact that their teenage son shot up his high school.



Albert Nobbs

I saw the trailer for this movie when I went to see Like Crazy and thought that it looked really interesting. Glenn Close plays a woman who pretends to be a man called Albert Nobbs.



FEBRUARY

The Woman in Black

I love me a good ghost story! This movie looks really cool and the fact that it is produced by Hammer makes it that much better.



W.E.

What make this movie neat is that it is directed by Madonna. This story is about Edward VIII and how he gives up the throne for the woman he loves. We got a hint of this story in The King's Speech, though that movie focuses on his brother. I am curious to learn more about Edwards story with this movie, because in The King's Speech I really didn't care so much for his character. Plus, maybe seeing Abbie Cornish and Oscar Isaac in this will make me forgive them for Sucker Punch.



This Means War

Totally going to see this just because it has Tom Hardy. He always plays such super serious characters, so it'll be nice to see him to a comedy. Also, I love Chelsea Handler, so it'll be cool to see her in this as well.



MARCH

Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters

There is not a poster or a trailer for this movie yet, but with a title like that, how could you not want to see it?

The Raven

I have never read anything by Edgar Allen Poe, with the exception of a few poems (including The Raven) but that is something that I plan to fix in the future. This movie stars John Cusack as the famous writer, and is about a series of murders that are inspired by his novels.



Mirror Mirror

I'm actually still debating whether or not I really want to see this movie because it looks corny as hell! I might still see it so that I can compare it to Snow White and the Huntsman which comes out later in the year.



21 Jump Street

This movie actually looks pretty funny. I think that Channing Tatum is much better in his comedic roles than his dramatic ones. Plus...I read somewhere that Johnny Depp is going to have a cameo!!



The Hunger Games

I'm really not a fan of YA novels, but from what I've read about this movie it seems like an interesting story. A part of me is curious and wants to read the books, but another part of me just wants to wait to see the movie so that I can be surprised.



Wrath of the Titans

While I am still irked that they replaced Alexa Davalos as Andromeda, I am curious to see this movie. It actually looks pretty cool, and I'm always up for seeing Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes!

Character of the Week: Pam Swynford De Beaufort

This week's character of the week is one of my favorite vampires, Ms. Pam Swynford De Beaufort from True Blood. I've loved Pam since season 1 and I am glad that she is getting more airtime now. I love her because she is such a bitch, but she is also super loyal to her maker Eric. I'm really hoping that in Season 5 we get some backstory on Pam and see when Eric made her a vampire. According to her, she used to be a hooker, so maybe Eric found her in a brothel somewhere...

Spotlight On: Christopher Lee

Christopher Lee is both a horror icon for his appearances in Hammer Horror films in the 1950s, and also a geek icon for being the only actor to appear in both Star Wars and Lord of the Rings films. He is a great actor with a fantastic deep voice, and here are some of my favorites of his roles.

The Curse of Frankenstein

Here he played Frankenstein's monster in his first starring role for Hammer, and one of several times that he was paired with the great Peter Cushing. You can watch a scene from the film HERE



Horror of Dracula

Here he plays another horror icon, Dracula. This is probably his most famous role from the Hammer films, and he is in my opinion, one of the best people to have ever played Dracula.



The Wicker Man

While this film has become slightly overshadowed by the shitstorm that was the Nicolas Cage remake of this movie, the original The Wicker Man is a horror classic. Christopher Lee plays Lord Summerisle who was the leader of this crazy cult. You can find the best scene of the movie HERE



Sleepy Hollow

He only appears in the beginning of this film, but he definitely leaves a lasting impression with his little cameo. He plays the Burgomeister, who is the one who sends Icabod to Sleepy Hollow. You can find his scene HERE

The Lord of the Rings

I am not the biggest Lord of the Rings fan (I'm more of a Star Wars person), but I love Christopher Lee as Saruman. He just has that great voice of his where you just have to listen to everything he is saying. One of my favorite scenes in the whole trilogy is his fight with Gandalf.




Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones/ Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

Christopher Lee also appeared in the Star Wars prequels as Count Dooku, a man who was trained as a Sith Lord. I love Dooku because he manages to knock down Anakin a few pegs, who was just way too cocky in Attack of the Clones. Also, you just have to love the scene where he fights Yoda.


Upcoming: He will be apparing in the movies Hugo, Dark Shadows, as well as playing Saruman again in The Hobbit movies.

Horror-A-Day: Day Thirty

What a waste of handsome! In this movie, Michael Fassbender plays a Nazi vampire, but you only see his actual face when they have the scene in the '30s. For the rest of the movie he has this crazy make-up on. The other vampire people looked normal, so why couldn't he? Well, I suppose the wouldn't have been scary if he was a handsome vampire. Oh well, we still have Henry Cavill to look at. The one thing that I really loved about this movie was that after they killed Fassy's character, the teenage vampire girl suddenly aged really quickly and then died. Her curse was broken, but then her age caught up with her.

Horror-A-Day: Day Twenty Nine

This wasn't as good as I thought it was going to be, but I still kind of liked it. The best thing about it was probably seeing Bill Paxton as a vampire. I loved him as Severen. I also love that there are three people from the movie Aliens in this film.

Just Finished Reading: Salem's Lot

I have been crazy busy with school all month, so this book took me forever to read. This is the second Stephen King book that I have ever read, with the first being Carrie when I was 11 or 12. It is probably because I had been reading this book little by little for over a month, but I kept getting characters confused with eachother. I know that Ben is the writer, Susan is his love interest, Father Callaghan is the priest, Mark is the kid, Barlow is the vamp, and Straker was his helper. All of the other characters sort of melted in to one for me, though so I was getting kind of confused by the end of what was happening to who. I did like this book however. My favorite part was reading the description of Ben jamming his stake into Barlow. That was really cool.

Horror-A-Day: Day Twenty Five

If you took the movie Zombieland, replaced the zombies with vampires, then took out all of the humor, you would get Stake Land. This movie is about two people, an older man and a teenage boy who are trying to survive in a world full of vampires. Although I think that the vampires look pretty freaky, I was getting really bored while watching this movie. Also, they give the vampires animals sounds. They sound like lions when they attack and like squealing pigs when they get hurt. I just thought that it was strange. This movies is just filled with very one-dimensional characters who aren't very likable, so by the end of this movie I really didn't care what happened to any of them.

My Favorite Vampires

Here is a list of my 15 favorite vampires from film and TV.

15. Santanico Pandemonium

Santanico Pandemonium is an exotic dancer/ vampire played by Salma Hayek in From Dusk Til Dawn. After doing a very sexy dance for all of the men in the Titty Twister bar, she transforms into a vampire beast and kills Quentin Tarantino. Here is her death scene...



14. Jesus Gris

Jesus is an old man who becomes a vampire after being punctured by the Cronos device in Guillermo Del Toro's film Cronos. We see Jesus becoming obsessed with using the bug-like device and with the concept of eternal life.



13. Drusilla

Drusilla is one of my favorite characters on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, so it is pretty disappointing that she is only a series regular in season 2. I always loved her because she was batshit crazy, and I think that her and Spike have the most interesting backstories. I'm pissed that I can't find any good clips of her speaking on Youtube, but I found this cool video.



12. Pam Swynford De Beaufort

While she started out as a minor character, I'm glad that we are seeing more and more of Pam each season of True Blood. She is Eric Northman's right hand woman and has the greatest speaking voice. Here are some of my favorite Pam moments.




11. Dracula's Brides

from Bram Stoker's Dracula

from Van Helsing

When you have a movie about Dracula, you have to have his three beautiful vampire brides. While the ones in Bram Stoker's Dracula are mostly there for eye candy, I love the ones in Van Helsing. Here is a cool video I found that features both sets of brides.



10. Selene

Underworld is basically just about Kate Beckinsale in tight leather outfits kicking ass and taking names. I have only seen this first one, but the trailer for the new one actually looks really cool, so I'm going to have to check out Underworld: Evolution and Rise of the Lycans.



9. David

The Lost Boys is a classic 80s vampire movie. What makes it even better is Kiefer Sutherland as David, the head of a vampire gang!



8. Spike

Spike is my favorite vampire on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I've never been a big fan of Angel, but I always liked Spike. I didn't really start watching this show until after it was off the air, so I had no idea that he wasn't in the first season, and was in like one episode of season 3. Here is one of my favorite Spike moments. I don't know why, but it always makes me laugh...


7. Jerry Dandridge

Fright Night (1985)

Fright Night (2011)

Jerry is the vampire next door played by Chris Sarandon in Fright Night and by Colin Farrell in the remake. He is a vamp who messes with his next door neighbor Charley, turns his best friend into a vampire, and uses his vampiric powers of seduction to kidnap his girlfriend, and then turn her as well. I really love the original Fright Night, so I was annoyed when I read it was getting remade, but I actually liked the remake as well. Colin Farrell is one very sexy vampire...


6. Claudia

I read Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles books when I was in Junior High, and I really loved the character of Claudia. Although she is more interesting in the books in my opinion, I love Kirsten Dunst as Claudia in Interview With a Vampire. She is a bit too old, but I think that they made the right choice in choosing an actress older than the character.




5. Nosferatu

Although technically Nosferatu is a rip-off of Dracula, I am going to count him as his own character. Nosferatu is one of my favorite silent films, and is filled with really cool imagery including the famous sequence of him going up the stairs. He also just has a really great look. His pointy ears and long skinny fingers. His also has the creepiest fangs.


4. Dracula

Although I am not a huge fan of Bram Stoker's novel, I have always liked Dracula on film. The best two movie Dracula's in my opinion are Bela Lugosi and Gary Oldman.



3. Eli/ Abby

I still have not read this book, but Let the Right One In is one of the best vampire movies ever made. Eli is a little vampire girl (or boy?) who makes friends with a boy named Oskar. In the remake they are renamed Abby and Owen. The remake is nowhere near as good as the original, but it is still a pretty good movie.




2. Lestat De Lioncourt

I wasn't a big fan of Stuart Townsend's performance as Lestat in Queen of the Damned, but I loved Tom Cruise in Interview with a Vampire. It is my favorite of any of Tom Cruise's roles. He makes a very charming and dashing vampire, but can also be quite evil.




1. Eric Northman

Number one on my list is the sexy Viking vampire from my favorite show True Blood. He is Sheriff of Area 5 in Louisiana and owner of the vampire bar Fangtasia. While his role was very small in the first season, we see more and more of him each season. He is so sexy and tall and vicious and awesome and is by far my favorite character on the show. Here are some of my favorite Eric moments. I cannot wait until season 5!!!!