The Best and Worst of Anthony Hopkins

The "Best and Worst" series profiles the best and worst work of an actor starring in one of the week's new theatrical releases. This week I take a look at the filmography of "Transformers: The Last Knight" star Anthony Hopkins.

Films starring Anthony Hopkins that I've seen:
The Silence of the Lambs
The Mask of Zorro
How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Fracture
Beowulf
The Wolfman
The Rite
Thor
Red 2
Thor: The Dark World
Noah

Best Performance: The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
When you play a character that's as iconic and memorable as Hannibal Lecter, there's no chance in hell that it won't go down as a career-defining role. Hopkins' intensity, eeriness and intelligence helped make Lecter one of the most menacing villains in the history of cinema. 

Worst Performance: The Wolfman (2010)
Joe Johnston's tedious remake of The Wolfman claimed the souls of numerous terrific actors including Benicio Del Toro and Emily Blunt. Unsurprisingly, the "Fuck it, I'm just here for the paycheck" plague that ran through the cast didn't discriminate against British royalty as Hopkins turned in the laziest performance of his career to-date. Hopkins looked like he was ready for a nap as he ripped through a seemingly endless amount of exposition-filled dialogue explaining the mythology and moon cycle-based bloodlust behind their family's werewolf curse to his son (Del Toro).

Best Film: The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
This may be a shock to all of the lovely geriatrics out there, but when you've only been walking this wonderful earth for 25 years, you're forced to play catch up with the films that came out before/around the time you were born. As I've slowly worked my way through cinema's rich history, I've found that the inevitable generational gap paired with the glowing reputation these classic films possess usually results in me being disappointed when I finally get a chance to see them. This trend of being constantly underwhelmed by iconic flicks from several different decades is what made watching The Silence of the Lambs such a rewarding experience for me. The 1991 Best Picture winner from the late Jonathan Demme is truly one of the best-assembled thrillers I've ever seen. Every keep character is well-developed and the story continues to ratchet up the tension throughout before it reaches beautiful, vicious fever pitch in the final act. Watching an "all-time great" film that actually managed to live up to its legendary reputation served as a much-needed reminder of why I've decided to commit so much time to discovering old movies.

Worst Film: Beowulf (2007)
Hopkins has starred in a fair amount of trash during his twilight years (The Rite, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, the aforementioned The Wolfman) that deserved consideration for this dubious honor, but none of the other films he's appeared in over the past 20 years were as hilariously inept as Beowulf.  While Robert Zemickis' (Forest Gump, Cast Away) motion capture-animated take on the famous epic poem of Beowulf and Grendel features some beautiful moments of unintentional comedy (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNaj7uCVPCI), it's mostly an overly serious bore that contained none of the over-the-top fun that I look for in a fantasy/sword and sandal hybrid.


Thank you for reading this week's installment of "The Best and Worst of". Next week, I'll take a look at the best and worst work of "The House" star Amy Poehler.