Tag: Anthony Hopkins

Magic

Going to go old school with this one. “Magic” is a 1978 horror/drama starring Anthony Hopkins (The Silence of the Lambs), Ann-Margret (Grumpy Old Men), Burgess Meredith (Rocky), and Ed Lauter (Not Another Teen Movie).

A ventriloquist (Hopkins) who’s on the fast track to stardom goes into hiding when he’s required to take a medical test for a big contract. He’s afraid the doctors will find out he’s crazy and can’t control his ventriloquist dummy. While in hiding he rekindles a spark with an old crush who happens to be married. Things start to snowball downhill very fast while there.

I wouldn’t necessarily classify this one as a horror, maybe a thriller. It’s a horror in the same sense of the movie “Psycho” is. It’s a slow burn, it doesn’t have the jump scenes, mass killings, or gore. It’s also really similar to “Psycho” in the aspect of the schizophrenia angle with a good twist ending. Hopkins could be Norman Bates brother in this. It boasts a legendary cast with Hopkins, Margret, and Meredith. I always get excited when I see Burgess Meredith in a different role, I didn’t know he was in. This is a great watch if you haven’t seen it and in perfect time for Halloween. You can catch it on Tubi. I give it an 8/10.

The Virtuoso

‘The Virtuoso’ is 2021 Action Crime/Thriller starring Anthony Hopkins (The Silence of the Lambs), Anson Mount (Hell on Wheels), Abbie Cornish (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri), and David Morse (The Green Mile). A hitman (Mount) is hired for a job, but the only details he is given is a time and place with vague details of the hit. He must now figure out who he’s hired to kill before things go sideways.

This movie has pretty low scores across the board, including IMDb, which I’ve said it in other reviews IMDb typically lines up with my scores. I typically check the ratings before the movie just to see if I agree with it in the end, with an IMDb score of 4.5/10, I wasn’t expecting much, but the description sounded good so I figured I would give it a shot. The movie is set up a little different than most, Anson Mount doesn’t have much dialogue. Instead he narrates what’s going on throughout most of the movie, which is a bit different, but I personally love Anson Mount, so I got really excited when I saw he was starring in this. He’s the ultimate bad ass in ‘Hell on Wheels’ and his personality is similar in this. I read an article one time saying how Mount doesn’t like talking, so as ‘Hell on Wheels’ progressed he gave himself less and less lines. So him not having many lines in this, I find comical, it’s perfect for Mount.

Outside the narration, the movie is a bit cheesy with the action and what dialogue there is from the other characters. They try twists and turns to keep you guessing, kind of like ‘The Usual Suspects’, just not the same level of depth. My wife found the movie just okay, I personally liked it. I think a lot of it was just because of Anson Mount, and my excitement to see him outside of ‘Hell on Wheels’. So my review may be a bit on the biased side, if another actor played the hitman role, I probably wouldn’t have liked it as much. The cheesiest of the movie was probably Anthony Hopkins character, even said, the story is still pretty good, and has you thinking who’s who and what’s going on. For this movie, IMDb is low in my opinion. I give it a 7/10.