Top Ten: Tom Hardy's Back Side

A week ago I just couldn't get myself worked up over the first glimpse of Tom Hardy's back in The Dark Knight Rises. The new pic spread across the internets so fast you'd think his flesh was covered in Lady Gaga tattoos. I couldn't get excited because I'd seen it so many times before with better views; the back, not the shot of "Bane"! Bane once broke Batman's back so it's fitting that we'd see that side of him first. It all comes back to the spine.

So herewith an impromptu top ten random ten shots of Tom Hardy from the back.

10 THE CODE  (2008)
The Code, which often films Tom Hardy from the back as more important characters are viewed from the front while they chat is a prime example of the retroactive casting problem with rising stars. When you watch their pre-ascendance movies, it's totally distracting how little the director notes their presence... as if you should actually care more about the characters who share their scenes. As if!

Stop talking men in suits. Show us the Hardy!

09 STAR TREK: NEMESIS (2002)
One of Hardy's earliest roles was one of his highest profile parts as he puts the nemesis in Nemesis. When Shinzon (Hardy) meets the crew of the Starship, the room is dark and the camera is careful to only show him from behind (or cloaked in shadow) for minutes on end.

You're not at all what we expected you to be.

...Capt. Jean Luc Picard tells him and he doesn't even know how true that is. Turns out Shinzon is actually genetically identitical to Picard, a clone! The antagonist decides to stop playing coy. "Computer bring the lighting up four levels," he says for the dramatic reveal. The lights come up and I think you're supposed to gasp that Tom Hardy LOOKS EXACTLY LIKE Patrick Stewart.

If by exactly like you mean: also bald. Hollywood hates bald people! We all look the same to them.

08 THE DARK KNIGHT RISES
Seen up top. The reason it's not higher is I actually prefer my Hardy with less steroid bulk. Where are the architectural details of a screen body when it's shaped like a brick wall? Give me "Handsome Bob" rather than "Bronson" is what I'm saying... even if Bronson is definitely the... uh... fullest... way to really enjoy your Tom, heartily. To date.

More on Bronson in a bit. Warning: nudity after the jump...

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Easter Egg Movie Madness

Happy Easter TFE readers. I ran out of time this year but I had totally planned to create Black Swan Easter Eggs to add to my previous collections of movie-themed easter eggs. The visual has to be iconic and easily reduced to oval form, see. Nina Sayers and her scary eyemakeup totally work. In order to be somewhat festive today, anyway, here's a reprint of a classic post. If you haven't read it before it's new to you!

Movie Themed Easter Eggs

Time for Arts & Crafts! All holidays lend themselves to movie obsessing and Easter is no exception.Plus, who doesn't love brightly colored edibles? Here are a few movie themed easter eggs you can make with your kids, godchildren, nephews, nieces or your adult friends who behave like children.

Materials needed: eggs, food dye, vinegar, water and the ability to measure and boil it, spoons, glasses, white crayons, black crayon or black marker, red candle, hand/eye coordination and some degree of artistic ability.

Get started! Boil water. Insert eggs (leave boiling for 10-12 minutes). Take water off stove without burning self. Rinse eggs in cold water. Put eggs on cooling rack. Leave for a few hours. Return. Mix different colors of dye into glasses (1/4 tsp food coloring / 1 tbsp white vinegar / 3/4th cup hot water) into which you can dip zee eggs. Ready... and GO.

Superheroes and Salmonella after the jump.

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Batman at the Circus: 'Massacre Under the Big Top'

Kurt here from Your Movie Buddy, offering a circus-themed post to coincide with the release of Water for Elephants, 20th Century Fox's spring tentpole (nyuk, nyuk). My three-ring subject is a pivotal scene from Batman Forever, that neon-coated guilty pleasure that gave way to what's likely my most hated movie of all time. It begins with a cube of cheese:

I've really got to get you out of those clothes...

            "Excuse me?"

...and into a black dress. Tell me, doctor, do you like the circus?"

And with that, Bruce Wayne (Val Kilmer) and the bankly-named Dr. Chase Meridian (Nicole Kidman) head out for a very script-friendly first date, conveniently opening the door for The Birth of Robin. We soar into the Hippodrome, a waterfront arena just outside the downtown area of Joel Schumacher's rainbow vision of Gotham, and pass multiple instances of the production designer's imperialist-society-by-way-of-paper-mâché aesthetic.

Inside, Gotham's finest gather to watch the acrobatic stylings of The Flying Graysons, a carnie clan that includes Dick (Chris O'Donnell), his brother, and his mom and dad. To my knowledge, this setup adheres rather closely to the lore of the Batman comics, though Dick/Robin was just a wee lad of 10 when taken under Batman's cape.

Anyway (getting ahead of ourselves), the Graysons prove a crowd favorite.

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Links: Tim Hetherington (RIP), Batman Year One, Gaga Saga

Tribeca Film RIP Tim Hetherington. This is so sad.The just Oscar nominated co-director of the fine documentary Restrepo and an amazing war photographer has been killed in Libya. He had just recently released a book of photography called Infidel which had a section called "Sleeping Soldiers" --not your typical war photography.

You can listen to a lengthy talk by him about his work at "Foto 8" The site also has an accompanying gallery to watch while listening.

Movie|Line 3-D reboot of softcore Chinese movie Sex & Zen (I don't know whether or not to admit that I've seen the original. Whoops) breaks records in Hong Kong. American produced 3-D porn is also on the way. Ruh-roh.
Hollywood Reporter Batman Year One, an animated film igoing straight to DVD, casts Eliza Dushku as Catwoman. That works, her being a frisky kitty and all.
TOH Anne Thompson thinks Jennifer Lawrence looks terrible as Mystique in X-Men: First Class. I'd agree. I don't understand why they had to give her that abnormal forehead thing again. Shake up the look a little.

Weird Al explains what happened with Lady Gaga. She's disrupted his album release plans by rejecting his "Born This Way" parody "Perform This Way"
Playbill Been missing the awesome of Jonathan Groff or the bliss of Kristin Chenoweth on Glee? They return very very soon.

Antonio Banderas in The Skin I Live In (2011)

Vulture Margaret Lyons has a very astute article on what's right and wrong with NBC's "Parenthood". (I met one of its stars and I'll tell you about that tomorrow morning.)
Very Small Array has a horrifying chart about the quality slide in box office hits. Thanks to Awards Daily for pointing it out.
In Contention starts a series on the Cannes offering beginning with Almodóvar's The Skin I Live In.
Cinema Blend Jacki Weaver joins the Judd Apatow comedy Five Year Engagement. Go get those post-Oscar roles, Jacki! 

Two By Bat

JA from MNPP here, taking a moment to cover one of Nat's most favorite topics - the endless conversation of who's playing who in Christopher Nolan's final (or so he says) Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises. Only instead of indulging the bottomless echo-chamber of speculation, here be actual real for-sure announcements! Via EW:

"Warner Bros. has announced the official casting of Oscar winner Marion Cotillard and Joseph-Gordon Levitt in Christopher Nolan’s third Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises. Cotillard will play Miranda Tate, described as “a Wayne Industries board member eager to help a still-grieving Bruce Wayne [played by Christian Bale] resume his father’s philanthropic endeavors for Gotham.” Gordon-Levitt will play John Blake, described as “a Gotham City beat cop assigned to special duty under the command of Commissioner Gordon [played by Gary Oldman].”

So there we have it. Cotillard's not playing Talia al Ghul and Joe's not playing The Riddler or any of the other seventeen thousand characters people have been guessing. Just a suit (albeit a sexy French suit, probably with fishnets underneath) and a cop (albeit... well, knowing Joe, probably the same). This is probably for the best since we've already got Catwoman and Bane bopping about. What do we think?