Almost There: Anthony Hopkins in "Magic"

by Cláudio Alves

This fall will be a lovely time for Anthony Hopkins fans. The actor co-stars in both Armageddon Time (Oct 28th) and The Son (Nov 25th), playing important grandfather figures in both films. While he's said to be a warm presence in James Gray's movie memoir, the actor's second collaboration with Florian Zeller (The Father) seems better positioned to showcase the bitter and biting side of Hopkins' screen persona. After a few decades in less than stellar projects, it's a great joy to see the thespian return to form in such interesting endeavors, regardless of the mixed reactions both films have garnered. Though another Oscar nomination feels unlikely at this point in the season, watching Hopkins thrive in his 80s is its own reward.

Because spookiness is in the air, let's remember when Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins was neither a knight nor an Oscar nominee. We're going back to 1978 when Richard Attenborough's Magic saw him play a creepy ventriloquist and maybe come close to his first Academy Award nomination…

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25th Anniversary Memoir: "Jurassic Park"

by Lynn Lee

June 1993.  It was my birthday, and I’d invited a group of my girl friends over for a small celebration that would include a movie outing.  I don’t remember exactly why I picked Jurassic Park.  I hadn’t read the book, I wasn’t yet a full-on movie buff, I didn’t like scary movies, and I wasn’t really into dinosaurs.  Yet something about the tremendous buzz surrounding this “adventure 65 million years in the making” must have penetrated my social bubble because I remember us all being excited to see it.

Whatever our expectations were, Jurassic Park blew them away.  From the moment that opening eerie chorus and single bamboo flute dissolved into the rustle of an unknown, unseen thing in a crate that within three minutes lay savage waste to one unfortunate worker, we were all transfixed in our seats and couldn’t have moved if our lives had depended on it...

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