Anthony Hopkins is undoubtedly a legend of the silver screen, and since making his feature film debut in 1968, he’s gone on to build an impressive and acclaimed body of work.
After winning an Academy Award for Best Actor thanks to his instantly iconic role as Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs, he went on to land another four Oscar nominations, and is widely expected to be in the running once again this year after delivering an incredible performance in The Father.
Of course, once you’ve reached Hopkins’ status in the industry, you’re well within your rights to take the occasional paycheck gig every now and then, something the 83 year-old has never shied away from, but he always appears to be having a great time doing it.
Most veteran stars can often phone it in when they lend their gravitas to big budget blockbusters, but Hopkins isn’t that kind of actor, and he delivered memorable turns in the likes of The Mask of Zorro, Mission: Impossible II, The Wolfman and the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Thor franchise, while he was the undoubted highlight of Michael Bay’s otherwise turgid Transformers: The Last Knight.
Hopkins even showed up in a B-level horror a decade ago, and while The Rite was largely panned by critics and underwhelmed at the box office, he was inevitably the best thing about the movie as Father Lucas Trevant. The plot focuses on a young seminary student who attends a Vatican school, where he soon discovers that possession is not psychological, but rooted in reality.
It’s a decent setup for the genre, but the execution is way off, although Hopkins is value for money as always. The Rite may have vanished from memory a long time ago, but it’s currently one of the 20 most-watched titles on Netflix around the world, sitting at #19 on the global chart.
