Anthony Hopkins’ Most Criminally Underrated Movies

Welsh actor Anthony Hopkins is widely and rightly considered one of the best actors of his generation or any other. He has two Academy Awards and two Primetime Emmy Awards under his belt, with a whole host of nominations to go along with them. He can make even an unbearable movie like Transformers: The Last Knight seem more than worthy of the viewer’s attention.

That’s because he gives each performance his absolute all. Yes, even in Transformers: The Last Knight. And, yet, the man has starred in so many films that a few were either passed over when released or seem to have been forgotten. Here are some of the most underrated gems starring Anthony Hopkins and waiting to be discovered.

10 Magic (1978)

Right around the time he was starring in the excellent made-for-TV movieThe Lindbergh Kidnapping Case, Hopkins was playing a troubled ventriloquist in the Richard Attenborough film Magic. Oh, and contributing his voice to the incredibly creepy dummy, Fats.

Maybe Hannibal Lecter Isn’t the Scariest Character Under Hopkins’ Belt

Hopkins pulls off a tightrope walking act with his work in Magic. His Charles “Corky” Withers is timid but driven, while Fats is abrasive and, yes, murderous. But, naturally, both personalities are a part of one, and Hopkins makes the viewer believe Corky is truly juggling them both at all times, and that it’s not easy for him.

9 The Bounty (1984)

The Bounty tells the story of the doomed voyage of the HMS Bounty. A vessel intended to collect breadfruit pods, the Bounty instead gets taken over by the commander’s best friend. Hopkins plays Commanding Lieutenant William Bligh, while Mel Gibson portrays the aforementioned friend and head mutineer Fletcher Christian.

Hopkins vs. Gibson

While Gibson’s performance can be a bit dry at times, The Bounty features one of Hopkins’ best performances to date. He conveys strength and heartbreak equally well, and saves the movie from being a slog. That said, other recognizable and ridiculously talented actors such as Laurence Olivier, Daniel Day-Lewis, Liam Neeson, and The Lord of the Rings‘ Bernard Hill pull their weight.

8 The Edge (1997)

In The Edge, Hopkins plays billionaire Charles Morse, who suspects that photographer Robert Green (Alec Baldwin) is sleeping with his wife. The two hop on a plane to go find a model to stand alongside Morse’s wife in a photoshoot, but it crashes. And, in time, Morse’s assistant is injured, and his blood attracts a massive Kodiak bear.

Hopkins vs. Bart the Bear

In time, Morse’s suspicions about Green and his wife prove accurate, but the bear continues to make itself the bigger problem. The two men have to team up to survive. Though, even if they survive the bear, they might not survive each other.

7 The Mask of Zorro (1998)

At one point envisioned as a Tom Cruise project, The Mask of Zorro instead secured Antonio Banderas as the lead and was all the better for it. His chemistry with Catherine Zeta-Jones was crackling just as his dynamic with Hopkins’ mentoring Don Diego de la Vega was endearing. Toss in some well-choreographed fight sequences and this actioner from Martin Campbell (fresh off GoldenEye) is a winner to this day.

One of the ’90s’ More Underappreciated Franchise-Starters

Now, it’s not as if The Mask of Zorro has never received any attention. After all, it netted $250.3 million worldwide against a budget of $95 million. But it didn’t kick off a high profile franchise like it should have, with only The Legend of Zorro following in its footsteps. That was seven years later, and even with a lower budget of $65 million, it wasn’t hugely profitable, nor was it half as fun as Mask.

6 Meet Joe Black (1998)

Martin Brest’s Meet Joe Black features Hopkins as successful businessman Bill Parrish, who is told by Death (Brad Pitt) that his time will soon be up. But Death offers a deal. Parrish can have a few extra days on the Earthly plane as long as he serves as Death’s guide. The latter wants to experience mortality, especially the feeling of love, and Bill hesitantly agrees.

Pure Sunday Afternoon Melodrama, in the Best Way Possible

In time, Death, who Bill has named “Joe Black” to keep up the charade, falls in love with Bill’s daughter, Susan (Claire Forlani). And the feeling is swiftly mutual, considering Death has inhabited the form of a man she met in a coffee shop just days earlier. A man who, after leaving that coffee shop, was run over by several cars.

5 Red Dragon (2002)

Like Ridley Scott’s Hannibal, which is the third and final Hannibal Lecter film chronologically (but was released just one year before this movie), Red Dragon has a horror movie villain falling in love.

Unlike Lecter’s apparent sexual attraction to Clarice Starling in Scott’s overlong 2001 movie, Lecter is not the lover in this memorable Brett Ratner thriller. And, also unlike Hannibal, Red Dragon is a fairly serviceable follow-up to the perfect The Silence of the Lambs, which is higher praise than it sounds like given the incredible quality of that 1991 masterpiece.

Certainly Better Than Hannibal (The Movie, Not the Show)

Hopkins has cited Lecter as one of his favorite roles, so it makes sense he’s come back to it twice. And, like Michael Mann’s Manhunter, this is a grisly and occasionally moving adaptation of Thomas Harris’ 1981 novel. But, oddly enough, Hopkins’ performance is arguably not the film’s best, as Ralph Fiennes is dynamite as Franis Dolarhyde, as is Emily Watson as the object of his troubled affections, Reba McClane.

4 Fracture (2007)

A fun if fairly slight legal thriller that lets Hopkins have a ball, Fracture is worth a watch. He stars as Ted Crawford, a multi-millionaire Irish aeronautical engineer who shoots his wife in their home and waits until the police arrive. Specifically, Detective Robert Nunally, who has been having a fling with Crawford’s wife on the side.

Early Gosling Meets Seasoned Hopkins

Ryan Gosling enters the picture as William Beachum, an ultra-ambitious district attorney who thinks the case is such a lock he barely puts any energy into it. But it starts to dawn on him that Crawford is not only playing games, but he just might be brilliant enough to get away with attempted murder and finish the job. It’s a cat-and-mouse game with an innocent life on the line.

3 Beowulf (2007)

If any of Robert Zemeckis’ experimental and creepy mo-cap movies has aged well, it’s Beowulf. At the very least, the casting was fully on-point, with Hopkins, Ray Winstone, John Malkovich, Angelina Jolie, Robin Wright, Brendan Gleeson, and Crispin Glover all excelling in their roles. This is especially true of Winstone as the title character, Glover as Grendel, and Jolie as Grendel’s Mother.

What a Cast

Hopkins has a lot of fun with the meaty role of the drunken King Hrothgar. Hrothgar hires Beowulf to kill Grendel, who has been terrorizing his kingdom…and just so happens to be his son. By his own admission, Hopkins didn’t have much familiarity with the material, but one wouldn’t know it watching the film. Like when he played Odin, Hopkins is just a natural for anything with a classical twist, whether it’s straightforward or slightly fantastical in nature.

2 The Wolfman (2010)

One year before he was directing Captain America: The First Avenger, Joe Johnston was tackling another genre period piece with The Wolfman. But, while The First Avenger was met with moderate success and has gone on to be deemed one of the MCU’s best, The Wolfman flopped and was swiftly forgotten. That said, it did win the Academy Award for Best Makeup.

A Troubled Production That Could Have Been Worse

Despite some pacing issues and a wonky Benecio del Toro Wolfman vs. Hopkins Wolfman finale, Johnston’s films have some aspects that work for it. For one, Emily Blunt steals her scenes as the widow of the late Ben Talbot (the son of Hopkins’ character, brother of del Toro’s, whose death at the hands of a Wolfman are what kicks the narrative into motion).

Secondly, the production design is fabulous. And, in terms of pure shocks, there’s a great scene where del Toro’s Lawrence is strapped to a table and being studied only to fulfill his warning of “I will kill all of you!” in vicious glory.

1 Noah (2014)

Darren Aronofsky’s take on the story of Noah’s Ark was never going to be Biblically accurate. And that’s perfectly fine, given that Noah stands on its own from front to back. But it certainly didn’t have many fans of the right wing persuasion nonetheless.

Just Don’t Go in Expecting God’s Not Dead 47

Hopkins portrays Methuselah, Noah’s grandfather, who provides the title character with wisdom throughout the first half. Methuselah is the only member of Noah’s family who doesn’t board the ark, so he doesn’t exactly have the most screentime, but Hopkins’ still manages to steal his scenes as much as Ray Winstone ends up stealing the entire third act.