Tag Archives: Band of Brothers

Charlize Theron’s 10 Best Movies

Charlize Theron

Charlize Theron is the queen of action right now in Hollywood, which isn’t a bad title to attain after 20 years playing mostly deeply serious character roles.  Theron, who is originally from South Africa, doesn’t have as deep a resume as some of the actresses from her generation, but it’s not lack of talent that prevents her, more a tendency to take on misguided “message” projects that fall flat.  Additionally, if you look for Monster among her 10 Best, you won’t find it as it is one of the few films in my life I’ve walked out of because I found it so deeply unpleasant.  Doesn’t mean that she wasn’t outstanding in her acting; just means that there’s only so much hooker/serial killer I can take (and from the eventual director of Wonder Woman….who knew?).  She’s on a serious career upswing in the wake of stealing Mad Max: Fury Road (where’s our Furiosa spin-off?) and re-establishing her action dominance in Atomic Blonde.  She looks 20 years younger than her actual age, and can beat you up, so it’s unlikely this actress is going to fall prey to the gender wall that eats so many careers.  I’d like to see her do more comedy though.  She has great timing, and that’s something you can’t teach.

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Tom Hardy’s 10 Best Movies

Tom Hardy

Tom Hardy has, for an actor only 15 or so years into his career, put together a top 10 list of projects that would be the lifetime envy of most.  Rarely the leading man, Hardy seems most comfortable in a high-class ensemble where he can build indelible characters that steal movies.  Even before he became part of the “Nolan Troupe”, joining the director for Inception, The Dark Knight Rises, and Dunkirk, Hardy was firmly established as a consummate character actor.  Even in films like Mad Max: Fury Road, in which he’s the title character, he was content to let Charlize Theron’s Furiosa steal the movie while he provided the constant and the result was the Academy actually nominated a cool movie for Best Picture.  Hardy is one of many actors that had their first high-profile role in Band of Brothers (one of the five best things ever to air on TV) along with James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, and others.  Hardy doesn’t stick just to films, having returned to TV for the massively underrated Peaky Blinders and beginning his own starring vehicle in FX’s Taboo.  He’s a chameleon (compare skinny Band of Brothers Hardy with Bane), but at the core of all of his characters is a fierce anger that sometimes burns hot or cold, but it’s always an asset to whatever project he’s undertaking.


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Tom Hanks’ 10 Best Movies

tom-hanks-im-kinda-amaz-009

Tom Hanks is the biggest star in Hollywood and has been for over two decades.  From a start as a comedian, first on TV in Bosom Buddies and then in film with movies like Bachelor Party, Hanks got his big break, first in 1984’s Splash, then exploding into popularity in 1988 with his first Oscar nomination for Big.  Since then, he has gone on to win two Oscars, four Golden Globes, and his work with HBO on miniseries like From the Earth to the Moon, Band of Brothers, and The Pacific has won him six Emmys.

Tom Hanks, Robert Loggia, Big

Hanks is often called the “Jimmy Stewart of our generation” in that despite being the star he is, he’s a genuine person; the everyman who becomes someone with whom the audience can instantly relate.  Many actors, especially comic actors, really just play a heightened version of themselves in film.  Hanks began his career doing this, but soon disappeared into his roles and those roles defined some of the finest cinema of the last 30 years.  Apollo 13, Saving Private Ryan, the Toy Story Trilogy, Cast Away, Road to Perdition, Forrest Gump, Philadelphia, Charlie’s Wilson’s War, and the list goes on and on.  Hanks’ #11-20 films are of a quality that most actors would kill to have them as their top 10 (and I cheated and combined the Toy Stories to get two more films on the list; perks of making the rules).  Hanks turned 60 in 2016, hard as that is to believe, but he’s still Hollywood’s leading man.


Jim Lovell, Apollo 13, Tom Hanks, Ron Howard

PS – If you find yourself in a movie and Tom Hanks is the captain of whatever vessel you’re traveling on (Captain Phillips, Sully, Apollo 13)…..buckle up.  Things are going to be ok, but you’re in for a bumpy ride.  If he’s the captain of your platoon, that is another story altogether.
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Top 5 Films or Shows That Make You Proud to Be An American

Top 5
It’s not easy to be proud to be an American these days.  Not as easy as easy as it once was.  This generation, unlike ones that came before, has been faced with so much gray in a previous starkly dark or light world, that it’s polarized good people from other good people.  We don’t feel like the UNITED States these days.  Who are the American people?  Who are they in 2014?  When we look around at our circumstances, our recent history, our representatives (blue and red alike)….it’s a lot more difficult to feel the patriotism and the pride I once took in being a citizen of the country of my birth.  Are movies and television shows trivial in the light of that bleak reality?  Not the best of them.  The best of them serve as reminders of qualities, people, places, and events that NEED to be remembered.  Here are five examples: Continue reading Top 5 Films or Shows That Make You Proud to Be An American

Tom Hanks’ Latest 10 Movies vs. Greatest 10 Movies

Forrest Gump, Tom Hanks
Latest vs. Greatest looks at directors, actors, actresses, screenwriters and composers to assess the state of their career as it stands.  We’ll look back at the latest 10 movies the artist has done, rate them and then average them out to see where they stand today.  We’ll also rank their 10 greatest movies and give them the same treatment to compare what they have been doing to their very best work.  (A quick side-note: if an artist is/has been a regular on a TV show we’ll also grade the seasons individually; artists need 10 projects to qualify).

Tom Hanks is the most famous actor in America, if not the world.  In a career entering its fourth decade, Hanks has already established a body of work of legendary quality.  He has created some of the most memorable characters in film history.  He has participated in cinema’s most famous scenes.  He’s won multiple Oscars and, were it not for the Academy’s weirdness about giving “too many” he’d have several more.  He is equally deft in comedy or drama.   He’s directed featured films.  He’s been the driving force behind three of the greatest mini-series to ever appear on television.  He’s one of the most powerful forces in the industry, but I’ve never heard anyone say a bad word about him (and in entertainment that’s quite an accomplishment in itself).  He is, quite probably, the best actor of our generation….and he started it all by dressing in drag on a sitcom. Continue reading Tom Hanks’ Latest 10 Movies vs. Greatest 10 Movies