Anthony Hopkins finally earns his reputation, IMO

Rating: 9/10 (10 July 2006)

Anthony Hopkins has always been bestowed with an air of super respectability that I always found a little hard to swallow. I understand that men who can portray men of character, responsibility and integrity are important to the cinema, but why choose yet another Britisheer to carry the banner? Isn't it about time we chose someone out of the UK? There are such men though I don't doubt they'll be kept as far away from the limelight as they can.
I'd always thought there was something slightly wrong with Hopkins in the Zorro movies. He just doesn't seem athletic enough though otherwise he seems a clever choice. But in this movie, I was so taken with Mr. Hopkins' ability to breathe a unique life into the role of Burt Munro that I immediately wondered why I hadn't seen this level of dazzling brilliance before. Could it be that Mr. Hopkins is only recently in his prime? I don't really know but I do know I wouldn't hesitate recommending this wonderful movie to anyone -- man, woman and child. I know the type in real life. Someone capable of tinkering away in his garage making something beautiful out of an old heap. Such people exist and deserve to be immortalized in their own right. But this is also a movie about a man with an indomitably sunny disposition who somehow manages to have his way in a world usually obsessed with exclusion and propriety. We can only hope that the real Burt Munro was as winning a fellow as Mr. Hopkins portrays because I'd hate to think he didn't deserve this very effecting homage.