Review: ‘Hamlet’ / ‘Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead’ at the Sargent Theater (NYC)

I know what you’re thinking — I’ve seen Hamlet before.  But if the world made more sense, buses of high schoolers and college kids who are studying Shakespeare would show up at the Sargent Theatre to experience Shakespeare with this engrossing production of Hamlet from The Seeing Place instead of experiencing his work through Sparknotes (or worse, Wikipedia).

The great thing about writing a review of Hamlet is that I don’t have to write a plot summary.  Its language is so ingrained in our culture that probably everyone uses a phrase from its text daily without even realizing it (I always loved the Isaac Asimov quote, “There is the story of the woman who read Hamlet for the first time and said, ‘I don’t see why people admire that play so. It is nothing but a bunch of quotations strung together.’”)  The Seeing Place presents a very contemporary version of Hamlet, yet at the same time the group adheres to some Shakespearean traditions.  Like in Shakespeare’s day, the supporting actors double roles (in one particular smart match, David Arthur Bachrach plays the ghost of Hamlet’s father and also the Player King, who is a stand-in for Hamlet’s father in the play-within-a-play “The Mousetrap.”  Oh yeah, he also makes a fantastic Gravedigger.)  Read more

Shia LaBeouf talks Gaining Weight and Driving 1920′s Vehicles for ‘Lawless’

Shia LaBeouf found his role in Lawless to be a bit challenging.

“I had to gain 40 pounds,” he told Vanity Fair.  “That was probably the most physically arduous; you know, I’ve never had that kind of weight on my chest before.  It’s something to get used to.”

The actor also found it difficult to drive the cars from the Prohibition-era, when the film is set.  “You’ve got to learn how to drive these cars, and become one with them, and they’re not easy cars to drive,” LaBeouf said.  “It’s not like you’ve got a clutch and a throttle—it’s totally different; you’ve got pedals that you’ve never seen before.  You look down at the floorboard—there are 12 pedals there.  You think you’re flying a hover board.  These old-school trucks were very difficult to drive.”

Lawless, also starring Jessica Chastain and Tom Hardy, comes out August 29.

Tom Hardy’s Screen Test for ‘Star Trek: Nemesis’

Here’s the screen test Tom Hardy did for the 2002 film, Star Trek: Nemesis. In the clip, he and star Sir Patrick Stewart go mano-a-mano and even though he had little credits at the time, Hardy more than holds his own against the actor.

This has been out for a while but since Hardy is kicking some Batman butt in The Dark Knight Rises, it’s made it’s way back again as videos like this do. It’s a little over 6 minutes long but it’s pretty fun to watch.

At the time this was shot, he only had a couple credits on his resume; Black Hawk Down and 2 episodes of the HBO mini-series, Band of Brothers.

Check it out below! Read more

Biography: Tom Hardy

Tom Hardy is currently in production on George Miller’s new postapocalyptic actioner, in which he takes on the role of Mad Max, opposite Charlize Theron. He will next be seen in the crime drama Lawless, which premiered at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.

Hardy previously collaborated with director Christopher Nolan in the thought-provoking 2010 thriller Inception, alongside an international cast led by Leonardo DiCaprio. He recently also starred in the boxing drama Warrior, with Nick Nolte and Joel Edgerton, and the thriller Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, with Gary Oldman.

Hailing from Great Britain, Hardy began his screen career when he was plucked straight from London’s Drama Centre for a role in HBO’s award-winning World War II miniseries Band of Brothers, executive produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg. He made his feature film debut in Ridley Scott’s war drama Black Hawk Down, followed by the sci-fi adventure Star Trek: Nemesis. Read more

Biography: Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is one of today’s busiest actors and has also been showcasing his talents behind the camera.

Following The Dark Knight Rises, he stars in three more films due out this year: the thriller Premium Rush, for writer/director David Koepp; Rian Johnson’s sci-fi thriller Looper, which he stars in with Emily Blunt and Bruce Willis and also executive produced; and the Steven Spielberg-directed biopic Lincoln, playing Robert Todd Lincoln. In addition, Gordon-Levitt is currently making his feature film directorial debut on the comedy Don Jon’s Addiction, which he also wrote and stars in with Scarlett Johansson and Julianne Moore.

Gordon-Levitt recently earned his second Golden Globe nomination in the category of Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical for his performance in the comedy/drama 50/50, in which he starred with Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick and Bryce Dallas Howard. He previously garnered Golden Globe and Independent Spirit Award nominations for his work in the award-winning sleeper hit (500) Days of Summer, opposite Zooey Deschanel. Read more

The Dark Knight’s Christian Bale: “It was very bittersweet when I took off the cowl for last time, because it’s meant so much to me personally to play this character”

It’s hard to accept that The Dark Knight Rises will likely be the last time we’ll see Christian Bale as Batman (though as Sean Connery would say, “Never say never”).  On that note, Bale took the time to express his thoughts on the last chapter of Christopher Nolan‘s Dark Knight trilogy and the series as a whole, as well as speaking about his feelings about leaving the character behind after three films.

Bale sums up the character arc of Bruce Wayne/Batman in the three films as, “In Batman Begins, you see the tragedy and the pain that motivates this angry young man, who feels useless and is searching for a path—who wants to find out who he is and what he can become. Then in The Dark Knight, he’s discovered that path.  He is useful; he is doing what he imagines is the best thing for him to be doing in his life.  Now, we are eight years on and he has lost the one thing that gave him a purpose…until he is forced to deal with a new threat to the city and to himself.” Read more

Tom Hardy: “There is nothing ambiguous about Bane. He is clearly a villain…just a horrible piece of work”

Bane might not rank among the “classic” Batman villains (the hulking back-breaker was introduced in the comics in 1993), but the character is a perfect fit for the Batman world created by Christopher Nolan in his Dark Knight trilogy.  To play the villain in The Dark Knight Rises, Nolan turned to Tom Hardy, who appeared in Nolan’s previous film, Inception. 

Hardy explains that he leaped at the chance to work with Nolan again and goes into detail about how he played the character opposite Christian Bale‘s Batman.

Hardy admits he had no hesitation working with Nolan again, though Nolan initially approached Hardy thinking he would have one reservation.  Hardy explains, “Chris called me up and said there was a role I might be good for, but he wasn’t sure I’d be interested because I’d have to wear a mask for several months.  He wouldn’t tell me anything else about the character, except that he was a very bad guy.  I said, ‘Let me get this straight: you want me to come and work with you, travel around the world, have a stunt team and all the weapons I could possibly want to play with, and all I have to do is wear a mask?’  He answered, ‘Yeah, pretty much…’  And I said, ‘I’m in!’”  In fact, Hardy says he felt the mask helped him get into character, adding, “I didn’t feel limited by the mask. What’s cool about it is, as soon as you put it on, you become the character.” Read more

Christopher Nolan talks ‘The Dark Knight’ and Working with Bale, Hardy and Hathaway

At last, it’s here: the long-awaited follow-up to 2008′s The Dark Knight, generally considered the best comic book superhero movie ever made (and until this year’s The Avengers, the highest-grossing).  The Dark Knight Rises is also director Christopher Nolan‘s farewell to the Batman franchise, and the nearly three-hour film was perhaps the most challenging of his career.  He discusses some of those challenges, including working with stars Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, and Tom Hardy, and figuring out how those characters fit into his interpretation of Batman’s world.

Nolan points to observing Bale’s approach to the Batman character as one of the highlights of making the three films.  He explains, “It’s been very rewarding to watch Christian chart the progression of his role through the three films.  He always had a strong commitment to finding the truth of the character, and I think you especially see that in this film, where he really embraced  that  Bruce  is  older,  but  not  necessarily  wiser.  It’s  a  very  thoughtful performance, and that’s what you consistently get from a talent like Christian.” Read more

Movie Review: ‘Prometheus’

If you follow a lot of the online critics, then you probably already know how much Prometheus sucks.

It’s awful! What was Ridley Scott thinking! Damon Lindelof (who wrote the film) is a hack! Too many plot holes! Blah, blah, blah. Complain, complain, complain.

Here’s what I think: Prometheus is pretty damn good.

Set in the late 21st century, a pair of archaeologist’s, Emily Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green, who is a dead ringer for Tom Hardy), discover ancient cave paintings that seem to indicate a link between early man with a set of far off planets deep in the solar system.

Eager to see if their discovery will give them the answers to our evolution, they team up with the aging Peter Weyland (a heavily made-up Guy Pearce), who eagerly funds the mission. When the team of 17 crew members eventually get to their (final?) destination, they explore the strange world and guess what? What they find isn’t in the brocheure. 

And that’s all I’ll say, you won’t get any spoilers from me. Read more

Tom Hardy Talks ‘Lawless’, ‘Dark Knight’ and Acting: “When I’m working, I have this discipline and I get meaning from it”

Tom Hardy is about to appear in a role that will most likely solidify him as a major star, Bane in The Dark Knight Rises.  While that role easily overshadows anything else Hardy has done, he still  has other projects to promote including Lawless, which also stars Shia LaBeouf, Jessica Chastain, Guy Pearce, and his Dark Knight Rises co-star Gary Oldman.  Hardy spoke to a number of media outlets on the red carpet for Lawless at the Cannes Film Festival about a variety of topics relating to his career.

In Lawless Hardy plays Forrest Bondurant, a Prohibition-era bootlegger whose actions speak louder than his few uttered words.  Hardy admits that playing a quiet character is difficult.  He explains, “These characters are difficult to play because I have a very busy head.  I have inside voices that I have learned to contain.”

Finding those inside voices can be difficult, and Hardy confesses that it takes him some time to locate the character.  He says, “You sit and you dwell and you wait and you read and you think and you meditate.  It takes time to think and ponder, and the work is never done because it just continues. It’s looking for evidence of things.” Read more

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