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Oky doky, here we go with a review of Hannibal, the follow up to the Oscar winning, The Silence of the Lambs. As you have probably heard there was a slight casting change with Jodie Foster leaving as agent Clarice Starling and the redheaded Julianne Moore (The Ladies Man) replacing her. Anthony Hopkins (How the Grinch Stole Christmas) returns as the cannibalistic Dr. Hannibal Lecter, the same role that won him an Academy Award the last time. Both films are based on novels by Thomas Harris. As to the story, Hannibal escaped the last time we saw him, and now is in Florence, Italy (not Henderson). There he is a curator for an art collection (the previous curator died a bit mysteriously). But soon the investigator for that death discovers that Lecter has a 3 million dollar reward on his head if turned in to a private party. Meanwhile in the states, Special Agent Starling is having a few problems with her FBI career, so she is re-assigned to the Lecter case. Once assigned to the old case she seems to get into even more trouble, thus causing the paternalistic Hannibal to return to the US so that he can assist Starling (which is the plan of one of Lecter's victims who is out for a bit of revenge). The plan works, but of course Hannibal can't be killed, so obviously he escapes, but now the FBI wants him (and he wants a bit of the FBI for dinner, but not his precious Clarice). This is where the film gets really graphic as Agent Krendler (Ray Liotta, Cop Land) has dinner guests. Now the film is pretty graphic up to this point, but director Ridley Scott (Gladiator) then takes it up a couple of notches for the remainder of the film. Others in the cast are Gary Oldman (The Contender), Ennio Coltorti, Robert Rieti, Francesca Neri, Giancarlo Giannini, Alex Corrado, Spike Jonze, Marco Greco, Danielle De Niesse, Bruno, Lazzaretti, and in a repeat performance Frankie Faison as Barney the Orderly (Hannibal's orderly at the hospital). The director, Scott, does a masterful job of exploring the Hannibal character in this film, where before we learned mainly about Starling. However this is about the only character development we see in the film. I did like this film, but not as much as the original, and I don't think we really needed to see all the graphic details of Lecter's handiwork. For the About-Movies.com rating I give Hannibal eight couches. Oky doky. Last updated: Saturday, October 28, 2006 05:37:37 PM |
