Red Dragon - stars Anthony Hopkins, Ed Norton

Anyone seen "Red Dragon", skip this review if you don't want to read about it. I'll start with what we were expecting, and that was that it was going to be all about Hannibal, what he got up to, how he went about it, how he got caught. And what did we get? Well, basically just another "Silence Of The Lambs". FBI profiler gets help from a captive Hannibal (glass cell doors and all) to find a killer and track him down.

So disappointment is the only word to come to mind. I didn't mind the movie, wasn't as good as Silence, but nowhere near as bad as some movies I've seen lately. There are actually bits that make you jump and cringe and the like, they're few and far between, but worth it. And the main reason they make you jump is the director has inserted some really scary high-pitched loud musical effects right at that moment, so if you're in a surround sound theatre, you get the crap scared out of you by the silence suddenly being deafened by all this high-pitched noise, as opposed to what's going on on the screen. Hhmm.

Another annoying aspect was the villain actually talks like Hannibal, that botched English/American accent with the drawn out syllables, faux pa or not, it didn't make things any better for the movie's cred. All that aside, its an ok story, albeit fairly predictable. Anthony shines once again, there's no doubt. Ed Norton goes through the motions a bit, the support are adequate I guess, although Harvey Keitel is a whimper of his former presence. I think in the end the script left a lot to be desired, and I think fans of Silence are going to want a prequel to the prequel now and actually have a story about Hannibal, I know I do.  It just reminds me of how these actors have been able to present themselves so much better. Ed Norton especially! Go rent "Primal Fear" and "American History X", even if you've seen them before, it does restore your faith in Ed.  3 stars.

BH