I’ve never read any of Thomas Harris’ books, or seen any of the movies based on them, including the first adaptation of Red Dragon, called Manhunter, directed by Michael Mann.
And to be honest, I’ve never really had any interest in doing so.
Serial killers aint my thing. Slashers aint either.
They scare me because they seem too real.
So I never got to see Anthony Hopkins in his notorious role as Hannibal Lecter.
Until now.
Damn, he is creepy.
Even old and trying (and failing) to seem younger than the first film a decade ago, he’s creepy. Yuck.
Red Dragon though is really about another serial killer as portrayed by Ralph Fiennes, not at all as suave and eerily fascinating as Hopkins, but interesting enough in his neo-barbaric way. Investigating “the tooth fairy”, as Fiennes is ignornantly dubbed by the press, is Edward Norton. He plays a retired FBI agent asked to consult in the murders of two families. Norton is great, as usual, but he never really gets a chance to shine.
Emily Watson is also great as a blind coworker of Fiennes’ that innocently befriends the madman. She is always good, and I love the fact that watching her in this role you’d have no idea that she’s a Brit! I love that!
It’s hard for me not to be biased in this review because I find this kinda stuff so gnarly that even a really great movie would probably get a low rating. I don’t think this movie is that great, even though the screenplay is by Ted Tally, who wrote The Silence Of The Lambs which is supposed to be so awesome. I thought some aspects were cool, some kinda lame. I dunno, maybe it’s just me.
The main reason I saw Red Dragon is because I was curious about Brett Ratner’s directing. This is a long way from Money Talks and the Rush Hour movies…could he pull off this kind of drama?
Well, he did a good job, but I wasn’t really blown away. Luckily for me it wasn’t a gory ass flick, but it did have it’s share of creepy moments, but it just didn’t seem as intense as it should be.