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Hannibal on DVD (2001)

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Average rating: 65%
1215520131225
3.0
from 5,431 members
 
Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Julianne Moore, Gary Oldman, Ray Liotta, Frankie R. Faison, Giancarlo Giannini, Francesca Neri, Zeljko Ivanek, Francis Guinan, Mark Margolis
Director: Ridley Scott
Studio: SONY PICTURES HOME ENTERTAINMENT
Run time: 126 mins
Certificate: 18
Collections: 100 Top Thrillers
User collections: Best dinner scenes in a movie, My Favourite Films, From watchable to great!, Kev's Classics, My slightly embarrasing DVD collection...., Toms Top Ten, My favourite films, Our Favourite Films of All Time, MAD MEN, PSYCHO'S, SERIAL KILLERS AND BOOGEY MEN, My DVD Collection
Genres: Thriller
Languages: English
Hearing-impaired: English
Subtitles: Dutch, English, Hindi
Released: 07/07/2003

Brief synopsis of Hannibal

After a decade in abeyance, the courtly cannibal, Hannibal Lecter, returns to the screen, again played by Anthony Hopkins, under the direction of Ridley Scott. When F.B.I. Agent Clarice Starling (Julianne Moore) is blamed for a botched drug bust, her boss Paul Krendler (Ray Liotta) makes a media circus of her humiliation, which catches the attention of Lecter. Now a hardened veteran, she begins receiving letters from the twisted genius, who remains obsessed with her. Yet she's not the only one interested in drawing out the psychopath, now lecturing on the Renaissance in Florence. Italian detective Pazzi (Giancarlo Giannini) hopes to impress his young wife by nailing the reward for his capture, and wealthy pedophile Mason Verger (Gary Oldman) is eager to take revenge against the cannibal for leaving him with a hideously deformed face. But they're no match for Hannibal's coyly satanic ubiquity, which bewilders his quickly narcotized foes before he administers a punishment sufficiently grotesque to suit his sense of amusement.The odious Krendler, in particular, learns to use his gray matter for, perhaps, the first time in his life. However, all is prologue to his fated rendezvous with Clarice. A banquet for the splatterati, reveling as it does in gore and dismemberment, the film features brilliant work by a stellar cast, and the kind of meticulous art direction and lushly magnificent photography that one has come to expect of Scott.

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Critics Reviews

Rating of 3 stars out of 5 Radio Times

Since making his debut in 1991's The Silence of the Lambs, the cinema's favourite cannibal has gnawed his way into the popular consciousness. But this long-awaited sequel didn't have a smooth journey to the screen, with both original Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) and original director Jonathan Demme rejecting the project. However, Anthony Hopkins does reprise his Oscar-winning role as Hannibal Lecter, this time with his tongue in his cheek. Top FBI agent Starling — played with creditable conviction by Julianne Moore in the absence of Foster — is faced with the aftermath of a failed drugs raid. To escape the bad publicity, she's sent to the house of a former victim of Lecter's, Mason Verger (an extraordinary performance from an unrecognisable Gary Oldman), who hopes to revitalise her search for his attacker. Fans of the first film will be disappointed with the lack of mystery, suspense and psychological resonance here, but there's loads more Lecter for the money (as the title suggests), and plenty of gory action and black humour. This film's opening in the States was the third biggest in cinema history — it took ?40 million in three days.

Rating of 1 stars out of 4 Halliwell's Film Guide

A movie that edges towards the gruesome style of a big budget Hammer horror, presenting a bogeyman as superhero. No explanation is provided as to how Lecter manages to stay undetected as he moves effortlessly between countries; we have to take his genius

Variety

"...Tantalizing, engrossing....HANNIBAL imparts its own pleasures by painting a portrait of a man of ultimate civilized refinements whose dark side always threatens to lurch out violently..."

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Members Reviews

Reviews Voted Most Helpful

Rated - 1 starsMore interesting when he was behind bars

Northernsky Northernsky from Halifax [Highly rated reviewer] , 08/06/2004

The main fault of this film and it’s not really the films fault at all, is the book it was sourced from.

“Hannibal” was a book too in love with its main protagonist, so much so it had the heroine, the intelligent and principled Clarice Starling run off with him. Thankfully the film dumps this preposterous premise. Unfortunately it cannot avoid over eulogising Dr Lector and surprisingly has just not strong enough a character to carry a film on his own.

This is primarily down to Anthony Hopkins portrayal. His camp pantomime approach strips him of his icy charisma. Compared to Brian Cox’s steely sarcastic cameo in the superb “Manhunter” this is cartoon villainy. He wanders round Florence looking like Henry Blofeld and exuding all the danger of the plumy voiced commentator.

Julianne Moore is an excellent actress but doesn’t sit right as the driven Clarice and Gary Oldham’s Mason Verger looks like a half melted waxwork of Skeletor.

The plots too silly to convince, again the fault of the book, and it finally ends with an attitude that says Lector is a bit of a rogue who just happens to horribly murder and occasionally eat people. The rascal.

It seems even the talented Ridley Scott could not make anything worthwhile with this risible material. The sooner Lector is behind bars again the better. He was far more interesting then.

  9 out of 13 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 5 stars

Gemma#24 from LEEDS , 23/09/2004

Now, I feel the need to have a mini rant about this film, as i think its seriously misunderstood. I feel that essentially, Hannibal is a dark and unconventional romance. If people could just accept hannibal for what it really is (a stylish and visually stunning film) rather than trying to compare it to silence of the lambs, they would probably really like it. Try to watch this without predjudice and treat it as a stand alone film rather than part of a trilogy, and you may just fall in love with it.

  5 out of 5 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 0 stars

davinder#4 from RUSHALL , 22/04/2004

I thought this was part 2 of the movie- it is only trailers, reviews etc. Ordered by myself in error. Thanks

Other than that, my first experience of videoisland has been very good. Great service.

  5 out of 5 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 2 starsHannibal Gets Hamstrung

David Stone-Haigh from Salford , 05/01/2005

Slick to the point of you can't see what's going on due to the gigantic glint shimmering off the fantastic production values and stunning cinematography. Shame Mr Scott et al forgot to slap on a good script, with some fine acting, some quality scares and a half decent plot (as apposed to a half baked one, shot so full of gaping holes you could get a whole fleet of buses through.) Go rent the much better 'Manhunter' instead and leave the Lector story where it should have ended- I blame you, Mr T Harriss esq, of 'Money Needed to Pay My Big Yacht Mooring Costs at Monaco' and Mr R Scott of, 'I Wish I'd Directed Alien III Instead of That Nice Young David Fincher Chappie' Land

  3 out of 4 people found this review helpful
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Most Recent Reviews

Rated - 1 starsmissed opportunity.

kevin eric gardner from Bath,england. , 25/02/2006

Hannibal is top of my most dissapointing films list.Silence of the lambs was terrific and Hannibal the book was a great follow up-multi-layered and scary as hell,and then they made THIS.Did Ridley Scott even READ the book?He misses the point so often and makes such huge errors of character and plot(Hannibal smoking a cigar-gourmets don't smoke;The policeman being alone with Lecter in his apartment and actually walking out alive?)that you soon realise that Scott has no understanding of Hannibal at all, let alone the mechanics of what makes a great thriller.And don't get me started on the ending...you can't change something as important as that from the book-all the talk about being true to Thomas harris's vision was rubbish.The saddest thing was that Anthony Hopkins allowed this to happen.What does he care?He took the money.don't they all

in the end?.A shameful waste of talent and opportunity.Please read the book and ignore this piece of junk.

  2 out of 3 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 5 stars

Gemma#24 from LEEDS , 23/09/2004

Now, I feel the need to have a mini rant about this film, as i think its seriously misunderstood. I feel that essentially, Hannibal is a dark and unconventional romance. If people could just accept hannibal for what it really is (a stylish and visually stunning film) rather than trying to compare it to silence of the lambs, they would probably really like it. Try to watch this without predjudice and treat it as a stand alone film rather than part of a trilogy, and you may just fall in love with it.

  5 out of 5 people found this review helpful
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