In a Nutshell. Mini reviews of movies old and new. No fuss. No spoilers. And often no sleep.

Thursday, 13 February 2014

HANNIBAL [2001]

Ten years after The Silence Of The Lambs, director Ridley Scott steps in for the second instalment in author Thomas Harris' Hannibal Lecter series, the lazily titled Hannibal.
Anthony Hopkins returns in the iconic role only now playing it for cheap one-liners making it seem more like a shallow and schlocky horror film rather than the inspired and thoughtful thriller of before.  Surprisingly, Julianne Moore does a fantastic job at filling Jodie Foster's shoes, who wisely declined to take part in this film.
While it has all sorts of great talents working for it, it seems more like a handful of world-class chefs making you a bowl of cereal for dinner and it's mostly Thomas Harris' shoddy source material to blame.  Instead of going for psychological character studies and thrills, it simply aims to go from Point A to B while sloppily grossing you out along the way.

2 little man-eating piggies out of 5

3 comments:

Dr Faustus said...

I saw this at the cinema when it came out. I felt the same way you do about it. Julianne Moore did well, considering, but everything else was mediocre. Same score.

cuckoo said...

I saw it in the cinema too.

I think this is the third time seeing it.

I'm foolishly hopeful I'll find something in it to enjoy more with each subsequent viewing but sadly I end up with egg on my face.

It's just bad. Even Hopkins seems to ho-hum his way through the role.

Impudent Urinal said...

They tricked me into buying it by packaging all 3 together. I don't think I've ever watched the actual DVD.