Julianne Moore in Hannibal (2001)

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How can you mess this up? Think about it for a minute. You have one of the hottest properties in existence, a film that many picked as the best of the 90's, and various elements of it have become an integral part of world culture. Is there anyone who doesn't know who Hannibal Lecter is?

Then you bring back the same author of the original book to write a sequel. You hire David Mamet to write a screenplay from the book. You get Ridley Scott to direct and... Best of all, you get Sir Anthony Hopkins to recreate his famous role, and when Jodie Foster won't accept the role, you get one of the best actresses in the world to substitute.

You'd think that would be pretty cool, eh? Well, you wouldn't be alone. Everybody including me thought it was a pretty cool idea. The film did the all-time record box office on its opening weekend and, as I write this, it has already grossed $100 million in about ten days in the theaters.

People wanted to see it. Maybe a lot more still do want to see it, but they will be disappointed, as I was and as most people have been.

What was a tingling game of cat and mouse in the original Silence of the Lambs has been remade as a Dr. Phibes movie.

Remember those Vincent Price films from three decades ago, where the whole point was that the insane killer had to find a different, creative, and appropriate way to kill all his victims? Well imagine if they made them today, with today's loosened standards for explicit violence and gore.

There ya go - Hannibal. Ridley Scott portrayed the beautiful city of Florence and everything else beautifully. The actors did fine. But when you get right down to it, it's just a really stylish gross-out flick - the psychology is like "Basket Case" with really great production values.

Dr. Lecter kills one Florentine detective in an exact duplication of the way the detective's ancestor died - hanging from a rope in a public square, with his bowels slit. Typical - everybody got what was coming to him.

I guess we were supposed to understand Dr. Lecter's point of view because the guy who is chasing after him (an unrecognizable Gary Oldman) seems to be far more evil than Dr. Lecter, and we surely have no sympathy for him even though he is Lecter's only surviving victim, and is grotesquely deformed by his encounter with Lecter.

His entire goal in life is to feed Lecter to starving, 600 pound, wild pigs. Of course, he met an appropriate fate which I probably don't have to describe. But how the hell can we have any sympathy for Dr. Lecter when he keeps slaughtering people like beef cattle?

WARNING - SPOILERS COMING!:

I guess you know that Jodie Foster didn't like this project. I don't blame her. In addition to the fourth-grade level of gross outs (Ray Liotta eating his own brain was my personal favorite. Lecter slits off the top of his head, cuts out little pieces of brain, and feeds Liotta. Since Liotta is drugged up and missing part of his brain, he is unaware of what's going on, and even compliments Lecter on the taste), the book had Clarise eventually seduced into Dr. Lecter's lifestyle, joining him in a cannibalistic meal. If I had been in Jodie's shoes, I think I would have turned it down as well.

As I see it, Dr. Lecter sure works better as the evil chained mastermind than he does as the guy on the lam in disguise. The suggestion of how twisted and brilliant Lecter might really be was truly frightening in Silence of the Lambs and Manhunter, but it just isn't the same to see him wandering around freely, checking the expiration dates on the milk at Piggly-Wiggly, picking up the newspaper at 7-Eleven, sipping an overpriced latte at Starbucks, and playing third base for the Psychotic Murderer's team against the cast of Cats in the Central Park softball games.

Man, how'd you like to be the guy that sold Dr. Lecter that expired buttermilk?

They didn't retain the book's ending, and I won't tell you how it does end, although I will say that I don't think you'll have any strong feelings about it either way except that they sneak in another gratuitous, last minute gross-out. You might say that it doesn't really end at all, leaving open the possibility to make yet another sequel.

My advice to you is to skip this film, unless you think the stuff I described above is exactly the kind of stuff you like. If you want to see more of Dr. Lecter, rent Manhunter. While that film doesn't have Anthony Hopkins, it is a better story with some great atmospheric touches.

Nudity Report: The only nudity is provided by the statues in the city of Florence. Julianne Moore came very close to a pop-out of her dress, but never quite slipped out completely.

Critics Vote: The dreaded and tepid two and a half stars. Roger Ebert 2.5/4, Berardinelli 2.5/4. I agree. Too slick to pan, not good enough to recommend.

IMDB Summary: 6.9 out of 10

Box Office: It is already a mammoth hit - $100 million in 10 days as I write this. Production budget - $87 million.

DVD Info: NA

Written by: Scoopy …Scoopy.net