Review of Hannibal (2001) by Traci B — 07 Mar 2010

'Hannibal' is a 2001 psychological horror film directed by Ridley Scott, adapted from the Thomas Harris novel of the same name. Set ten years after The Silence of the Lambs (1991 to 2001), the premise is that Hannibal Lecter's only surviving victim, the extremely wealthy Mason Verger, is determined to capture, torture, and kill him. The Movie Plot/Storyline is about the after having successfully eluded the authorities for years, Hannibal peacefully lives in Italy in disguise as an art scholar. Trouble strikes again when he is discovered leaving a deserving few dead in the process. He returns back to America to once again make contact with now disgraced Agent Clarice Starling who is suffering the wrath of a malicious FBI official/rival as well as the media. Meanwhile, Hannibal must survive the advances by a disfigured and vengeful victim he first came in contact with years ago as a patient. He finds himself being tracked down not only by his wealthy victim and his henchmen but also by Agent Starling and the American authorities. The Movie Tagline is "Break the Silence" is really cool because it saying of the first film 'The Silence of the Lambs', while the poster is creepy with Anthony Hopkins with his creepy face & those Red eyes in a dark toned poster and the Trailer was freaky, but gave god intro to the new sequel film and a good watch first time round. This film is a sequel to The Silence of the Lambs (1991) and has to two sequel after this one and they are; Red Dragon (2002) & Hannibal Rising (2007), soo which meaning this is the seconded one out of the fourth original & sequels Movie in the films series (with the first three with Anthony Hopkins & the last fourth one with Gaspard Ulliel) and is the third best out of the four of the films & is the seconded last (which is bad) from audiences & critics responds towards this film.

Hannibal was the highly anticipated sequel to 1991 Academy Award-winning The Silence of the Lambs, which introduced Hannibal Lecter to mainstream movie going audiences (though the character was first portrayed by Brian Cox in the 1986 film, Manhunter, based on Harris novel, Red Dragon). It has won or being nominated by big or normal awards settings for its film-making, acting, writer or others, as they are; Saturn Award & MTV Movie Award.

Hannibal broke box-office records in the United States, Australia, Canada and the UK in February 2000, as Hannibal grossed $58 million (USA) in its opening weekend (from 3,230 screens). At the time (February 2001) this was the third-biggest debut ever only 1997 The Lost World: Jurassic Park and 1999 Star Wars Episode I: the Phantom Menace grossed more in an opening weekend. It was also, when it was released, the biggest opening box office for an R-rated movie ever. Final domestic box office gross (USA) reached $165,092,268 with a worldwide gross of $351,692,268. The film spent three weeks at number one in the US box office chart and four weeks at number one in the UK. Hannibal was the tenth highest grossing movie of the year worldwide.

The Film is a brilliant anticipated sequel, it's soo modern time & fresh, The theme, style, setting is very dark toned which is really cool, The Film is cinema's favourite cannibal which has gnawed his way into the popular consciousness, The Style, Theme, Setting & Storyline/Plot is awesome whit alot or darkness towards his life As the character in the film), It works. It's smart, good looking, sexy, fun, dirty, naughty and knowingly entertaining, the music/sound background is really creepy, scare & odd, The first bit of the film shit me up well bad and all the way through it scared me to death, The film is really sick, gory, scary, disturbing & disgusting, Hannibal is killing for taste & rude people which is clever, but weirdo for me, its witty, tasteful, The film is different dark & very bloody gore take and is very good action & brilliant stylish Hannibal Murdering and has the scene of good killings & revenge. The film ending has a classic theme of tunes, while a good kiss for Anthony Hopkins & Julianne Moore and for Ray Liotta infamous scene of the Brian show it horrific & has got a good set of special effects use out it & in the rest of the film, as the Romance is deadly, but yet fresh & drity it truly chilling moment as the movie is all about ravage & finding Hannibal, while I through he cut of Julianne Moore hand, but it was his along how sweet, while ending shows of a new generation of a new kind of Hannibal, while Anthony Hopkins says at the end to the little boy "as my mother always said, it's good to try new thinking" which then leaves with a darkness with a Black & White hole with one of his eyes showing, which I thought was the best part of the film and was a great ending (also the genre Crime & Thriller do just for the Film in main different elements then other film that I have seen).

The Movie was made on a budget of $87 million (Which was higher then the first one & is externally high for this type of film and is the highest out of the film series), while grossing Worldwide at the Box Office of $351,692,268 (Which is the highest amount of Box Office money out of the film series & was a huge highly anticipated sequel hit of 2001), while it was still a huge hit on DVD sales & rentals. The Movie was mixed (mostly Negative) by critics, while the audiences, filmgoers & Fans alike (Director, theme, style, genre, actor/actress or because it was a highly anticipated sequel to the original Film 'The Silence of the Lambs' 1991) were mixed toward this sequel, but it was mostly positive or externally positive response towards the movie. The Movie was Distributed by Universal Pictures & Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (Both studios Worldwide).

The Film cast line-up are ok with the man eat original person is brilliant the rest of the cast are; Anthony Hopkins as Dr. Hannibal Lecter (which is his best part in any film & play terrific in the update 10 year waited sequel), Julianne Moore as Clarice Starling (has a great south accents, with good performance in the film, as she replaced Jodie Foster from the first original film as Clarice Starling), Gary Oldman as Mason Verger, Ray Liotta as Paul Krendler(Which he did a great performance in the film, while he replaced Ron Vawter for the original first film), Giancarlo Giannini as Insp. Renaldo Pazzi, Zeljko Ivanek as Dr. Cordell Doemling, Frankie R. Faison as Nurse Barney and the rest of the unknown cast members. The Director Ridley Scott has made a very dark & disturbing Hannibal film, which he made The character of Hannibal Lecter became a household name and part of popular culture after this & the first film, while had made a very unique highly anticipated sequel for the fan & had a big amount of per-presser as critics didn't like it, but the audiences, me & fans did soo that all that matters really, while I think he did a great job of the film style & key element points (not his best, but still great film-making). Director Ridley Scott (brother of also famous director Tony Scott) has made famous and classic Movie as include Alien (1979), Blade Runner (1982), Thelma & Louise (1991), Gladiator (2000), Black Hawk Down (2001), Hannibal (2001) also this one of course, Kingdom of Heaven (2005), and American Gangster (2007) & many more in the future and is consider a huge director of our time.

Overall it has superbly acted and stylishly filmed as this anticipated sequel was bit of a boring & kind of dull film, don't get me wrong it has great acting by a reasonable cast & is very scary & bloody gore take is excellent, but the story is abit miss-wash out of balanced plot with crazy turn of event in the film, but the ending of the film was the best it was perfect style of the Hannibal. The Movie is different worth a watch, different for the fans of the original 'The Silence of the Lambs' (1991) & of the Film series( but some maybe disappointed of the waiting of ten years and may not like it), but can also be for adults & some teenager who like gore, Crime, Bloody/ Thriller & sexual film like this one. The Film is neither going to be a favourite of main nor a classic to me, but is an avenger/Decent watchable sequel & for its setting of the film series.