Hannibal - 2001

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Universal Pictures, Dino De Laurentis Company

Directed by Ridley Scott

Cast:

• Dr. Hannibal Lecter – Anthony Hopkins
• Clarice Starling – Julianne Moore
• Barney – Frankie Faison
• Mason Verger – Gary Oldman
• Paul Krendler – Ray Liotta
• Inspector Reynaldo Pazzi – Giancarlo Giannini
• Allegra Pazzi – Francesca Neri
• Dr. Cordell Doemling – Zlejko Ivanek

Story:Ten years since the escape of the infamous Dr. Lecter, he remains free. He has chosen to live a benign existence, and is currently under review as a historian in Florence, Italy. Meanwhile, back in the US, Special Agent Starling's career is at a standstill. The FBI has her on field duty, and she is agent in charge of massive multi-task force to arrest one of the biggest drug smugglers on the west coast, when a local cop tries to play hero and the streets turn into the OK Corral. Starling is forced to shoot her suspect while she is carrying her baby. She is on suspension pending the outcome of the investigation, and the federal prosecutor wants her head on a platter. Mason Verger, a very wealthy former patient of Lecter's, is also looking for him...for revenge. Lecter was so repulsed by his crime, the rape and torture of children, that he convinced Mason to cut away parts of his anatomy while under the influence of drugs, leaving Verger a disfigured invalid. Inspector Pazzi, an Italian detective, has located Lecter and is ready to sell him to Verger, but at what cost?

Review: I've already talked about Hopkins in my review of Silence of the Lambs, so suffice it to say he is just as evil and monstrous in this film as in the last, if not more so. I was disappointed, as I think everyone was, that Ms. Foster did not agree to reprise her role as Clarice Starling, but Julianne Moore does an excellent job. Frankie Faison is consistent in his role as Barney, the kindly nurse who placed the chair opposite Lecter's cell in the first film, and in this one he is caught by Clarice auctioning off the remainders of Lecter's belongings. Most of the action is around Lecter and his intricate game of chess with Verger, played exceptionally by Gary Oldman, but the three subplots are brought together in the end, and an unexpected end at that. Ridley Scott, the director of such Sci Fi classics as Blade Runner and Alien, does not disappoint, and this film retains all the darkness and foreboding of the former. A must have for the collectors of Hopkins, crime dramas, and horror films. Rated R for gore, violence, language, and horrific scenes that are sure to give any sane man or woman nightmares.