The Son of No One - 2011

Millennium Films, Nu Image Films, Hannibal Pictures

Directed by Dito Montiel

Cast:

• Officer Jonathon White – Channing Tatum
• Kerry White – Katie Holmes
• Captain Charles Stanford – Al Pacino
• Captain Marion Mathers – Ray Liotta
• Loren Bridges – Juliette Binoche
• Officer Thomas Prudenti – James Ransone

Story: Jonathon White, the son of a police officer killed in the line of duty is raised in the Queensboro projects by his grandmother. His life is unbelievable hell, living in the midst of addicts and dealers and child molesters, and he is constantly in fear. In self defense, he kills a junkie who is stealing his grandmother's welfare checks, and when the dealer starts to kick his dog, he pushes him down the stairs and the dealer breaks his neck. Detective Stanford knows the truth, but also knows the circumstances and closes the cases as unsolved. Sixteen years later, he has chosen to join the police force and is assigned to the same precinct as he lived in when he grew up. Captain Mathers is just about to take over from now Captain Stanford, when letters begin to appear in a local paper accusing Stanford of concealing two murders in the projects. Pressure is brought to bear on White, who Mathers' suspects of writing the letters, but to further cover up the crime, Mathers and Stanford plot to kill a childhood friend of White's and frame him for the murders.

Review: When I watched this film, I was impressed with the acting, the plot, and the characters. What I was not impressed with was the film itself. The story is an impressive, courageous look at life in the projects, a place where we house the welfare cheats, drug dealers, and other scum of society in the hopes they will remain in the confines of their own jungle. Channing Tatum's character is a nice white boy growing up in a not-so-nice environment with little hope of surviving from day to day. Al Pacino is the cop who understands what kind of life the child lives, and when he sees the desperation of his existence, he covers the murders to protect the child. Ray Liotta is the personified vision of what most people believe NYPD is all about, a warden in the asylum, worried about nothing more than keeping his cops and his reputation alive. If the story had been told from front to back instead of jerking us back and forth in time, I think it would have merited a release to the big screen here in the US. As it is, the distributor was right in releasing this film in the overseas market and bringing it to the states in DVD release. With the exception of Katie Holmes, whose performance lacks the depth of emotion a police wife should have, the cast does an admirable job, and this film is worth a look. Rated R for violence, language, and a disturbing sex scene, this film is not collectible, and is certainly a second tier rental.

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.