Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4152 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-10-04
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 126 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Yes, he's back, and he's still hungry. Ten years after The Silence of the Lambs, Dr. Hannibal "the Cannibal" Lecter (Anthony Hopkins, reprising his Oscar-winning role) is living the good life in Italy, studying art and sipping espresso. FBI agent Clarice Starling (Julianne Moore, replacing Jodie Foster), on the other hand, hasn't had it so good--an outsider from the start, she's now a quiet, moody loner who doesn't play bureaucratic games and suffers for it. A botched drug raid results in her demotion--and a request from Lecter's only living victim, Mason Verger (Gary Oldman, uncredited), for a little Q and A. Little does Clarice realize that the hideously deformed Verger--who, upon suggestion from Dr. Lecter, peeled off his own face--is using her as bait to lure Dr. Lecter out of hiding, quite certain he'll capture the good doctor.

Taking the basic plot contraptions from Thomas Harris's baroque novel, Hannibal is so stylistically different from its predecessor that it forces you to take it on its own terms. Director Ridley Scott gives the film a sleek, almost European look that lets you know that, unlike the first film (which was about the quintessentially American Clarice), this movie is all Hannibal. Does it work? Yes--but only up to a point. Scott adeptly sets up an atmosphere of foreboding, but it's all buildup for anticlimax, as Verger's plot for abducting Hannibal (and feeding him to man-eating wild boars) doesn't really deliver the requisite visceral thrills, and the much-ballyhooed climatic dinner sequence between Clarice, Dr. Lecter, and a third unlucky guest wobbles between parody and horror. Hopkins and Moore are both first-rate, but the film contrives to keep them as far apart as possible, when what made Silence so amazing was their interaction. When they do connect it's quite thrilling, but it's unfortunately too little too late. --Mark Englehart

Synopsis
After a decade in abeyance, the courtly cannibal, Hannibal Lecter, returns to the screen, again played by Anthony Hopkins, under the direction of Ridley Scott. When F.B.I. Agent Clarice Starling (Julianne Moore) is blamed for a botched drug bust, her boss Paul Krendler (Ray Liotta) makes a media circus of her humiliation, which catches the attention of Lecter. Now a hardened veteran, she begins receiving letters from the twisted genius, who remains obsessed with her. Yet she's not the only one interested in drawing out the psychopath, now lecturing on the Renaissance in Florence. Italian detective Pazzi (Giancarlo Giannini) hopes to impress his young wife by nailing the reward for his capture, and wealthy pedophile Mason Verger (Gary Oldman) is eager to take revenge against the cannibal for leaving him with a hideously deformed face. But they're no match for Hannibal's coyly satanic ubiquity, which bewilders his quickly narcotized foes before he administers a punishment sufficiently grotesque to suit his sense of amusement.The odious Krendler, in particular, learns to use his gray matter for, perhaps, the first time in his life. However, all is prologue to his fated rendezvous with Clarice. A banquet for the splatterati, reveling as it does in gore and dismemberment, the film features brilliant work by a stellar cast, and the kind of meticulous art direction and lushly magnificent photography that one has come to expect of Scott.

Customer Reviews

Valiant Attempt To Better The Original
Reprising his role as the charming cannibal Hannibal Lecter, Anthony Hopkins dazzles yet again as he brilliantly and charismatically makes his way back into the limelight. On his trail is the brilliant but flawed FBI agent, Clarice Starling, played this time around by Julianne Moore.

What is striking about this admirable sequel is the beauty of it's locations, from Florence, to New England, to Sicily and a few in between. Moore proves her acting ability as Starling, and Ray Liotta plays the truly vile Paul Krendler, who is out to destroy Starling's stellar career. Whilst this film lacks the incredible suspense and shock value of 'Silence Of The Lambs', it does contain a memorably twisted performance from Gary Oldman as Mason Verger, one of Lecter's victims. Hatching a plot to capture Lecter and feed him to violent wild boars, the plot takes various interesting twists and turns until Lecter and Starling are ultimately reunited.

Hopkins' performance is as charming yet chilling as we have come to expect from him, and the chemistry between him and Moore as Starling is captivating to watch. Watching Lecter's excessive revenge on one of Starling's adversaries is also truly memorable. Overall, the film is beautifully shot, well-acted, though lacking in the same iconic dialogue as the original. Undoubtedly though, this film is beautiful to look at, and a fantastic soundtrack makes it beautiful to listen to, as well.

A good film
Hannibal is back. Hannible offers great suspence and horror from begining to end. With scenes horriffic enough to force a face of disgust on even the hardened horror fans, this film with have you on the edge of your seat with a pillow in your hand!
Although I couldn't help but feel the story was (although based on a book) random and a bit sluggish the film is a deffinate eye opener with vast special effects...all of which are explained on the special features disk, in short enough to entertain and scare you silly.

Better than I remember it
I went to see this film in when it came out at the cinema and didn't think much of it then but after watching it again I have changed my opinion of it and now quite like it. The film follows on ten years after the events in `Silence of the Lambs' with Hannibal Lecter on the run and Clarice Starling charged with hunting him down in order to redeem herself after a raid she was leading went wrong. However a former victim of Lecter out for revenge and an Italian detective looking for the reward money make things difficult for Special Agent Starling. Anthony Hopkins is brilliant as always and Julianne Moore fills Jodie Foster's shoes admirably. I am not sure how close it is to the book but it is a good film nonetheless and anyone who enjoyed Silence of the Lambs and Red Dragon should like Hannibal.