Living in exile, Hannibal Lecter tries to reconnect with now disgraced F.B.I. Agent Clarice Starling, and finds himself a target for revenge from a powerful victim.
A retired FBI agent with psychological gifts is assigned to help track down "The Tooth Fairy", a mysterious serial killer. Aiding him is imprisoned forensic psychiatrist Dr. Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter.
Director:
Brett Ratner
Stars:
Anthony Hopkins,
Edward Norton,
Ralph Fiennes
After the death of his parents during World War II, young Hannibal Lecter moves in with his beautiful aunt and begins plotting revenge on the barbarians responsible for his sister's death.
A young FBI cadet must receive the help of an incarcerated and manipulative cannibal killer to help catch another serial killer, a madman who skins his victims.
Director:
Jonathan Demme
Stars:
Jodie Foster,
Anthony Hopkins,
Lawrence A. Bonney
Explores the early relationship between the renowned psychiatrist and his patient, a young FBI criminal profiler, who is haunted by his ability to empathize with serial killers.
The continuing saga of Hannibal Lecter, the murdering cannibal. He is presently in Italy and works as a curator at a museum. Clarice Starling, the FBI agent whom he aided to apprehend a serial killer, was placed in charge of an operation but when one of her men botches it, she's called to the mat by the Bureau. One high ranking official, Paul Krendler has it in for her. But she gets a reprieve because Mason Verger, one of Lecter's victims who is looking to get back at Lecter for what Lecter did to him, wants to use Starling to lure him out. When Lecter sends her a note she learns that he's in Italy so she asks the police to keep an eye out for him. But a corrupt policeman who wants to get the reward that Verger placed on him, tells Verger where he is. But they fail to get him. Later Verger decides to frame Starling which makes Lecter return to the States. And the race to get Lecter begins.Written by
rcs0411@yahoo.com
When Hannibal gives Dante Alighieri's Sonett to Allegra Pazzi and says, "...this might amuse you," his mouth doesn't match the words. See more »
Quotes
Mason Verger:
So what do ya think, Cordell? Does Lecter want to fuck her or kill her or eat or what?
Cordell Doemling:
Probably all three, though I wouldn't want to predict in what order.
See more »
Crazy Credits
After the credits, we hear Lecter say "Ta ta, H.", the closing line of the post-script in his letter to Clarice. See more »
Alternate Versions
Over half an hour of footage was deleted from the film, including totally new scenes and alternate versions of scenes already in the movie. These scenes include:
A different version of Clarice watching Brigham's funeral on TV. Here, she doesn't cry, but rather just sits staring at the screen. Another FBI agent comes to visit Clarice with all of Brigham's personal belongings, saying that his parents don't want them, and Clarice asks if she can have them.
A new scene where Starling visits the abandoned asylum where Hannibal Lecter was held. At the door she meets the janitor, a shy young boy who flirts with Starling but refuses to go into the basement because of asthma. Starling goes down into the basement, where she searches old patient files, and finds a vagrant old man huddled in Lecter's old cell screaming for Jesus. Later, we see Starling on Ebay searching for Hannibal Lecter items, among which are X-rays and Lecter's Mercedes.
A new scene where Starling gets a follow up on the X-rays she got from Barney and Mason. An FBI specialist tells her that Mason's X-ray is several years old, and that Barney's X-Ray of Lecter's broken arm is the most recent.
An alternate version of the scene where Lecter writes a letter to Starling. We see Lecter going to pick up the scent for the envelope, where Pazzi spies on him and, in turn, Lecter spies on Pazzi. The letter itself is worded differently, but still contains the lines about Starling's parents. Here, we learn that Jack Crawford, Starling's old boss from the FBI, died of a disease. Hannibal assures Starling in his letter that he observed a moment-and no more-of silence. We also see Lecter sealing the letter with ink, and dropping the letter off at a mailbox, with Pazzi watching him. The entire scene is accompanied by music composed and played by Anthony Hopkins.
A scene where Pazzi gets FBI passwords from a secret agent holed up in a building in Italy.
An ignored subplot about Pazzi and a brother-sister gypsy pickpocket team. The sister was a girl named Romula, who Pazzi saw steal a man's wallet. This was the only sequence filmed, which was scrapped in favor of just leaving in the brother as the thug Pazzi sends after Lecter.
An entire subplot about Pazzi working on Il Mostro, a real unsolved Italian serial killer case in which an unknown man stalked and killed young couples kissing in their cars. It features an alternate version of the scene where Lecter first meets Pazzi--now there is a leering janitor waxing the floor in the next room. Pazzi talks at great lengths with Lecter about Il Mostro, and Lecter gives him information regarding the case, most notably that the killer is posing his victim's corpses like classic paintings. Pazzi follows this lead, which gets him put back on Il Mostro after being removed to investigate Dr. Fell. Later, when he goes to retrieve luggage from Lecter, we have an alternate version of Pazzi in Lecter's living room, with more talk about Il Mostro. All of these sequences feature the janitor from the museum. Finally, we are given an alternate version of Lecter attacking Pazzi. The dialogue is slightly different, and there are several shots of the janitor watching. Here, Pazzi's intestines and bowels don't fall onto the spotlights, and the tourists videotaping the tower laugh instead of scream. Lecter turns around and waves at the tourists, and then walks away. Meanwhile, we see several shots of security looking at Pazzi's body on security cameras as Lecter passes by the Janitor, who had been watching the whole thing from behind it a curtain: He is Il Mostro.
A deleted scene in which Barney drives through Mason's plantation. Originally, the movie was supposed to open with the fish market shootout, and the meeting with Mason was to come later. When the meeting was moved to the opening, the scene was Barney in his car was cut: It features him going past security and men reaping vegatables. The box containing Lecter's restraint mask is visible in several shots on the seat beside Barney. Lastly, Barney comes across the man-eating boars in a pen and drives away from them.
A brief shot of Lecter sleeping on an airplane with his head shaved. He has a nightmare and wakes up almost screaming. This came from the book, in which Lecter had flashbacks to WWII, when his two-year-old sister was killed in a snowbound concentration camp in Austria and eaten for food by starving Nazis.
Scenes of Lecter shopping for his party. He goes to a kitchen store, and catches a tabloid show talking about Starling. A humorous bit is included in which Lecter gets angry because the TV commentator addresses him as "madman Hannibal Lecter," and he corrects her by whispering at the TV "Doctor Lecter!" A clerk then comes in and directs Lecter to where he can buy steakknives. Lecter then finishes watching the program, where he sees an interview with Krendler.
An extended version of Clarice in the woods. She runs for a longer period, and shots of her feet on the ground are intercut with Lecter's feet. After the part where the scene would've ended in the final cut, we see Lecter standing by Starling's car on a hilltop. He breaks the lock and gets in, smelling her steering wheel and then running his tongue across it. He gets out, but leaves his sun glasses on the horn.
An alternate ending: Here, Starling doesn't handcuff Lecter, and he runs his tongue over her lips after they kiss. Starling gets her hair free from the refrigerator, gets her gun, and runs out to the woods after Lecter. She finds the boat drifting and draws her gun on it, but it's empty and she smirks for a moment before she's surrounded by police who have her drop her weapon. A spotlight hits Starling and she yells "Clarice Starling! FBI!" The scene then cuts to Starling watching the fireworks over the lake, as in the original. Here, though, instead of cutting to the plane, we see Lecter walking up to a gas station and getting into a van. He waves at some kids and their mothers waving sparklers, and drives off. This goes to a wideshot of the plane cabin, showing most of the passengers and waitresses to be Oriental (implying Lecter is headed to Japan, Korea, China, etc.) The wide shot cuts to the young boy coming out of the bathroom and finding Lecter with his food. They have the same conversation as in the finished version, but only up until the boy asks for food. Here, Lecter asks the boy if his mother ever warned him about taking food from strangers. The boy says she has, but Lecter smiles and says that it doesn't matter since the boy's mother is asleep. Lecter then feeds several forkfulls of the brains to the boy before the screen freezes, with the back of the boy's head superimposed over half of Lecter's face. Commentary by the director says that the scene as it is viewed here was meant to be symbolic, showing Lecter corrupting the boy.
After being held accountable for a botched drug arrest that left 6 dead and great media coverage, FBI Agent Clarice Starling is sent away to follow up on new information regarding Dr Lecter from one of his past victims the disfigured Mason Verger. As Starling works under the demeaning supervision of Agent Krendler, Lecter begins to taunt her with letters from an unknown location. Meanwhile in Florence, Inspector Pazzi begins to suspect the identity of the new curator, while Verger places a $3million reward for anyone who will bring him information leading to Lecter.
The sequel that everyone wanted to see and that got lots of headlines for it's gory content was not something I was very bothered about seeing. Although I think Silence was a good film I was a bit surprised by the sheer volume and degree of praise that was heaped upon it. However I decided I would give it a go when it finally came on television and I pretty much got what I expected a gory film that trades on blood and it's title character without a great deal else of real value put in with it. The story is very condensed from the book (so I'm told anyway) and is basically boiled down to a handful of events that will deliver the shock and gore if that's all you want but that's not all I wanted. I needed a lot more in fact and I have a better appreciation of what made the first film a much better one than this.
For one thing the whole film lacks suspense by which I mean real suspense and tension, not just the suspense as we await the imminent arrive of the next gory scene. The plot is a little bit daffy at points and this may be done to it's slimmed down nature certainly I was not drawn in so much as merely standing by watching it. The film also asks a lot of us; it asks us to understand the relationship dynamic between Lecter and Starling even though it shows us very little here almost like it is expecting us just to take it on face value and remember Silence without it carrying anything through. Also it asked us to like, even support, Lecter an idea that I found wholly unappealing. There is nothing wrong with having a monster as your 'hero' character or of focusing on the dark side of humanity but here the film practically revels in the gore, almost forgetting all else. It has made Lecter such a comical character ('okay-dokay'?) that it doesn't really know what to do with itself when he is off screen. The fact that it doesn't do anything with this dark beast other than stare lovingly at him is a problem for me and just supported the idea that the film was out for gore.
Even the cast seem to realize that this film is nowhere near the caliber of Silence and they all seem to have their tongue in their cheeks with their performances. Hopkins seems to relish the chance to overplay in a big payday for him (the film could happen without Foster but not without him). His character is so much more played for fun than in Silence and this damages the tension, but Hopkins seems to be enjoying himself nonetheless. Moore plays it totally straight and doesn't have much fun she is good but she doesn't stand out even if she does replace Foster well. An unrecognisable Oldman also hams it up but keeps his character just this side of silly Ivanek supports Oldman well but is obviously eclipsed by the latter's showy role. Giannini is good in his minor role and is lucky to escape the script's excesses; sadly Liotta is not free and his performance towards the end matches the absurdity of the plot in his regard.
Overall this is a big fancy horror movie but it is far from the standard of Silence. It lacks real bite (sorry) in terms of tension and excitement and it replaces it with a series of increasingly gory set pieces. If all you want is superficial delivery then this is worth seeing as it is enjoyable as a gory horror but it is no more than that and fans of the mood and atmosphere of Silence Of The Lambs will feel a little cheated.
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After being held accountable for a botched drug arrest that left 6 dead and great media coverage, FBI Agent Clarice Starling is sent away to follow up on new information regarding Dr Lecter from one of his past victims the disfigured Mason Verger. As Starling works under the demeaning supervision of Agent Krendler, Lecter begins to taunt her with letters from an unknown location. Meanwhile in Florence, Inspector Pazzi begins to suspect the identity of the new curator, while Verger places a $3million reward for anyone who will bring him information leading to Lecter.
The sequel that everyone wanted to see and that got lots of headlines for it's gory content was not something I was very bothered about seeing. Although I think Silence was a good film I was a bit surprised by the sheer volume and degree of praise that was heaped upon it. However I decided I would give it a go when it finally came on television and I pretty much got what I expected a gory film that trades on blood and it's title character without a great deal else of real value put in with it. The story is very condensed from the book (so I'm told anyway) and is basically boiled down to a handful of events that will deliver the shock and gore if that's all you want but that's not all I wanted. I needed a lot more in fact and I have a better appreciation of what made the first film a much better one than this.
For one thing the whole film lacks suspense by which I mean real suspense and tension, not just the suspense as we await the imminent arrive of the next gory scene. The plot is a little bit daffy at points and this may be done to it's slimmed down nature certainly I was not drawn in so much as merely standing by watching it. The film also asks a lot of us; it asks us to understand the relationship dynamic between Lecter and Starling even though it shows us very little here almost like it is expecting us just to take it on face value and remember Silence without it carrying anything through. Also it asked us to like, even support, Lecter an idea that I found wholly unappealing. There is nothing wrong with having a monster as your 'hero' character or of focusing on the dark side of humanity but here the film practically revels in the gore, almost forgetting all else. It has made Lecter such a comical character ('okay-dokay'?) that it doesn't really know what to do with itself when he is off screen. The fact that it doesn't do anything with this dark beast other than stare lovingly at him is a problem for me and just supported the idea that the film was out for gore.
Even the cast seem to realize that this film is nowhere near the caliber of Silence and they all seem to have their tongue in their cheeks with their performances. Hopkins seems to relish the chance to overplay in a big payday for him (the film could happen without Foster but not without him). His character is so much more played for fun than in Silence and this damages the tension, but Hopkins seems to be enjoying himself nonetheless. Moore plays it totally straight and doesn't have much fun she is good but she doesn't stand out even if she does replace Foster well. An unrecognisable Oldman also hams it up but keeps his character just this side of silly Ivanek supports Oldman well but is obviously eclipsed by the latter's showy role. Giannini is good in his minor role and is lucky to escape the script's excesses; sadly Liotta is not free and his performance towards the end matches the absurdity of the plot in his regard.
Overall this is a big fancy horror movie but it is far from the standard of Silence. It lacks real bite (sorry) in terms of tension and excitement and it replaces it with a series of increasingly gory set pieces. If all you want is superficial delivery then this is worth seeing as it is enjoyable as a gory horror but it is no more than that and fans of the mood and atmosphere of Silence Of The Lambs will feel a little cheated.