Rogthepost

When this movie started my heart sank a little. It's going to be another of those, "People in car take a wrong turn, encounter one sort of slasher or other." How wrong I was, and what a little gem this film is. True, the occupants of the car do take a wrong turn, Frank Harrington is taking his family and his daughter's boyfriend to spend Christmas with his in-laws, but there this movie parts company with your average gore-fest. This, I believe, is for three reasons. The writers gave the cast great lines to read; the blood content is actually very low for such a film, and finally, it was inspired not to fill the car with swinging teens, but use a mixture of youngsters and, shall we say, more mature citizens. I'll not go into plot lines, but if you're like me, this movie will leave you with a satisfied grin on your face.

Ignore all the hype that says Manhunter and Brian Cox are the definitive Hannibal Lecter pairing. Red Dragon was always my favourite book of the Thomas Harris trilogy, and this version didn't disappoint. We were spared the cop-out ending of Manhunter and were treated to a faithful reproduction of the original novel. Cox is a fine actor, but pales in comparison to Anthony Hopkins. He's been likened to a cartoon character, but is he really that different to the Hannibal Lecter we first saw in Silence of the Lambs? Then, almost everyone agreed, his performance was ground-breaking. Now, they harp back to Manhunter, a decent enough film, but not in the same league as this version.

I'm sure Thomas Harris has now closed the Hannibal Lecter file and is wise in doing so. I feel in going out with Red Dragon, he's leaving on a high with probably the best of the Hopkins/Lecter movies. A strong nine out of ten.