✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
Germany, United States · 2002
Rated R · 2h 4m
Director Brett Ratner
Starring Anthony Hopkins, Edward Norton, Ralph Fiennes, Harvey Keitel
Genre Horror, Thriller
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Will Graham is an FBI Agent who almost lost his life in the process of capturing Hannibal Lecter. After a series of particularly grisly murders, Graham soon realizes that the best way to catch this killer is to find a way to get inside their mind. For Graham, that means confronting his past and facing his former nemesis, the now-incarcerated Lecter.
The New Yorker by Anthony Lane
For all the lunacies bared within this film, it has the tick and thrum of a solid studio machine, occasionally shocking but never surprising; it will be watched by everybody, but it feels as if it were made by nobody. [14 & 21 October 2002, p. 226]
Philadelphia Inquirer by Carrie Rickey
For all its brilliant touches, Dragon loses its fire midway, nearly flickering out by its perfunctory conclusion.
Christian Science Monitor by David Sterritt
The most refreshing aspect of Red Dragon is its reliance on old-fashioned acting instead of computer-aided gizmos. Hopkins overdoes his role at times -- his vocal tones are almost campy -- but his piercing eyes are as menacing as ever, and Ralph Fiennes is scarily good as his fellow lunatic.
San Francisco Chronicle by Edward Guthmann
In Hollywood, where integrity is rapidly consumed and careers defined by market value, there's trash and there's trash with a pedigree.
New York Post by Jonathan Foreman
It's frightening enough, to be sure, but too often it feels like a well-executed but rote exercise.
Chicago Tribune by Michael Wilmington
Red Dragon is very much a product, and a superior one, of our times. So is Anthony Hopkins' top-notch fiend, the bad doctor.
Miami Herald by Rene Rodriguez
Ratner is canny enough to close the movie with a devilish tease that will send the Lambs faithful out with a delirious smile. What Red Dragon won't do is haunt your nightmares. Who could have guessed Hannibal Lecter would ever become such a crack-up?
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by Rick Groen
Our time is plagued with primitive directors toiling in the name of entertainment, and protected by an industry that rewards competence over excellence. They're the reason why this movie is simply average, and why all the Red Dragons look so uniformly beige.
What Ratner brings to the proceedings is an awareness that what worked for "Silence" -- namely screenwriter Ted Tally, production designer Kristi Zea and, of course, Anthony Hopkins as Lecter -- will work overtime here, to enhance the project at hand and provide a seamless connection back to Jonathan Demme's multiple-Oscar winner.
As Hopkins's Lecter is concerned, it's official: He's Freddy Krueger.
The story of the early, murderous roots of the cannibalistic killer, Hannibal Lecter.
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