Best movie of this year hands down!

A Masterpiece!

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

This 2002 film is the prequel to "The Silence of the Lambs", and a re-boot of "Manhunter". Leading FBI agent Will Graham (Edward Norton) has a gift for psychoanalysis and criminology, allowing him to see things from the criminal's point of view; he's been working with Dr Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) to stop the 'Chesapeake Ripper". The film opens with a scene showing how Graham manages to crack the case and subsequently arrest Lecter for the crimes (subsequently starting the setup for "TSOTL"). Due to injuries sustained Graham retires, but is soon brought back into role when agent Jack Crawford (Harvey Keitel) asks for help with "The Toothfairy" (Ralph Fiennes), a killer who strikes on the full moon and has an issue with mirrors. With 3 weeks till the next full moon Graham works with Crawford to try and put a stop to the killing spree, using any means possible - from feeding the press (Philip Seymour Hoffman) false information, to interviewing the man who nearly ended Graham's life, Dr Lecter. Meanwhile the "Red Dragon" is rising.This is a great re-boot of "Manhunt", which was a decent film it lacked some style and class, stopping me from engaging and suspending disbelief with it properly. This film actually sticks more to the book than "Manhunt" did, only deviating by adding more Lecter/Graham interviews. Red Dragon, for me, is actually better than "Hannibal", the sequel to "TSOTL" because it is fast paced and has a lot of thrills and tension - which is more in line with what "TSOTL" built. The acting in this is good, I was dubious about Norton and Keitel when I read the pre-release information, but I think they did well with their performances. The book seemed to indicate that the Graham character would be grittier than what Norton gave, but it still worked well for the film, a darker performance may have made the film less accessible. My concerns with Keitel were just that Scott Glenn played what I expected from Jack Crawford in "TSOTL", stiffer and less connectable - Keitel softens Crawford a little but not enough to make me feel it was a poor performance. Fiennes as the villain worked particularly well - he played intense and creepy really well, he actually surprised me with this role. All in all I was surprised and delighted with this. I didn't expect the director of "Rush Hour" and "Rush Hour 2" (Brett Ratner) to bring to screen something so tense and gripping. This is a great post-prequel to "TSOTL", better than "Hannibal" and "Manhunter", and even in its own right, if you haven't seen the other films - it still stands up as a great film. 8 out of 10.

The remake of "Manhunter" by Michael Mann of 1986 is successful, it's the same story but just for the intro, which shows the circumstances of the arrest of Lecter, it deserves to be seen. The film remains relatively the same, with a few sentences that are exactly the same but also some novelties. This film is a success, it is more poignant and made much less old than the first, it deserves a 7, just for the intro and the last scene, I think I did not appreciate the movie so much because I saw Manhunter the day before I saw Red Dragon, so I knew the script perfectly and I was not surprised. But it's still a convincing remake!

This movie is basically a remake of "Manhunter" from 1986 and many of the lines are exactly the same, but at least this remake is not so sleepy, although it has some parts.It is also a prequel to "Silence of the lambs", but the story is basically the same: just a few characters switched and minor alterations to the script.Although it has good actors, none of them can deliver impact, not even Anthony Hopkins; it just seems like they're all taking a stroll along the movie...Compared to SOTL, this movie creates no tension, no threatening sensation on the viewer. As a remake, is a little better, but just a little. As per se it could and should have been better. Even "Hannibal" is better, an that is a bad movie too. Oh, how I love the "Silence".

In some places, this film was a great improvement on the book. In others, it wasn't great. I do like how the film cut out a lot of the book's clunky exposition and development. It was a vast improvement in that sense. But I didn't like how they cut out the backstory of Francis Dolarhyde. He was such an interesting character and I wanted to learn more about him. I also didn't like how the film referred to Dolarhyde's character alternately as the Tooth Fairy and the Red Dragon. I found this confusing and it did make the film difficult to follow in places. That notwithstanding Ralph Fiennes was great as the Red Dragon and Anthony Hopkins was wonderful as Hannibal Lecter.Read my full review here: http://goo.gl/JYCsWP