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Before you guys pick up your torches and pitchforks, I’m not bringing you bullshit. This is actual news. This is a review seen at Corona’s Coming Attractions.
August 5, 2002… We’ve received our first early review of Red Dragon, from a scooper who attended last week’s test screening of the film in San Diego (Ain’t It Cool News published another review from the same screening last week). Our reviewer really loved this film, even going so far as to call it one of the year’s very best movies. Slight SPOILERS are mentioned in their review but they’re nothing too big.
“Last Wednesday night, I was privy to attend the first EVER Test Screening of the new Hannibal Lecter film, Red Dragon, the remake of Manhunter and prequel to the Academy Award epic, Silence of the Lambs. The premiere last night in San Diego, California (home of Comic-Con 2002) was a full house and the audience was very enthusiastic to see the film.“First off let me get this out of the way. Sir Anthony Hopkins absolutely steals the show in every scene he is in playing the now immortal Dr. Hannibal ‘The Cannibal’ Lecter. It’s almost as though the film exists only to see him once again behind the legendary glass bars of his cell. He plays it off with the exact same sparks he had in Silence, the same spark that might earn him maybe not a Best Actor but maybe a Best Supporting Actor nomination. While he has been reduced to a mere 35 minutes of screen-time, he literally grabs the attention of everyone when he emerges on scene. He still plays some of the Hannibal charm, the okie-dokey stuff and the good humor of a genius madman.
“Edward Norton plays Will Graham, the man who originally captured Hannibal Lecter in 1980 and almost lost his life in the process (this takes up the first 5 minutes of the film and it is weird to see Hopkins with a pony-tail) and is now a disgruntled but still gifted FBI nvestigator. After years of seclution from the Bureau, Jack Crawford (played to perfection in Silence by Scott Glenn and mentioned only briefly in the deleted scenes of Hannibal) played this time by Harvey Keitel (I still wish Glenn had returned). Keitel just really had some trouble grasping the part and he wasn’t very believable. Sorry, I think Keitel rules when he works with Tarantino but he just cannot reproduce Scott Glenn’s performance and depth.
“Back to Norton, he works brilliantly with Hopkins in all the scenes they have together. They play off each differently than Jodie Foster did with Hopkins for the reason that Lecter and Graham had worked together and had a history but in the case of Clarice Starling and Lecter, they were thrown together and they played by Lecter’s rules. Norton brings youth to the film with charisma, the right amount of intensity in his eyes.
“Actually the huge performance (other than Hopkins) comes from the now legendary Ralph Fiennes, a man I have admired as an actor ever since I saw him play Nazi Commandant Amon Goeth in Spielberg’s Schindler’s List (I still think politics robbed both him and Liam Neeson of an Oscar win). He plays Francis Dollarhyde aka ‘The Tooth Fairy’, a full bodied tattoed man who believes he is becoming the equivialant of a biblical – apocalyptic God which he calls (and the film’s title I might add) ‘The Red Dragon’. Dollarhyde is an emotional / psychologically scarred man, a man who’s brutal, abusive childhood has turned him into a psychotic killer. The things he does to his victims (whole families) is just plain distrubing and I must admit some viewers had to turn their heads at the site of the crime scene images. His strange relationship to Hannibal Lecter is very interesting and adds another disturbing element to the plot.
“One of the most interesting character elements of the film is the supporting cast. They have brought back regular characters Barney, Lecters personal orderly (played once again by Frankie Faison) and the evil and` boo-able’ Dr. Frederick Chilton (played with brilliant evil by the returning Anthony Heald) but they have added interesting characters such as Emily Watson who plays the blind Reba McClane and Dollarhyde’s love interest and the slimy Freddy Lounds played by Phillip Seymour Hoffman.
“The score to this film is basically identical to Silence of the Lambs but with Danny Elfman taking over for Howard Shore. Dark ominous tones play in exactly the correct cues and gives the film an audible chill to it. Very cool! I will most definately buy the soundtrack!
“I must add that I was expecting Brett Ratner’s voyage into action, suspense to be a bit hoaky (given his Rush Hour and Family Man past) but I must say that he has absolutely out-done himself by getting a great cast, an amazing script (Ted Tally once again working off of Thomas Harris’ novel) and an amazing editor. Mark Helfrich cut and paced this film magnificently with only one scene dragging the movement of the film. I wrote on my comment card that I hope it gets cut and just put on the DVD.
“I will not spoil any of the film becasue it is mostly a visual film and many of the things I could say could not properly justify the brilliance of this film but I will say this. Tally or Ratner, whoever was responsible, had a great vision / idea for the last scene fo the film and that was the scene that takes you directly into the film, Silence of the Lambs. I thought it was a genious stroke and it got an huge applause from the whole theater. (I must also add that some idiot on the Internet Movie Database listed Jodie Foster for a cameo as Clarice Starling and that IS NOT TRUE).
“So all in all, Red Dragon does for Dr. Hannibal Lecter what George Lucas could NOT DO with Episode II – Attack of the Clones, it redeemed Hannibal by giving us a magnificent, psychological drama. After a summer with few movie highlights, it is nice to see a film that will hopefully draw the movie fans in masses to see Lecter do what he does best, scare the hell out of people.
“If this doesn’t get a Best picture nomination my faith in Hollywood will have ended. Between this, Road to Perdition and Full Frontal, the Best Picture race is on!
“Out of 10 – A definate 10+”
Oh, and according to AINT IT COOL NEWS the score wrapped up last week.
So you read this on Corona. It’s nothing more then a crappy summary of the film, and couldn’t even pass even as a vague review.
The fact is the score is still being recorded, the final session is on August 11th — so Aint It Cool News is wrong, and this “review” is too. The music heard in that test screening (if there was one) is not Danny Elfman’s.
Ryan
OMG, LOL!!!
Aint It Cool News is just trying to expose the truth of the Pod People (like Ryan)!
No No, Stop! What are you doing? Don’t come any closer!! Back OFF!!! What Do You Want With My CCCCCCCCCCCCC…
IMPORTANT TRANSMISSION
POD PEOPLE UNITE !!!
TRANSMISSION OUT
“I hope your happy. You just succeeded in weakening an Nation, son!”
— Nicholson from “A Few Good Men”.If the person who wrote this were a “genuine” reviewer (i.e. they get PAID to watch movies and then shoot them to hell), he/she would have realized that a word (starting with “D” and ending with “efinAtely”…note the capitalization) in the not-quite-a-paragraph discussing the score has a slight spelling error (or had his/her copy editor catch it before it went to press). I’m saving the poor fool from a severe arse-kicking in proper grammar and spelling…
-Erika
I sense another Red Dragon score recording dates arguement developing here …
… so I am going to keep quiet
They ARE recording this week (although today, August 9th, is a day off). I have confirmation from both Debbie Datz and Laura Engel that they were recording at Fox Monday – Thursday of this week. One of my friends who works on the lot also confirms that Danny Elfman’s car, at least, was in the parking lot yesterday.
They will resume recording tomorrow (the 10th) at the Sony Pictures Scoring Stage and record the 11th as well. According to Engel, the sessions are closed to visitors as there’s so much music to record in such a short amount of time.
I suppose if we don’t hear it from an “reliable source” at Red-Dragon.net, it ain’t legit….?
So far, they’ve been wrong twice in two opportunities.
Ryan
I’ll try and pretend that I didn’t read that.
John
p.s. Reliable or not, it’s “a” not “an”.
“The score to this film is basically identical to Silence of the Lambs…”
…because the music editor has taken some cues from Silence of the Lambs and Se7en to temp this movie! How can someone confuse Howard Shore’s style with Danny’s? I don’t get it.
However, Ryan seems to be a bit hypersensitive about Red Dragon, so we better stop these discussions until the movie hits the cinema.shock
I’m not a fan of reviews, anyways–I pretty much just wait for the real thing (which, would be seeing the movie in and of itself). I did see the previews for Red Dragon, though, and it does look pretty snazzy.
I thought the second one got kinda cheesy at the end, so I’m hopin’ this one will capture more of the dark tones from the first film. And, even if the film isn’t the greatest–it’ll still have a saucy soundtrack!
And my friends are pod people–so I could infiltrate their homes at least, if anyone else out there would like to stage a sneak attack….
Dude i get all my movie reviews on Mr Cranky.com and Mr Filthy.com…forget IMDB or anyone else…i have a good laugh…
Yeah…and I get all my reviews on Evil_My_Little_Ponies.com…
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