{Cine-cool Reviews} Manhunter (1986) & Red Dragon (2002)

[5eurocups2005]

i hate when people say Manhunter is dated and it looks like Miami Vice thats so ignorant and lazy, people fail to take in account how visually beautiful it was the direction top notch the fantastic acting great suspense all the way to the end. A stunning blend of high-tech police procedural and serial-killer thriller, this cool, almost icy exploration of the very thin dividing line between the forces of law and the forces of madness is head and shoulders above its over-rated follow ups.

[tootcb]

@5eurocups2005 I absolutely love the look of Manhunter. However, it DOES look like Miami Vice, since Michael Mann brought that style to his TV series. Manhunter visually surpasses Miami Vice, for obvious reasons, but the similarity is certainly there. Silence of the Lambs is arguably a better film, but Manhunter wipes the floor with it aesthetically. Ridley Scott came the closest to matching Mann's eye with Hannibal, but that film's story was weaker. Brett Ratner's Red Dragon is a joke.

[5eurocups2005]

@tootcb I am a big fan of Miami Vice and i don't think it does because it looks too dark, i think the dark look and the overall intense atmosphere hides it from looking like Miami Vice i know that's sound odd but its the way i see it. Your right about Red Dragon that movie was terrible, i actually enjoy watching for a laugh because it's so bad when you compare to Manhunter.

[5eurocups2005]

@tootcb Silence of the Lambs was well made but over-rated and not a patch on Manhunter The multiple Oscar wins seemed to dupe many into believing that it was better than it actually is - in truth it's a competent serial killer movie and nothing more than that. Jodie Foster is very good as troubled agent Starling but Hopkins is so over the top as the pantomime bad guy Lector that one wonders why he wasn't caught sooner - anyone behaving like this in public would have been suspect a long time ago.

[codename617]

I liked Manhunter better than Red Dragon, but there are things i like about Red Dragon better than than Manhunter. It's just a little more true to the book, but i am a fan of Michael Mann and William Petersen was the best Will Graham. I heard after the movie, he shaved and dyed his hair to get rid of the WIll Graham character cuz he was disturbed by him.

[tootcb]

@codename617 Edward Norton, on the other hand, gives one of the weakest performances I've ever seen out of him, which was my greatest disappointment with Red Dragon. Every other problem in the film is forgivable, but when an actor who is usually stellar seems to be phoning in the leading role, the movie has real problems. I've heard that Ed did the movie merely to raise money for another film that he was wanting to make. Having said that, the remake arguably depicts Dollarhyde a bit better.