We did another movie and a margarita night for our New Year’s Eve celebration. This followed a veritable cooking marathon of making Lasagne Verde al Forno (Baked Spinach Lasagna for my non-Italian readers). I made this for Brian’s birthday a few years ago and it was a total pain in the ass, so he helped me out with it yesterday. Of course, when I made it for his birthday, I had the flu, so I had to nap between steps (yes, it takes so long to make that you can take a nap between the steps).
Anyway, Red Dragon was the first book in Thomas Harris’s Hannibal Lecter trilogy. It was originally done in 1986 as a movie entitled Manhunter, but with the success of The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal, they decided to redo the movie with Anthony Hopkins in the role he has become famous for.
I, of course, have read the book before, but this movie made me want to read it again. I also saw the original version of the movie and remembered enjoying it, but I don’t recall the details. The remake was just as good as far as I can remember. Unlike the original, this one had an all-star cast: Anthony Hopkins (creepy as usual), Edward Norton (up there on my favorite actors list ever since I saw American History X), Ralph Fiennes (I was having Schindler’s List flashbacks whenever he picked up the shotgun), and Harvey Keitel (one of the few movies where he doesn’t ‘whip it out’).
The movie was good enough so that I paused it when it was time for a bathroom break. Even though I knew the plot, I was still on edge the whole movie, so I give it a thumbs up.
Here’s the Flick Filosopher’s review of the original move. Much still applies.
Happy New Year, everyone!