Introduction

I watch a lot of movies so I have decided to start keeping a record of what I watch and post short reviews on each movie. No doubt my comments and insights will be of great interest to many and that lots of people have been eagerly anticipating such an outlet for my great wisdom. I will score every movie out of 5 and the score will roughly mean something along these lines:

5/5 – Amazing, possibly perfect. There probably will not be many of those.

4/5 – Good.

3/5 – Average, neither really good or really bad. Worth watching but not worth seeking out.

2/5 – Poor, usually this will be films that just have no plot or reason to watch them.

1/5 – Bad, this will be saved for films that are not only not worth watching but also badly made.

I hate spoilers so will try and keep my reviews as spoiler free as possible but I mainly watch films that have been released at least a couple of years ago so I do not think it is a major issue but you have been warned!

So to get us started I will kick off with a double bill of Thomas Harris adaptations.

Manhunter (1986)

This is the first adaptation of one of Harris's novels and was directed by Michael Mann. Manhunter is based on the book Red Dragon but a film with dragon in the title had bombed at the box office the previous year so apparently the title had to be changed (I'm sure it made a huge difference). I have not read the book so I can not really say how faithful of an adaptation it is and I guess some criticisms I have of the film will be relevant to the book too.

The film focuses on the character of Will Graham an FBI agent who previously retired after a run in with the now infamous Dr. Lecktor but is convinced to come back to help hunt down another serial killer. Graham is a really interesting character and has enough depth to base the film around but it does seem to come at the cost of exploring the antagonist The Tooth Fairy a little more. The fact that Lecktor knows the killer seemed like a bit of a contrivance to me and the soundtrack dates the film slightly as it is pretty obviously 80s synthesiser.

I was a big fan of the TV show Millennium and Graham's character clearly served as an inspiration for that which my colour my view slightly but on the whole the film stays fairly realistic and does not get too gimmicky which seems to be a major pitfall of these type of thrillers so I think that it deserves a 4/5 score. It's on the lower end of a 4 but certainly an above average film.

Silence of the lambs (1991)

Dr. Lecter is back, with a new spelling of his surname and taking control of this sequel that isn't really a sequel as it is made by different people. Anthony Hopkins dominates the film despite his short screen time and is infinitely more creepy than Brian Cox's performance in Manhunter, although to be fair he has a huge amount more to work with in this script.

Where the previous film was all about Graham this film really has it's strength in the relationship between Lecter and Starling, while this is the film's strength it also comes to dominate the film as does Lecter and really we start to wonder about the relevance of the plot a bit. Buffalo Bill, the killer being hunted could have done with a bit more exploration and depth, what really made him the way he is? Again of all the serial killers in all the world Lecter just happens to know this one too, makes you wonder if they have a yearly convention where they all meet up in Vegas or something.

While Silence of the lambs does have it's flaws I think it's good enough for another 4/5 and certainly worth watching. Anthony Hopkins certainly deserved the Oscar he got for his performance.