The Hannibal Lecter Collection (Manhunter / The Silence of the Lambs / Hannibal) (1986) Review

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(More customer reviews)This review refers to the Special Edition DVD of "Hannibal"(MGM)...
After the first viewing of this film I had it set in my mind that this was a three star movie.I thought it was pretty good, but it was no "Silence". I watched it again on this outstanding DVD, and viewed it as a seperate story from "Silence of the Lambs".I am glad I did, because it was the second time around that I realized what a great movie it is in it's own right.Under the direction now of Ridley Scott,a terrific screenplay by David Mamet and Steven Zaillian,stunning photography by John Mattheson, the haunting score by Hans Zimmer, and with a brillant cast, "Hannibal" is a thrill ride you won't soon forget.
Based on the novel by Thomas Harris,the story picks up 10 Years after Dr. Lector(Anthony Hopkins) has made his escape. He is living in Italy and seems to be quite restless. After learning that his "beloved" Clarice(Julianne Moore)has been disgraced in a botched drug bust, he comes out of hiding and cleverly draws her into his web once more.The story is a bit more complex than that though.Along the way Clarice must deal with a cunning Agent(Ray Liotta) who is out to humiliate her, and a wealthy man who was a victim of Dr. Lector's, survived quite disfigured and is now out for revenge.Then there's the Italian Detective who has discovered the identity of Lector as well as the huge reward and decides to try his luck as well.Well, we all know by now what happens when you mess with Dr. Lector.You will never think of Ray Liotta as a "goodfella" again after you see what the Doc has planned for him! The story is a roller coaster ride of thrills and chills.Lots of suspenseful and nail biting scenes. This film is definetly not for the sensitive viewer.
There is no one else who could ever be Dr. "Hannibal" Lector other than Sir Anthony Hopkins. He's as terrifying as ever. Julianne Moore does a perfect take on a tougher and more mature Agent Starling.It's a departure for Ray Liotta from his usual style but he is perfect as the despicable nemesis to Clarice.I would also mention Giancarlo Giannini gives a great performance as the pitiful detective. The make up and special effects are so good, that I won't even mention who performs such an excellent job as the angry disfigured millionaire. I did not even realize who it was the first time until the end credits, and don't want to give it away for first time viewers.
Fans of this film will delight in this DVD. First of all the transfer is gorgeous. All the beautiful cinematography of Italy and it's famous historical landmarks are breathtaking, The picture is in the theatrical release widescreen. Choose between DTS or Dolby 5.1 Surround. The sounds are clear and distinctive and the score will take your breath away. Images and colors are excellent as well.This is a two disc set. There's a ton of goodies to watch. You can spend all day with Hannibal or watch a different feature each time you view the film. I especially enjoyed "Breaking the Silence" which runs well over an hour and encompasses every phase of the making of the film(it's broken into segments if you have something particular you are interested in.) The segment with Hans Zimmer was wonderful.For a full list of the featurettes please see the tech. info.It may also be viewed in French or Spanish and has subtitles in those as well as English for those who may need them.Altogether a dynamite package.
Get reaquainted with Dr. Lector,but remember..mind your manners at dinner!....Have fun...Laurie

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Disc 1: HANNIBAL Disc 2: THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS Disc 3: MANHUNTER

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Wrong Turn (2003) Review

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(More customer reviews)This movie is similar in tone to the recent remake of The Hills Have Eyes and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Although not nearly as gory as "Hills", the theme of mutation runs through both. During the opening credits, we see images and newspaper clippings reporting the mutations. This time, however, the mutations are due to good ol' fashioned inbreeding in the mountains of West Virginia, rather than from nuclear fallout.
The movie starts out with a decent scene. After the initial havoc is wreaked, you hear the haunting, maniacal laughter that will follow through the rest of the ride. Our main character, Chris, is running late for an appointment. He takes a "shortcut" and "runs" into a car containing two clueless guys, a redhead and two pieces of fine, stranded @ss. They go looking for a phone and stumble upon a shack that is reminiscent of the house in Texas Chainsaw Massacre: creepy, filthy, full of trash and hidden stashes of gore.. nasty.
This is where we get our first look at the maniac who is responsible for what we have been seeing in the woods. He is deformed and seemingly handicapped, mentally. We soon see, though, that he has two siblings (or friends) that join in on the fun. These three hideous grotesqueries spot the four remaining characters and the hunt is on!
These mutants are twisted. Their actions are as repulsive as they are unexplained. Stan Winston does a wonderful job of creating mutants that are not so freakish as to be ridiculous, but that are unsettling enough to make you cringe. You will very quickly despise these mutant characters for their lack of reason and unquenchable thirst for innocent blood.
The movie achieves a good level of suspense, with some good scares and a few nasty scenes. I will say that it turned out to be better than I was expecting it to be and for anyone who enjoyed "The Hills Have Eyes" or "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" (not that this movie actually compares to TCM), you should at least check this movie out. The ending was not as strong or freaky as it probably should have been, but the movie is worth seeing.
The DVD includes a few very short featurettes.

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An indescribable nightmare begins when a group of young friends is stranded on an isolated road deep in the Appalachian hills of West Virginia, with no hope of rescue. Desperate and fearing for their lives, the horror surges as they find themselves relentlessly pursued by a force of evil beyond their imagination! Featuring a hip ensemble of up-and-coming young stars, this blood-curdling epic is a shock-a-minute horror rush that will leave you screaming for more!

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Deconstructing Harry (1997) Review

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(More customer reviews)`Deconstructing Harry', written and directed by Woody Allen, may set the record for famous name cameos in Allen's pictures, with the added twist that you have famous actors playing the parts of other famous name actors in the same movie, as when, for example, Kirsty Ally, one of the Allen character wives, is played by Demi Moore in a playing out of one of the pieces of fiction represented in the movie.
I have often touted the virtue of rewatchability in almost all of Allen's movies. After all, why buy a DVD or tape of a movie if there is no value in watching it more than once. With this movie, it is absolutely essential that you watch it at least three times to understand what is going on, as the movie freely, and with relatively little warning, switches back and forth between cinema reality and Harry's (the Allen character) fiction. In some movies, having trouble keeping track of the plot threads means this is simply a bad movie. There are things in this movie that may have been done poorly, but the parallel thread lines between reality and fiction is not one of them.
This is certainly one of Allen's two or three most highly biographical movies, the others being `Stardust Memories' and `Radio Days'. It is not even a big stretch to make the Allen surrogate character a writer rather than a film maker (as in `Stardust Memories') since Allen did a lot of short story writing for the `New Yorker' before film making took all of his time. All of Allen's favorite subjects, primarily love, sex, death, Judaism, parents, and creativity are here. Books have been written about the themes in Allen's movies. `Deconstructing Harry' could easily take a book or at least a long monograph in itself to explicate all the ideas going on in the real and fictional threads.
Allen even brings in parodies of classic fiction in his references to both Dante's `Divine Comedy' and Milton's `Paradise Lost'. For good measure, there is a short riff on Bergman's grim reaper character in a reprise from his appearance in `Love and Death'. I will not give Allen too much credit for such an obscure reference, but his visit to Hell (borrowed from Greek mythology) makes Hell seem almost like a fun place to be, even for the damned, if the damned subjects happen to have a yen for a little sweaty bondage. The reference I speak of is to the etched illustrations of Dante's `Inferno' done, I believe by a 19th century artist which provided a lot of guilty pleasures as an adolescent in the grownup library stacks.
While this movie is a thoroughly Woody Allen piece, I did get some sense that more than a little influence from Kevin Smith seems to have crept into the dialogue, as the frequency of strong four letter words is dramatically higher than in any other Allen movie. This is improbable, as Smith's first movie, `Clerks' I think just came out shortly before the release of `Deconstructing Harry'. But, the cuss a minute dialogue does remind one of Smith's favorite character, Jay of `Jay and Silent Bob' fame.
The quality of the filming and editing in this movie makes one wonder whether some of the sloppy transitions within and between scenes were not intentional. One can easily imagine that the shooting schedule was such that you only had Robin Williams or Richard Benjamin or Demi Moore or Billy Crystal for a day or a half a day, so if you didn't get perfect shots of them on that day, Allen and his editor possibly did the best they could with what they had. There is a kind of choppyness I simply have never seen in any of Allen's movies before or since this one. One thing which makes me think this obviously choppy editing is intentional is the opening scene behind the credits where the Judy Davis character is seen repeatedly leaving her cab at Harry's apartment in order to beat on him for including their marriage in his latest published piece of fiction. The differences in the 5 or 6 times this sequence is shown are almost random, parodying, in a way, the opening to `Manhattan' where the Allen character's voice over is working through various drafts of an opening line to a piece of fiction. So, instead of literally quoting `Manhattan', Allen shows multiple attempts at editing the same scene. Another intentional effect that suggests the choppy editing is intentional is the riff that makes the actor character played by Robin Williams to literally go out of focus.
The story is really not quite as neat as the two other biographical movies, even though `Stardust Memories' does contain a lot of ambiguity between the cinematic and the real. It is also clearly not as polished as most of his other movies, especially the high gloss works such as `Crimes and Misdemeanors' and `Hannah and Her Sisters'. In some ways, it has the same manic quality of his very early movies such as `Take the Money and Run' and `Bananas'.
And yet, it is easily one of the most interesting about which to spin theories on Allen's sources and his messages. I would only recommend this movie to someone who is fond of Allen's movies already. I would certainly not recommend it to anyone who has never seen or never liked a Woody Allen movie. But, for the faithful, this is pure gold, and funny to boot!

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