Red Dragon: Critic Reviews

A thriller made from a completist's checklist rather than with a cultist's passion.

Just when you think the picture can't go any farther over the top, it finds a whole new peak to tumble over.

A decent enough entertainment that sticks closely to the novel.

Did we really need a new version of this prequel Lecter episode, after Michael Mann's Manhunter, which had Brian Cox in the chomping role?

Elegant, dark, alluring, frightening, mesmerizing.

Red Dragon has been directed by Brett Ratner, he of the Rush Hour movies. If that's a step down from Jonathan Demme and Ridley Scott, it turns out not to be a very big one.

Red Dragon's formula is so risible and rote by now that the natural reaction to scenes of peril, torture, and suffering is flippant laughter.

Red Dragon is closer in tone and story to Silence than to the campy, over-amped Hannibal.

It's impossible to duplicate the shock of the 11-year-old Lambs, but the new film succeeds at creating nerve-tightening moments of suspense.

Manages to be both repulsively sadistic and mundane.

this movie, based on Harris' first novel, has studied Silence of the Lambs and knows that the action comes second to general creepiness.

Red Dragon is less baroque and showy than Hannibal, and less emotionally affecting than Silence. But, like Silence, it's a movie that gets under your skin.

Frank Whaley and Philip Seymour Hoffman play minor characters so annoying they might as well wear T-shirts reading 'Eat My Brain.'

For all its brilliant touches, Dragon loses its fire midway, nearly flickering out by its perfunctory conclusion.

In both the writing and cutting, it does not achieve the kind of dramatic unity that transports you. You end up simply admiring this bit or that, this performance or that.

Director Brett Ratner, purveyor of the Rush Hour movies, exhibits neither the skill nor the patience to turn this remake into a memorable film. It's adequate but unsatisfying, a middling affair that neither dazzles nor particularly frightens.

Red Dragon is so good that it might be the final word on Hannibal Lecter.

Ratner's faithful, immaculately appointed new telling of the inescapably creepy tale will be an intense, unnerving experience.

Efficient remake.

One of the best movies of the year and a splendid addition to a phenomenally popular franchise.

It's highly entertaining, fast-paced and ultimately without deeper meaning, just like most other Hollywood blockbusters these days.

With one exception, the performances are certainly accomplished, yet no one truly shines, not even Fiennes.

Anthony Hopkins? Big deal! We've already seen the prequel to The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal -- and it was better the first time.