Hannibal
- FabTimesThree aka Chris G.
I’m amped up… or should I say anticipating with curious anticipation, the chance to view “Hannibal.” All week the media has hyped, what they have described as a gory, flesh eating, cannibal fest, which is said to be the scariest movie released since “The Exorcist.” Sounds like something that I need to see. So I sit, Bacardi and iced tea in hand - to enhance the dark mood - and MOP on the sound system, awaiting the 9:55 pm show.
My phone was ringing off the hook when I left the house, but I decided that it was more important to “get the story” before partying, females, whatever…. are my priorities twisted? Nah, I’m more like Dan Rather going all out in the quest for good journalism…. heh, heh.
So I sit 9:56, ready to document this joint before somebody ruins it by giving away the ending. You know like, “Bruce Willis is dead.” You can’t watch “The Sixth Sense” knowing that little piece of information.
2:05 am….
I just came out of the 11:20 showing of Hannibal.. I forgot that Friday is the worst day for me to spend a night at the movies. Once my body hits those new stadium type, cushion seats, it’s over for me, I blackout like a power outage in California. I slept through the majority of the 9:55 show… pissed at myself for not “getting the story.” I went to the men’s room to relieve some tension and then snuck into the 11:20 show. I saw about three minutes of it before I blacked out again.. Dammit. What made it even worse, I woke up at the same part of the last showing. Ain’t that some *shit*? To tell you the truth, the part I woke up on is the most talked about part of the movie, so I could still get away with not seeing the rest of it. But I’m determined to do this review so I’ll pick up the bootleg joint tomorrow..god bless dem’ Africans.
Saturday 10, 2001 5:53 pm
Got it! Five dollars and I have a really clear copy of Hannibal. I thought I got beat when I first put in the tape, the picture was all scrunched to one side and you could hear people in the audience laughing, but they shut up for the rest of the movie and the guy with the camera settled down. I don’t know how they do it, but it’s worth the five bucks.
I have to tell you, I feel unqualified to review this movie because I never saw “Silence of the Lambs.” I know, that’s sad. Everybody is amazed when I tell them that, but with that said…
“Hannibal” has been hyped up as a violent, bloody affair, when it is more of a thinking man’s Freddy Krueger.
Why Hello000, Clarice
The movie begins with Clarice setting up a drug bust. Things go a little bit crazy and she ends up without her badge for awhile. Julianne Moore, who replaced Jodie Foster after she dropped out because she disapproved of the violence in the movie, takes over the role of Clarice. She plays the role so well that it makes me wonder how Jodie played the part, since I haven’t seen “Silence of the Lambs.” Man, I have to rent “Silence..”, Oh well.
The Backdrop
The movie is partially shot in Italy, the dark, Gothic settings of the streets and the chamber music set the tone for the bizarre, Hannibal Lechter. Hannibal, played to perfection by Anthony Hopkins, is one of the coolest killers in movies today. This is a man who will tell you to pull up a chair, have you slip on some slippers and serve you a nice cup of tea, right before he ties you up and has you hanging over the side of a balcony. The former psychiatrist speaks in an intelligent tone, observing and analyzing the situations around him, without ever popping a sweat or letting you know that he’s watching. He throws you off with his politeness using phrases like “Okey dokey” , “Oh goodie” and “Ta Ta.” It’s just crazy to hear words like this coming from a self-confessed cannibal, but that’s what makes him such an endearing character. I found myself liking his personality even though he was the villian. Does that mean that I would have been one of his victims? That’s the scary part.
Hannibal has escaped from prison and is living in Italy. Taking up a new identity as a professor named Dr. Fell, he soon finds out that he has not one, but three people lurking on his tail: Clarisse, who has kept tabs on him through the internet; an Italian police officer who wants to turn him in for the three million dollar reward posted for his capture; and a guy named Mason. Mason is a very rich, very deformed man, who looks like a human shrimp with glasses. He was the only survivor of Hannibal’s previous 14 killings. A flashback to that event is in the movie. I wish they would have shown it in more detail though. Mason can’t seem to live without getting revenge, so he plots and schemes his way around the movie, trying to avenge something that he should leave alone.
I want to tell you more about the movie, but I can’t think of anything that wouldn’t ruin it for you. Let’s just say that if you don’t go see it, you’ll be missing one of the best movies released this year. Plus you’ll be in trouble the next time you come to my house for dinner, I could be serving you anything?
Out of 5….
4.5 on the buttered popcorn scale
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