Red Dragon
Director: Brett Ratner
Year Released: 2002
Rating: 1.5
Unnecessary remake of Manhunter, substituting that film's Lecter (Brian Cox) with the scene-stealing Anthony Hopkins (and miscasting Edward Norton in the William L. Petersen role) and managing to replace all grit and character with smooth insouciance; Michael Mann's film isn't very good, but this isn't an improvement. Dante Spinotti - who shot the first film and must have felt like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day - lights everything beautifully, but Brett Ratner's direction places the camera roughly one foot away from the performers' heads; you become less interested in their blank expressions and more so in the moles on their faces (if you think I'm joking, take a look). Real-life sophisticate Ralph Fiennes' attempts at psychosis - compare this to his landmark role in Schindler's List and tell me who's scarier - had me giggling more often than not.
