Hannibal

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) | Release Date: February 9, 2001

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

57	METASCORE Mixed or average reviews based on 36 Critic Reviews

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Critic Reviews

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Richard Corliss

A banquet of creepy, gory or grotesque incidents is on display in Hannibal. but this superior sequel has romance in its dark heart.

Peter Travers

It's unmissable, flaws and all, because riveting suspense spiced with diabolical laughs and garnished with a sprig of kinky romance add up to the tastiest dish around. Read full review

Chris Kaltenbach

Hannibal isn't art. But for filmgoers with a taste for the absurd and a tolerance for the blackest of black humor, it's one heck of a thrill ride.

Owen Gleiberman

Hannibal lacks the rounded emotional elegance of ''The Silence of the Lambs'' (that was a great film; this one is merely good). Read full review

Todd McCarthy

The continuing saga of one of contemporary literature and cinema's most fascinating villains, as played once again with exquisite taste and riveting force by Anthony Hopkins. Read full review

Michael Wilmington

Hannibal, riding the malicious wit of Hopkins' sophisticated fiend, is a gorgeous, wild, sometimes sick thriller, a feast for enraptured eyes and strong stomachs.

Rene Rodriguez

It's best to just enjoy Hannibal for what it is: A decadent, elegant waltz about evil's seductive bloom. As sequels go, you could do a lot worse.

Jay Carr

''The Silence of the Lambs'' was a classic; Hannibal is only a good movie of its type.

David Sterritt

Much of the action is as ponderous as it is predictable. Lector fans will get their fill, but be warned that the menu contains at least two scenes with over-the-top excesses that Hannibal himself might not want to swallow. Read full review

Lisa Alspector

Stylistic excess, comedy, and romance often help make extremes of cruelty and horror function as cathartic metaphor, and all three figure, not always successfully, in this sequel. Read full review

Film.comRobert Horton

More complicated, more outrageous, less controlled in every way. But its owes its power to that earlier, greater film. Read full review

Film.comMoira Macdonald

Unlike the original, Hannibal may make us hide our eyes, but it doesn't get inside our heads. Read full review

Shawn Levy

It's gory, really gory, gratuitously and often inelegantly.

Steven Rea

Perhaps to compensate for the absence of compelling drama and tension (and a few continuity gaffes), Scott has retreated to his TV commercial roots and crammed Hannibal full of busy, art-directed visuals.

Jonathan Foreman

Much has, and will, be made of the grisly scenes throughout the film.

Lawrence Toppman

The film goes from stylish to ghoulish to foolish.

Jack Mathews

It's certainly not scary; it's not even suspenseful. The tension in Hannibal is purely sexual. Read full review

Roger Ebert

A carnival geek show elevated in the direction of art. It never quite gets there, but it tries with every fiber of its craft to redeem its pulp origins, and we must give it credit for the courage of its depravity. Read full review

Desson Thomson

Even by its own dark standards, the movie's conclusion is as dramatically dissatisfying as it is disturbing. Read full review

Stephen Hunter

It is not bad on its own terms, and it is certainly engrossing, but it comes nowhere near the power and sordid glory of the original. Read full review

Peter Rainer

The audience for Hannibal is far more primed for a good time; if the film is a hit, it will be because Lecter has been cartoonized; his ghoulish panache, his double entendres about cannibalism, and his pet phrases like "goody-goody" and "okeydokey" all serve to make him a figure of fun. Read full review

Joe Morgenstern

Though Hannibal the movie is unresolved in ways the book is not, that isn't Mr. Hopkins's fault. He's still a star for all seasons, and seasonings.

TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh

Though the movie is clearly meant to work on its own, the relationship between Starling and Lecter plays best if you're familiar with "Lambs." Read full review

William Arnold

Has almost none of the nail-biting suspense and fascinating character interplay that made the original so authentically terrifying. Read full review

Kenneth Turan

Creepy and grotesque rather than terrifying. It's more distasteful than anything stronger, a sour bottle of a celebrated vintage that a gourmet like Lecter wouldn't hesitate to send back with the sommelier. Read full review

Mick LaSalle

The picture is willfully gross, fundamentally stupid and in no way worth the discomfort of watching it. Yet it may be the most well-crafted piece of garbage this year. Read full review

Mike Clark

Hopkins' Hannibal is no longer mysterious, Clarice is no longer vulnerable, and the overextended Florence scenes dash any hopes of early momentum, even if Giancarlo Giannini is perfect as the cop. Read full review

Mr. ShowbizKevin Maynard

Every frame of Scott's film is gorgeously lurid and baroque, but it just hangs there like bad art, even during the gore-spilling, Grand Guignol climax.

David Ansen

Strikingly devoid of suspense. It’s not always clear who’s the protagonist and who’s the antagonist. Nor is it scary—at its most intense moments, it’s merely yucky.