Red Dragon

Name: Red Dragon
Genre: Thriller, Crime
Released: October 4, 2002
Duration: 124 min
Rating: 60
Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Edward Norton, Ralph Fiennes

2002

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Mixed or average reviews based on 36 Critic Reviews

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Universal acclaim based on 361 Ratings

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8.5	User Score Universal acclaim based on 361 Ratings

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Red Dragon

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Movie Details & Credits

Universal Pictures | Release Date: October 4, 2002 | R

Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Edward Norton, Ralph Fiennes

Summary: The first and most terrifying chapter in the Hannibal Lecter trilogy. (Universal Pictures)

Director: Brett Ratner

Genre(s): Thriller, Crime

Rating: R

Runtime: 124 min

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Critic Reviews

Todd McCarthy

Audiences will be excused for any feelings of déjà vu the new film might inspire. That won't prevent them from watching it in rapt, anxious silence, however, as the gruesome crimes, twisted psychology and deterministic dread that lie at the heart of Harris' work are laid out with care and skill. Read full review

David Grove

Is Red Dragon a better film than "Manhunter?" I don’t know. I think it stands on its own, but I wonder how much people who are intimately familiar with "Manhunter" will be shocked by it, although the ending is altogether different and much more realized, I think. Read full review

Jonathan Foreman

It's frightening enough, to be sure, but too often it feels like a well-executed but rote exercise. Read full review

Carrie Rickey

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

A.O. Scott

The entire picture is a third-generation Xerox copy, in part because adapting Mr. Harris's books for the screen seems to turn directors into rigid formalists. Read full review

William Arnold

Basically lives up to the old adage that the final work in a trilogy is invariably the weakest. Read full review

Michael Atkinson

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. Read full review

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User Reviews

LoRevisor

Sep 29, 2015

Me julguem, mas acho que Red Dragon (2002), entreter mais na minha opinião que Silence Of The Lambs (1991) e na minha opinião Red Dragon (2002) é muito melhor também, com um roteiro excelente e criativo, e um elenco estelar e impecável,que é composto pelo inesquecível Anthony Hopkins oMe julguem, mas acho que Red Dragon (2002), entreter mais na minha opinião que Silence Of The Lambs (1991) e na minha opinião Red Dragon (2002) é muito melhor também, com um roteiro excelente e criativo, e um elenco estelar e impecável,que é composto pelo inesquecível Anthony Hopkins o genial "Hannibal Lecter",o incrível Harvey Keitel, o serial killer Francis Dolarhyde ou tooth fairy interpretado brilhantemente por Ralph Fiennes, e a ótima Emily Watson como a cegueta e mesmo não sendo um fã de Edward Norton ele faz um ótimo trabalho aqui, porém não consigo admira Philip Seymour Hoffman é um ator mediano... Excelente Drama de investigação recheado de Serial-Killers.… Expand

6 of 6 users found this helpful60

Depose570

May 16, 2021

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2 of 2 users found this helpful20

SHO1BANG

Dec 29, 2011

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I loved Red Dragon. I liked the dark atmosphere, Norton waws really good, the opening scenes with Lecter before he got caught were excellent, and a great introduction to the whole story. Ralph Fiennes was excellent, in my opinion he deserved an oscar nomination for his portrayal of the 'Tooth Fairy'. And I think this is a point where Red Dragon is superior to The Silence of the Lambs. The real villain isn't overshadowed by Lecter. Lecter is still active, and in this movie (not as much as in the Silence, of course) but the otehr villain is great too. Buffalo Bill never really impressed me. The twist is great, towards the end, this is really a really enjoyable movie, the music was fitting as well. The performances are all excellent. 9/10… Expand

6 of 7 users found this helpful61

Riren

Feb 5, 2007

When you're in Hannibal Lecter's universe, it's sometimes too easy to think all the dark atmosphere comes easy. Red Dragon actually works very hard and does the best job at the true uncomfortable yet tantalizing feel in a 'Lecter' flick since Silence of the Lambs. When you're in Hannibal Lecter's universe, it's sometimes too easy to think all the dark atmosphere comes easy. Red Dragon actually works very hard and does the best job at the true uncomfortable yet tantalizing feel in a 'Lecter' flick since Silence of the Lambs. While a few moments are almost cartoonishly out of place, and a few plot threads only make true sense if you read the book (the Toothy Fairy killer's psychosis began when he was adopted by a violent old woman who so traumatized him that he represses almost everything and needs identities to deal with his feelings), it's quite a good movie. Edward Norton carries the helm so that we don't miss Anthony Hopkins too much, and Hopkins does appear often enough to satiate us, though thankfully not too much to completely steal this movie from the real killer like he did in Silence of the Lambs. Hopkins is who we came to the theatre to see, after all.… Expand

1 of 1 users found this helpful

eva3si0n

Jul 19, 2020

Red Dragon prequel to the magnificent The Silence of the Lambs. Despite the magnificent cast, the film is clearly inferior to Hannibal. True, the antonist turned out to be excellent, yet Ralph Fiennes is a great actor. Yes, the main plot twist is predicted in advance, there is no clearly setRed Dragon prequel to the magnificent The Silence of the Lambs. Despite the magnificent cast, the film is clearly inferior to Hannibal. True, the antonist turned out to be excellent, yet Ralph Fiennes is a great actor. Yes, the main plot twist is predicted in advance, there is no clearly set suspense. But each scene with Anthony Hopkins shows why they watch these films.… Expand

3 of 3 users found this helpful30

MovieManiac83

Apr 24, 2015

Let's be honest, it didn't look very promising, did it? The auteur behind The Family Man and Rush Hour 2 tackling the movie's favourite cannibal with the residue of the dreary Hannibal still ripe in the memory. But Brett Ratner's adaptation of Thomas Harris' 1981 prequel to The Silence OfLet's be honest, it didn't look very promising, did it? The auteur behind The Family Man and Rush Hour 2 tackling the movie's favourite cannibal with the residue of the dreary Hannibal still ripe in the memory. But Brett Ratner's adaptation of Thomas Harris' 1981 prequel to The Silence Of The Lambs (already adapted by Michael Mann as Manhunter) delivers the goods with minimum fuss.

As if to atone for Ridley Scott's uninspired instalment, Red Dragon feels like a concerted effort to get back to the glory days of Silence and, to a large extent and against all the odds, Ratner pulls it off. It may not have Manhunter's sense of style or interesting contours, but Red Dragon surpasses Mann's movie in its dogmatic desire to entertain.

Putting the cult of Lecter aside for a moment, Red Dragon works as a cracking detective story. Going the Christopher Columbus/Harry Potter route, Ratner, in tandem with Silence screenwriter Tally, has been remarkably faithful to Harris' tautly constructed mystery. He offers a well-tooled, workmanlike compendium of the book's greatest hits - the great scene in which Lecter's cell is searched for clues as to how he is contacting Dolarhyde, the horrific burning wheelchair set-piece - that is the cinematic equivalent of a page-turner.

Where Ratner does deviate from the novel, it pays dividends: a pre-credits opener that pitches Lecter and Graham against each other, first mentally, then physically, is a fantastic curtain-raiser, satisfying our immediate appetite to see the good Doctor while setting up the Lecter-Graham mind-games to come.

If not quite as **** as Tom Noonan's incarnation from Manhunter, he also finds a real shift of gear in his tentative, affecting relationship with Reba (Watson, once again putting in good work), the blind woman who offers the killer a redemptive state of grace.

What ultimately stops Red Dragon from being truly great rather than merely good is the bog-standard quality in Ratner's direction. Everything is crisp, everything is proficient but nowhere does he generate the foreboding atmosphere or memorable image that really hits home: visually, the movie is a sitcom version of Silence, all flat lighting and bland set-ups, the infamous corridor approaching Lecter's cell having none of its previous power.

Indeed, the movie doesn't really deliver any real scares and nail-gnawing tension until a last reel denouement. But when the shocks do come, they work a treat.

Not as good as The Silence Of The Lambs, but definitely besting the risible Hannibal, Red Dragon is a thoroughly entertaining, efficiently mounted thriller. If this is the last of the cannibal capers - and the sense of familiarity suggests that it should be, it's a good one to go out on.… Expand

2 of 3 users found this helpful21

NerijusD

Dec 5, 2009

Unnecessary and bad remake of a masterpiece - "Manhunter".

0 of 1 users found this helpful

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42	#42 Most Discussed Movie of 2002
62	#62 Most Shared Movie of 2002