Red Dragon
Universal Pictures | Release Date: October 4, 2002 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
60
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 36 Critic Reviews
Positive:
20
Mixed:
15
Negative:
1
Watch Now
Stream On
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
The New YorkerAnthony Lane
For all the lunacies bared within this film, it has the tick and thrum of a solid studio machine, occasionally shocking but never surprising; it will be watched by everybody, but it feels as if it were made by nobody. [14 & 21 October 2002, p. 226]
60
Washington PostStaff (Not credited)
Red Dragon is merely the distant echoes of what we liked about "Lambs." Read full review
60
The New York TimesA.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
60
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
There's no freshness here, no sense of newness or discovery. In its place, there's an earnest desire not to drop the ball, a determination to risk as little as possible in keeping this golden egg from cracking wide open. Read full review
60
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
Without the top-notch cast it would be indistinguishable from hundreds of pedestrian serial-killer pictures that clog video store shelves. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleEdward Guthmann
In Hollywood, where integrity is rapidly consumed and careers defined by market value, there's trash and there's trash with a pedigree. Read full review
50
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
Basically lives up to the old adage that the final work in a trilogy is invariably the weakest. Read full review
50
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
I can't tell you if Red Dragon is more faithful to Harris' book than "Manhunter," which I haven't seen in 16 years. I can tell you it's less artful and atmospheric, a straight-ahead thriller that never rises above superficiality. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Suffers from franchise fatigue. Its rote suspense is strictly a business proposition. Read full review
50
SlateDavid Edelstein
It more or less works. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Red Dragon is done in a painfully mechanical, by-the-book manner. Scenes are assembled to move the plot from point A to point B. There's no atmosphere. No tension. Flat performances. All of these problems are rightfully laid at the feet of the man in charge. Read full review
50
SalonStephanie Zacharek
If you buy the overprocessed headcheese of the serial killer as refined genius, you'll love Red Dragon. Or maybe not. Even Hannibal Lecter devotees may lose patience with this picture's grandiose, self-serious ponderousness -- that's Lecterese for, "It's kind of boring in patches, actually." Read full review
40
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
Norton is a strong lead in an overwrought, mediocre film that trumps even Hannibal in its mercenary shamelessness. Read full review
40
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Frank Whaley and Philip Seymour Hoffman play minor characters so annoying they might as well wear T-shirts reading "Eat My Brain." Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
I say don't bite unless your taste runs to thin gruel, and grueling gruel at that.
More From This Movie

60 Critic Reviews

8.5 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 71 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL