anders-rock

This is one of the best Bond movies I have ever seen. The story is superbly put together and has some interesting twists, the action is well done and contains none of the shaky cam which plagued the last film. The actors all do a great job. Some might still be put off by Daniel Craig's rough version of Bond, but I like it and he even has a few good old fashioned one-liners here. I wasn't sure about Javier Bardem as the villain at first. I thought he was a tad too flamboyant but eventually he grew on me, plus he had a very interesting backstory and as you might have guessed already, Judi Dench is fantastic as usual as M and she even has more to do in the story this time arround. This is not a completely formulaic Bond movie. Craig's bond is still more emotional than Connery or Moore ever were and for the first time we get some relatively detailed descriptions of his childhood. And something happens to Bond in the start of the movie that affects him for the rest of the film. But despite all that there are tons of James Bond trademarks like the martini, the introduction and even Q. Some might not like this new very young version of Q but I found him to be funny and very likable. They will never top Desmond Llewelyn's original performance, and instead of making a cheap Llewelyn clone, they make a completely different character which I think is the only right thing to do. This is not only a great Bond movie but just a downright great film.

I have not read the book Red Dragon that it's based on nor seen the remake of that name so I can say that I am fully capable of judging this movie on it's own merits. And I was surprised to see how much I got into this film. One thing that caught me was the main character Will Graham played by William Petersen. Petersen played the part really well and displayed the tortured psychology of the character perfectly so you really didn't feel that Hannibal Lecter's (or Lecktor in this film) words about him were empty. Brian Cox as the legendary cannibal was very different from Anthony Hopkins in Silence Of the Lambs. Where Hopkins was theatrical and let the insanity show, Cox was a lot calmer and down to earth when he analyzed Graham's psyche and that made it seem very realistic. While I do enjoy Hopkins portrayal as well I found Cox's interpretation to be refreshing after having seen Silence... so many times. And the villain Fracis Dollarhyde was scary and unpredictable while easy to sympathize with. I loved that character. I have no idea why this movie bombed at the box office. The creepy atmosphere, the compelling story about a man on the edge of insanity and the strong performances made this a winner.