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Red Dragon
MCA/Universal Pictures


6.3

based on 37 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 28 votes
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FILM:

MPAA RATING: R for violence, grisly images, language, some nudity and sexuality

Starring Anthony Hopkins, Edward Norton, Ralph Fiennes, Harvey Keitel, Emily Watson, Mary-Louise Parker, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Anthony Heald

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

GENRE(S):	Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	Ted Tally Thomas Harris (novel)
DIRECTED BY:	Brett Ratner
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: April 1, 2003 Video: April 1, 2003 Theatrical: October 4, 2002
RUNNING TIME:	minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Washington Post Staff (Not credited)

The film itself represents movie craftsmanship -- elegant, dark, alluring, frightening, mesmerizing -- at its best.

Variety 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.

Time Richard Corliss

This darkly seductive, flawlessly acted piece is worlds removed from most horror films. Here monsters have their grandeur, heroes their gravity. And when they collide, a dance of death ensues between two souls doomed to understand each other.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

To my surprise, Ratner does a sure, stylish job, appreciating the droll humor of Lecter's predicament, creating a depraved new villain in the Tooth Fairy (Ralph Fiennes), and using the quiet, intense skills of Norton to create a character whose old fears feed into his new ones. There is also humor, of the uneasy he-can't-get-away-with-this variety, in the character of a nosy scandal-sheet reporter (Philip Seymour Hoffman).

Film Threat 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.

Newsweek David Ansen

Red Dragon is certainly an improvement on “Hannibal.” It has something the Ridley Scott movie didn’t -- a good story -- and it will no doubt keep the franchise rolling in dough.

Dallas Observer Gregory Weinkauf

Thankfully, Emily Watson comes to his rescue with her spot-on portrayal of the killer's blind girlfriend; her rich performance works wonders in the absence of Jodie Foster. Now, if only they could remake Hannibal before they assemble that boxed set.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

It's chilling what Fiennes can do with so very little; he looks like a wounded puppy half the time and sounds like one to boot.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The most refreshing aspect of Red Dragon is its reliance on old-fashioned acting instead of computer-aided gizmos. Hopkins overdoes his role at times -- his vocal tones are almost campy -- but his piercing eyes are as menacing as ever, and Ralph Fiennes is scarily good as his fellow lunatic.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

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

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Ratner is canny enough to close the movie with a devilish tease that will send the Lambs faithful out with a delirious smile. What Red Dragon won't do is haunt your nightmares. Who could have guessed Hannibal Lecter would ever become such a crack-up?

Boston Globe Ty Burr

As Hopkins's Lecter is concerned, it's official: He's Freddy Krueger.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

Red Dragon is very much a product, and a superior one, of our times. So is Anthony Hopkins' top-notch fiend, the bad doctor.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

I quibble over a film that has none of the artistic pretensions of "The Silence of the Lambs." This is more of a greatest-hits Hannibal movie, with a thunderingly portentous soundtrack, lots of mugging and autopsy detail, and a bang-up double ending.

Film Threat Rick Kisonak

The only downside to this delectable third course? The regrettable likelihood that Lecter fans will have to make do without dessert.

LA Weekly Ron Stringer

What Ratner brings to the proceedings is an awareness that what worked for "Silence" -- namely screenwriter Ted Tally, production designer Kristi Zea and, of course, Anthony Hopkins as Lecter -- will work overtime here, to enhance the project at hand and provide a seamless connection back to Jonathan Demme's multiple-Oscar winner.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

An absorbing film, acted with real force by all parties and directed with competence and assuredness if something less than inspiration.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

A thriller made from a completist's checklist rather than with a cultist's passion.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

Our time is plagued with primitive directors toiling in the name of entertainment, and protected by an industry that rewards competence over excellence. They're the reason why this movie is simply average, and why all the Red Dragons look so uniformly beige.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

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

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Has the grisly appetite, if not the execution of the original. What it also has are monstrously good Ralph Fiennes and Edward Norton, plus a fine young Hannibal to save it.

Washington Post Staff (Not credited)

Red Dragon is merely the distant echoes of what we liked about "Lambs."

The New Yorker Anthony 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]

The New York Times 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.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth 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.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Without the top-notch cast it would be indistinguishable from hundreds of pedestrian serial-killer pictures that clog video store shelves.

Salon.com Stephanie 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."

Slate David Edelstein

It more or less works.

ReelViews James 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.

San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann

In Hollywood, where integrity is rapidly consumed and careers defined by market value, there's trash and there's trash with a pedigree.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Suffers from franchise fatigue. Its rote suspense is strictly a business proposition.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

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

Charlotte Observer Lawrence 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.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

Norton is a strong lead in an overwrought, mediocre film that trumps even Hannibal in its mercenary shamelessness.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Frank Whaley and Philip Seymour Hoffman play minor characters so annoying they might as well wear T-shirts reading "Eat My Brain."

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

I say don't bite unless your taste runs to thin gruel, and grueling gruel at that.

Village Voice 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.

The average user rating for this movie is 6.3 (out of 10) based on 28 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Riren gave it an8:
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.

Farah D. gave it a10:
The movie " hannibal" was a complete failure so it might be uncounted . 'the red dragon "is exactly the twin of "the silence of the lamp ", it holds the same glorious reasons of smashing success the first chapter possessed . the two transcends old definitions of good and evil but they dig deeper into a more horrifying realms of the human psyche . and in this movie the spectator is as much involved with the criminal as with detective and Dr lecter in between acting the godlike connection .though it fades for some moments , yet the flame of expecting , guessing, waiting, hoping, fearing consumes from within leaving you with an exotic feeling of sweet exhaustion . you are changed somehow although this strange experience has nothing to do with your real life tomorrow morning!

Susan P. gave it an 8:
The story is as usual...but the actors are marvellous, specially Ralph Fiennes Emily Watson.

Michael M. gave it an 8:
The third installment of the Hannibal Lector trilogy, and prequel to both 'Silence of the Lambs' and 'Hannibal' is a great thriller, that is unfortunatly underrated by most critics. In my opinion, this chapter in the horrifying series is better than 'Hannibal' but slightly not as good as 'The Silence of the Lambs'. Red Dragon definetly has the most acting talent - Anthony Hopkins, Edward Norton, Ralph Fiennes, Harvey Keital, Emily Watson, Mary Louise Parker and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Also, Red Dragon has the least blood and gore, but is probably the scariest film of all of them. The story is about a young hero cop Will Graham (Edward Norton) who in the beginning of the film catches Hannibal Lector (Anthony Hopkins), but leaving both Hannibal and him severly injured. After catching Hannibal, Will decides to retire. About a year into retirement his old cop buddy Lt. Jack Crawford (Harvey Keital) asks for his help on a series of murders down by a serial killer (Ralph Fiennes) the police like to call "The Tooth Fairy". Why Tooth Fairy? Because he is a cannibal just like Hannibal and bites human flesh off his victims leaving a series of bite marks. Will decides to investigate the case, and asking help from Hannibal, since he knows how a criminal thinks. This is a great thriller but unfortunatly not as good as 1991's Best Picture winner 'The Silence of the Lambs'. (2/22/03)

Martin L. gave it a 10:
Ok, I like horror movies, but this is probably one of the best.

Pat C. gave it a 5:
Essential viewing for those who've developed an appetite for all things Hannibal. Does some things better than expected, other things not so well. As a remake of "Manhunter" it deviates by going Fatal-Attraction with the madman on the second floor of the home of Norton's suitably terrified family, where no self-respecting calculating remorseless serial hellhound would venture.

James B. gave it a 1:
Red Dragon escapes"0" only out of respect for its good cast. This is, as the high ratings of both the pros and amateurs above suggest, a juvenile, cultist bit of marketing trash for the admirers of the pompous Harris, who broadcasts his nastiness(the trademark of these times) through Lecter, a spirited bore now. The Village Voice critic seems to be the only one to notice, let alone comment on, the alternately silly, and sententious dialogue. Manhunter was no better than good, as far as that goes, but its workmanlike quality suited the police procedural material well, and allowed the less noted cast, especially the now-omnipresent Brian Cox, to do their work well. Norton might appeal to some viewers as another world-weary detective, but to me his portrayal is more somnabulistic than sympathetically jaded. Go for the laughs. Cheers, Mr. Tally!

Red Dragon MCA/Universal Pictures

Red Dragon
MCA/Universal Pictures