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Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Julianne Moore, Giancarlo Giannini, Ray Liotta, Gary Oldman, Zeljko Ivanek
Director: Ridley Scott
Producers: Dino De Laurentiis, Martha De Laurentiis, Ridley Scott
Screenplay: Steven Zaillian and David Mamet, based on the novel by Thomas Harris
Cinematography: John Mathieson
Music: Hans Zimmer
UK Distributor: MGM

Sat on the front row of one of the biggest screens in Wolverhampton's Cineworld, you wonder why many people would put themselves through such point blank horror. My eyesight isn't great but I hate watching a good movie past the silhouettes of kids playing with either each other or their cellphones.

So, virtually nose to nose with the screen, Ridley Scott's Hannibal began.

And as with brother Tony's Enemy of the State, it's a pixellated opener with lush credits and nice music.

What unfolds is a little too crystal clear as we return to the fiendish world of nutball psychiatrist Hannibal Lecter, the man more likely to eat you than cure you.

Tackling a sequel using on of the big screen's most legendary monsters was a daunting affair so little wonder a director with Scott's calibre was recruited.

After all, this is the man that scared the world silly with the first of the Alien movies in 1979 so it's a pretty good bet he could do the same again with this.

Sorry, I've not read the book so suffice to say, I really enjoyed the movie on its own terms.

Julianne Moore is as smart and sexy as ever as FBI agent Clarice Starling; Hopkins chews up every scene he's in and Gary Oldman gives a delicious performance as the disfigured Mason Verger.

After 10 years, Hannibal has been a long time coming, with writer Thomas Harris eventually delivering his novel and then the rights being snapped up.

It took a while longer to get the screenplay right.

David Mamet's script was turned down so Steven Zallian stepped in to rewrite the whole thing.

Meanwhile, in Florence, Italian detective Rinaldo Pazzi (the excellent Giancarlo Giannini) is plotting to turn him over to Verger in return for a $3million reward. You don't need to be a genius to realise his fate but the way it unfolds is at least satisying.

When I heard Ray Liotta was going to be in the movie, my blood ran cold. What Scott was doing hiring the man who starred in Turbulence is anyone's guess. And then you realise his fate and everything falls into place.

He plays racist politician Paul Krendler, a man whose demise must rank as one of the most original and unsettling in screen history.

Fans of The Silence of the Lambs and the novel on which this is based maybe disappointed. But Scott is no fool. There's little chance of him topping the original movie for suspense so he strayed away from Jonathan Demme's documentary-style drama and opted more for a grand guignol Phantom of the Opera approach.

While Moore emerges as little more than a cipher for Lecter, she is simply gorgeous as Starling, offering more sex appeal if not the gravitas of Foster.

Not Scott's best film but certainly one of his most enjoyable. And that ending has to be seen to be believed.

The DVD review

If there's one thing Ridley Scott does well it's give value for money.

So aside from the film itself, we get director's commentary. Here you will discover all you need to know about one of the most lush serial killer thrillers in history.

There's an excellent documentary produced by Scott Free. Not one of those dire making ofs that are usually on when you stagger in from the pub with a B-list celeb taking you behind the scenes. Here it's an intelligent, well crafted doc with the key players revealing how they got the film off the ground.

Both directors and producer were in Malta working on U-571 and Gladiator respectively. De Laurentiis and his wife Martha went to meet with Scott to say 'hi' and when Jonathan Demme passed on the Hannibal project, they asked Ridley.

Classic misunderstanding ensued: "I'm in the middle of an historic epic. I don't really wanna do another one", thought the director. Then he discovered it was the sequel to Silence of the Lambs and the rest as they say is history.

For a genre steeped in cheap and tacky plot devices, this ups the ante several notches.

So we discover where Lecter's choice of letter scent - amber gris - comes from (whales' brains). It looks like amber and can smell for 50 years such as the piece Scott was given while in Florence.

You get an insider take on the brain scene. Scott had a brain surgeon on set which he found most amusing. However, the fact that the director had used sheep's brains fooled the doc who believed them to be a real chunk of human grey matter.

On the whole, worth every penny.

© 2001 Roger Crow