Well the first ANTICIPATED film of 2001 has to be HANNIBAL on everyone's list... The followup to the Brilliant SILENCE OF THE LAMBS got off to a shaky start when Academy Award winner Jodie Foster dropped out, originally to direct FLORA PLUM which never came together. Then Julianne Moore took her place, Ridley Scott took Demme's place and Gary Oldman signed on... and we were off to the races. The HANNIBAL website has beautiful images... today on Entertainment Tonight the trailer is being shown... yesterday, half of it was shown. But trailers can be deceiving.... stills can look gorgeous... the only true way to find out is to hear from real people... and Jack Daniels in San Diego... well, he's a real excited geek at the moment. And with good reason. This film has got to be a must see, and from this mini-review it sounds as though Ridley has made the film that was needed to be made. Seeing this film should be like having a conversation with Satan.... dangerous, dirty and raw. I hope he pulled it off.... Vague spoilers follow....

Harry, Harry, Harry, HARRY! You are not going to believe what I got to see tonight in San Diego – and I cannot believe that I got to see it too… HANNIBAL! Yep. The follow up to Silence of the Lambs, almost ten years in the waiting. I was a huge fan of that movie and when I realized I was going to be seeing Hannibal, trust me, I got extremely excited. Silence of the Lambs to me was one of the first psychologically scary movies I saw. I was a senior in High School and was used to "scary" movies like the Nightmare on Elm Street and the Friday the 13th chapters. Silence of the Lambs was a movie that didn't have half the gore those did but effected me more. And it laid the ground work for many movies to come. Films such as Se7en, The Usual Suspects and even The Sixth Sense followed in its footsteps. These were films that not only scared you by shock, but pyschologically, as well. They affected the psyche. They made you think. And they made you read pray before you went to bed. And Hannibal is long overdue.

Basically the film takes place roughly ten years after we last saw the doctor and Special Agent Clarice Starling. Due to a drug bust gone bad, Clarice is thrust into the spotlight as a shooter happy agent (she in fact receives a letter from the Guiness Book of World Records congratulating her as being the FBI Agent with the most kills). Not only does this get the attention of Dr. Lecter who is now in Florence, Italy enjoying “retirement” as a keeper of the local historical art library, but that of one of his victims, the only one who lives, Mason Verger. Horribly disfigured, I mean, grotesquely disfigured, as we see through a flashback where Hannibal drugs him, hands him a broken piece of glass and tells him to peel his face off, Verger is obsessed on capturing and torturing Hannibal as much as the good doctor did to him. Verger devises an evil scheme using Clarice’s misfortunes, to bring Hannibal back to America - this due to the fact that Hannibal cares for Clarice, something established in the Silence of the Lambs.

Director Ridley Scott does a great job leading us to this point, using flashbacks, taped conversations between Clarice and Hannibal and well filmed scenes. Harry, what happens from this point to the end is incredible – better left to be experienced on the big screen than in print - but I’ll give you these key words to think about: “wild boars,” “alive guy with exposed brain” and “guts.” Fun for the whole family…

The cast as you can imagine is incredible.

Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal. We saw what he could do in the first one, he got the Academy Award for it, he does it again in this one. Only one person in this world is Dr. Hannibal Lecter – ‘nuff said.

Gary Oldman as Mason Verger. Sick. Disgusting. Evil! The makeup is so good, I didn’t even know it was him until I saw the flashbacks. Oh, but he’s in there. That smartass I first saw in Sid and Nancy, is definitely Mason Verger. The smartass remarks, the EYES… He is disturbing to look at – a major-flip-over-car-accident-on-the-freeway-with-a-dead-person-covered-in-a-yellow-tarp-with-blood-trickling-out kind of sick.

Ray Liotta as Dept. of Justice lackey, Paul Krindler. I didn’t like him in this film. No depth. He played a character that he plays all the time – the same character he was all the way back in Dominick and Eugene, Article 99 and recently, Cop Land. The slick weasel, manwhore he is. Am I the only one that thinks him and Billy Zane could be long lost brothers? Not to totally bash him, but I have to say he has one of the best scenes where he is in a morphined-induced stupor that has him, well, enjoying some “brain food”…

And then there’s Julianne Moore as Special Agent Clarice Starling. WAIT!! Before you all jump to conclusions, I know there’s a lot of people out there who were surprised Jodie Foster dropped out of this and were shocked they still wanted to make the film without her. Trust me, when I heard Ms. Moore was signed to replace her, to be the character Jodie won Best Actress for, I didn’t think it could be possible to deliver a film as great as the first or at least even come within a 100 feet of. But let me tell you, Julianne Moore is no Jodie Foster, but there was not one time, besides when we first see her, that I thought to myself, I’m supposed to be seeing Jodie Foster. Julianne Moore becomes Clarice. She embodies Clarice. She is Special Agent Clarice Starling and I believed it.

Harry, Hannibal is a fucking cool movie. One that must be experienced only by one's self. If you haven't read the book, don't. If you have, you won't be disappointed.

Jack Daniels