It would be difficult to walk into Hannibal without any preconceived notions. To begin with, it's only the fourth sequel to a film that won the Academy Award for Best Picture (even though all but The Godfather, Part II sucked eggs). Even more rare is the fact that The Silence of the Lambs swept the five major Oscar categories (Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, [Adapted] Screenplay) – a feat achieved but twice (1975's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and 1934's It Happened One Night). 

As if that wasn't enough, Hannibal has generated enough dish to be the leading story on Entertainment Tonight since Thomas Harris' sequel abruptly surfaced on bookstore shelves in the summer of 1999. The novel was too gruesome for Lambs' director (Jonathan Demme) and screenwriter (Ted Tally). Then, producer Dino De Laurentiis (U-571) paid an ungodly amount of money for the screen rights to the book. Jodie Foster was in, but wanted to be paid almost as much as Lambs cost to make. Then she was scared off by the material as well. Her equally important counterpart, Anthony Hopkins, had recently announced his retirement from film (What's up with that? He was in, like, four movies last year). The casting nightmares, along with the critically poor reception of Harris' novel, seemed to doom the project before it could even begin. 

What you can't deny is that Hannibal's assemblage of acting talent is pretty amazing. Two-time Oscar nominee Julianne Moore (Magnolia) replaces Foster as Clarice Starling, while Hopkins reprises the role that won him a Best Actor trophy. Gary Oldman, who could see Oscar action for his recent turn in The Contender, appears here, but is uncredited (and even more unrecognizable). Even some of the smaller roles, played by folks like Giancarlo Giannini, have been to Oscar's big dance (for Seven Beauties). 

As impressive as that collection of talent is, the technical players are even more extraordinary. Director Ridley Scott and his Gladiator gang (cinematographer John Mathieson, editor Pietro Scalia, costume designer Janty Yates and scoremeister Hans Zimmer) are all likely to receive Oscar nominations for their action epic just days after Hannibal opens. Ditto David Mamet (State and Main), who shares a screenwriting credit with Schindler's List's Oscar winner Steven Zaillian (although, reportedly, Mamet 's draft was scrapped). 

So is it any good? It'll depend on what your expectations are. Hannibal is a really good film, but it's nowhere near as earth-shattering as Lambs. It' s pretty faithful to the book, although that's not saying much, since the story seemed to be curiously cobbled together. They're both set 10 years after Lambs concluded. Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter is on the loose in Tuscany, while Starling is still holding down her gig as an FBI agent. Hannibal opens with Starling heading a botched raid of a D.C. drug dealer's hideout. She loses a friend and her credibility, and finds her face splashed all over the news for the first time since she used Lecter's help to catch the serial killer known as Buffalo Bob. She gets busted down to a desk job, where she obsesses about catching Lecter and takes flack from ex-lover and Justice Department stuffed shirt Paul Krendler (Ray Liotta). 

In the meantime, one Mason Verger (Oldman) is close to flushing Lecter out of his Italian hiding spot. Verger was Lecter's fourth victim, and the only one who survived his encounter, but had his face sliced apart for good measure (think The Grinch sans green fur). He's as rich as they come, and has been trying to track down Lecter for years, hoping to bring him back to his Virginia estate for a particularly gruesome farewell. The first half of the film involves Verger bribing an Italian cop (Giannini) to lead his men to Lecter. His plan, of course, goes horribly awry, and Lecter heads for the States to have a showdown with both Verger and Starling. The ending is excruciating and as gruesome as you've likely heard, but after the gore is over, its conclusion is different and more pleasing than the one found in the novel. 

Some people may have a problem with the pacing of the film. It's 30 minutes before you see Lecter properly (not in a flashback, or on video), and the whole section in Italy takes a while to get moving. But when it does, it's a thing of beauty. Particularly well done is a scene where Starling tries to locate Lecter in a crowded area of D.C. while he talks to her on a cell phone. It's a great cat-and-mouse chase with a surprising ending to those that haven't read the book. Moore does a capable job as Starling, but Foster left some pretty big shoes to fill. If they were size 8, Moore is around a 7. 

Hannibal was shot in Tuscany, Sardinia, and in and around the D.C. area, including stops at properties owned by James Madison and the Vanderbilt family. Like Gladiator, it's a technically slick little film, with razor-sharp editing and a string-and-opera-heavy score that uses over-the-top classical music standards to underscore the almost comedic violence, like Kubrick did with A Clockwork Orange. Complaints are minor, like the Italians who don't speak Italian (which really makes you appreciate the authenticity in Traffic), but all of that will be wiped from your memory after the finale, where Liotta does his best impression of George W. Bush.

2:10 –

for strong gruesome violence, some nudity and language