New On Netflix: Red Dragon

It’s definitely no Manhunter (not even close), but Red Dragon deserves some respect for managing to be a little more than just a shameless quickie cash-in riding on the success of Hannibal, which was released a mere year and a half earlier. Brett Ratner delivers his usual hack job as director, but he was smart enough to gather an A-list cast so you barely even notice he’s there: Edward Norton is Will Graham, the retired FBI agent brought back into the field as a consultant to a case involving a serial killer called The Tooth Fairy (an extremely disturbed man named Francis Dolarhyde, played by Ralph Fiennes); to catch the killer, Graham must commiserate with the incarcerated Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins, made a bit younger via subtle CGI magic), whom he captured. Michael Mann’s 1986 adaptation of Thomas Harris’ novel (retitled Manhunter for fear something called Red Dragon would bomb the same way Year of the Dragon did) is superior in every way, but this is actually an efficient, unfussy thriller that gets the job done for those that need to see Hopkins play the Lecter part as much as possible.