Grimerlana Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Mjeteconer Just perfect...

Gary The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

shirleyfuller This is the lesser known Hannibal Lector film(to Silence of the lambs) but some consider it as good or even better than that film. I happen to feel that both have their plus points and this Michael Mann film has many strong points including an amazing soundtrack and great performance by William Peterson as Det. Will Graham. Brian Cox is chilling in his own way as Lector and his interactions with Peterson just show the kind of magnitude two capable and talented actors can bring to a scene. This is a must watch film.

Smoreni Zmaj The first movie about Hannibal Lecter, based on a book "Red Dragon". Not as good as "Silence of the Lambs", but anyhow, it is a good movie with a great cast.7/10

CinemaClown My first stint with Michael Mann's filmography is off to a good start as Manhunter turned out to be a stylishly directed, ingeniously photographed & finely performed thriller that combines the visual aesthetics of its filmmaker & psychological madness of its source material into one riveting cinema and, despite a few shortcomings, achieves what it set out to do.Manhunter tells the story of Will Graham, a retired FBI agent who's called back into service by his former boss, Jack Crawford, to assist him in determining the psychological profile of a serial killer, nicknamed "The Tooth Fairy", who has already murdered two random families on full-moon nights. Hoping to apprehend him before his next endeavour, Will enlists the help of someone who almost drove him insane.Written & directed by Michael Mann, it's difficult to not be impressed by the framing & composition of shots that's on display here as Mann experiments with different colour tints & lighting to evoke the desired response from the viewers, and allows the images to set the tone for any particular scene. Cinematography is no doubt its biggest highlight, as the stylish application of visual components play a key role in enhancing the overall experience.Coming to the performances, the cast comprises of William Peterson, Kim Greist, Joan Allen, Brian Cox, Dennis Farina, Stephen Lang & Tom Noonan, and all of them chip in with fine inputs. Peterson is brilliant as Will Graham for the most part but there are instances when he gets a tad too excited. Allen & Farina play their part convincingly. Noonan does fine as the antagonist but fails to bring an intimidating vibe to his role while Cox as Hannibal "Lecktor" is okay at best.On an overall scale, Manhunter is a perfectly good example of its genre(s) but the level of precision craftsmanship evident in its extravagant camera-work is rather missing in the storytelling section. A number of fine actors are wasted in their roles, the climax is somewhat underwhelming, and although the background score is fitting, the incorporated songs are just not compatible with the moments they tag along with. Nevertheless, the positives do outweigh the negatives, making Manhunter a worthy adaptation of Thomas Harris' Red Dragon.

Michael_Elliott Manhunter (1986) *** (out of 4) FBI profiler Will Graham (William Petersen) is asked out of retirement by his old boss (Dennis Farina) to try and track down a serial killer known as The Tooth Fairy. Even though his wife (Kim Greist) objects, Graham takes on the job, which also requires him to seek help from Dr. Hannibal Lecktor (Brian Cox), a criminal he formally brought down.MANHUNTER has the bad luck of happening before THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, which would turn out to become one of the best loved films ever made. That film would become a box office hit, win several Oscars and make Anthony Hopkins' performance of Hannibal Lecktor something of movie legend. People either forgot or didn't know that there was an earlier version so they went back to watch MANHUNTER and unfairly criticized it for not being like the Hopkins' one.I stayed away from MANHUNTER for a very long time because I wanted to give it a fair shake and I must admit that I was a little shocked at how easily I could get the "other" films out of my mind and just sit back and enjoy this one. Director Michael Mann has created a highly intelligent thriller that is rather laid back in its approach and I thought he did a very good job bringing the material to the screen. There's certainly some great cinematography as well as some great performances.Petersen is extremely entertaining and believable in the role of the profiler. The character suffers from some mental issues that Petersen perfectly captures and you have no problem believing that he's this intellectual profiler. Farina is always good in whatever he does and we also get strong support from Greist, Joan Allen and yes Brian Cox as Lecktor. It's really unfair that people bash Cox for not being like Hopkins and again it's important to note that this film was first.There are some flaws with MANHUNTER that really come out in the second portion of the film. For starters, the loud rock music really kills any sort of atmosphere and I thought it really took you out of the film. I'd also argue that the movie isn't nearly as effective when we're spending so much time with the killer. I thought the second hour of the film was much weaker than the first but MANHUNTER still has enough in it to make it an entertaining thriller.