The X-Files

Last night I was watching Red Dragon, directed by Brett Ratner, through the Movies On Demand service on TV. It's based on the 1981 novel by Thomas Harris. The film tells the story of retired FBI agent Will Graham (played by Edward Norton) who has a 'gift' for getting inside the minds of serial killers, and is persuaded to help the FBI tracking down a brutal serial killer, nicknamed the "Tooth Fairy". Soon Graham finds himself forced to consult the last killer that he caught, the notorious Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins). It's a pretty good film, with a very strong cast which includes Ralph Fiennes, Harvey Keitel and Emily Watson. The film follows the book fairly closely, with a few additions, mostly to increase the role of Lecter (who barely appears in the book). As with the book, the identity of the killer is revealed fairly early, because it's more of a race against time thriller than a whodunnit mystery. The film also cuts down a lot of the killer's backstory from the novel. The novel was previously filmed 1n 1986 by Michael Mann as Manhunter with William Petersen as Will Graham and Brian Cox as Hannibal Lecter (credited as "Lecktor" in that film). Apparently, the title of the film was changed for the 1986 film because the producers told Mann that no film with the word "Dragon" in the title had ever made any money. Also, they thought people would think it was a fantasy film.

Actually, I remember reading in one of my movie magazines about a movie-themed cookbook that had a recipie for Hannibal Lecter Liver (although I do think that they leave the choice of what kind of liver up to the conscience of the individual cook). Perfect for when you want to have an old friend for dinner. It also had recipies for Exorcist soup and Alien egg.

It was another day on my course today. The good thing is that I'm off the clock for the duration of the course, so I don't have to worry about building up and losing flexitime as I'm automatically credited for the full day. This means that I can leave early. I was out at three today and I went up to the movies. The film that I saw was The X-Files: I Want to Believe, directed by Chris Carter. The story takes place six years after the end of The X-Files television series and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) and Fox Mulder (David Duchovney) are no longer with the FBI. However, they are reluctantly persuaded to come back to solve the disappearance of an FBI agent. The FBI have enlisted the help of a psychic (Billy Connolly) to help with the investigation. The film doesn't deal with the on-going series' "mythology", and is really more of a mystery thriller than a science-fiction film. It's had very mixed reviews, but I quite liked it.