This movie is average

Rating: Null/10 (15 August 1999)

The acting in this movie is excellent from Oscar winners Jodie Foster and Sir Tony as well as Scott Glenn who was great as the FBI guy and the no-name who played the psycho (excellent job portraying an EXTREMELY ILL character) but the movie is flawed. In reality it won Best Picture because of a severe lack of good movies (seriously, if they decided to make Speed II or Muppets from Outer Space that year, the competition would have been tougher) The movie's big mistake was totally selling out by having Hannibal Lector escape. This draws the movie too far away from its central plot making the movie too much about him. The way I see it, whoever wrote it at first intended Lector to be a deep psychological informant then decided he was too cool to keep under control then decided audiences would prefer him to get out so he damages the story to appease the masses in typical Hollywood fasion, when it would have been much better for him to be locked up the whole time. Had they stuck to having him in the asylum the whole time, the movie would be a totally psychological thirller as opposed to a cheap "whats the nutty douche going to do next now that he's escaped" thriller. Huge mistake, average movie. **1/2