It's good--but an Oscar winner?

Rating: 8/10 (13 February 2008)

Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) an FBI cadet is hired to try to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins). He's a cannibal and VERY dangerous. Also there's a psychopath named Buffalo Bill kidnapping girls and skinning them alive. Lecter hints that he knows who Bill is and Clarice tries to find out...but Lecter is playing serious mind games with her.
I caught this back in 1991. I liked it but I thought Foster was just OK and I found the story pretty confusing with glaring lapses in logic. Seeing it now some 17 years later I still feel the same way. The film is somewhat slow and I wasn't that scared or upset by it. Also Foster (who's Southern accent comes and goes at an alarming rate) is just OK. I'm really surprised that she won the Oscar for this. PLOT SPOILER AHEAD!!!! There was also a lot of gay groups who complained that Buffalo Bill was a transsexual. As a gay guy I wasn't offended but other people were just horrified. END SPOILER!!!
Still the movie isn't a total washout. Hopkins is just superb as Lecter. He's downright terrifying at times. He's only on screen about a total of 30 minutes but you always feel his presence. Also his breakout (while completely illogical) is one of the scariest sequences I've ever seen. The whole movie is well-directed especially during the final sequence. Also it's the first horror film since 1932 to win an acting Academy Award. Heck, it won quite a few! Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Hopkins), Best Actress (Foster), Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. So, it's a very good thriller worth catching...but Academy Award material? I think it was a little overpraised.
For horror fans there's an extra kick of seeing Roger Corman in a small role!
"...I'm having an old friend for dinner."