The Hannibal Lecter Trilogy [Blu-ray] [Region Free]

I won't review the movies, as I am sure most people have seen them.As far as the product goes, this is a bargain, really. The entire Lecter trilogy starring the great Anthony Hopkins for a great price.All the movies come with special features, including commentary - except Silence - the making of, additional or deleted scenes, etc.Both Hannibal and Dragon come with multiple languages and subtitles, including French, Spanish, and, of course, English. Silence only comes with audio and subtitles in English, and includes a phone message by Hopkins in the special features.Other than that, the box does not come with a booklet or anything remotely similar with pictures, as Blue-Ray discs used to when they first came out. But that's OK. I can live with that. I mean, I won't complain given the price.Now, I know I said I wouldn't review the movies. However, I will say that I am not much of a fan of Hannibal, especially because Jodie Foster chose not to reprise her role as Clarice, and while Julianne a Moore is a good actress - loved her in Game Change - to me there's no chemistry between her and Hopkins and she's just not Clarice. I don't know, it's just my opinion. Furthermore, I've always found the whole Mason Verger plot a little bit too over the top and the pig trap simply laughable... Not to mention the brain scene with Ray Liotta, which I find cringeworthy and just embarrassing. Was it supposed to be terryfying? Maybe it's just me, but it's a terrible sequence.For me, Silence is just flawless and Red Dragon is pretty good too, way way better than Hannibal.EDIT: The "Silence" Blue ray does come with Spanish dubbing and subtitling - not European Spanish though -, it just doesn't say so in the box.

Let's give the good doctor a break! Typically, all he's after is a nice meal ... Okay, he has a penchant for human flesh. But at least he tends to favour only those people who are bad mannered. For some reason or other, the authorities - especially the FBI - prefer to deny Hannibal Lecter his liberty and freedom, and consequentially incarcerate him in a tiny, dungeon-like cell. And then, rather ironically, the same authorities who decided to imprison Dr. Lecter go and ask for his help and assistance in solving murder cases involving serial killers. Well, at least these tête-à-têtes with the FBI keep Dr. Lecter from suffering sheer boredom!This box-set includes 3 films (those featuring Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter). What you don't get, therefore, is the prequel film  Hannibal Rising [Blu-ray ], nor the earlier version of 'Red Dragon' ( Manhunter [Blu-ray ]). And, of course, the more recent TV series -  Hannibal - Season 1-3 [Blu-ray ] - isn't included.But the 3 movies that are included are excellent. In chronological order (in terms of the fiction), there's "Red Dragon" - in which Dr. Lecter is discovered to be a delectable psychopath who's killed and eaten several people ... often preparing these human delicacies as gourmet meals, to be shared with others. And so the good doctor is locked-up ... only to be approached by the FBI, who need his help capturing the 'tooth fairy' murderer. Then we move on to "Silence of the Lambs" - in which the FBI once again require Lecter's intelligence to assist them capture 'Buffalo Bill' (yet another serial killer). And it's during this adventure that Lecter escapes ... He pursued by the FBI in the third film, "Hannibal". Yet one of the few victims to survive Lecter - multi-millionaire Mason Verger - gets involved, wanting revenge.These are horrific films, although not really of the traditional 'horror' genre. They're gritty murder thrillers, featuring gruesome scenes of torture, mutilation and death. They're well made, with high production values, and feature excellent acting.I thoroughly recommend this box set. At under £10, it's a bargain.

I also have Hannibal Rising in my collection, which is a brilliant film. After watching that, a couple of days later I sat down to work my way through these 3.The Red dragon is brilliant. It totally keeps in line with The Silence Of The Lambs. I had heard reports that the transfer to Bluray of this film was not very good.. I even did quality checks on it in my last job. It did seem a bit poor at the time of testing but I now know our test set ups at that job where no way near as good as the one I have at home and having watched it again on my set up there is nothing wrong with the transfer.The Silence Of The Lambs. Not the one to start it all as that was Man Hunter with Brian Cox as Lecter. But Silence… did start off this selection of films. I felt it hadn't dated very well and this could be because I had just watched Red Dragon. it seemed MGM didn't go overboard on cleaning up the picture and remixing the audio for an HD transfer. It is still the class film it was when it was new but just been surpassed.Last of all, Hannibal. I was really hoping this would round off the trilogy nicely (Quadrillogy if you include Hannibal Rising) but to me it just went way over the top. I kind of accepted the fact Jodie Foster was not playing Agent Starling and felt Julien Moore did an ok job. I guess the Ray Liotta character was to be like the warden at the Asylum in Silence and Red Dragon as of course Hannibal had had the warden for dinner at the end of Silence. I just found his character too out of place. The whole end sequence is what ruined it for me. The James Bond style death for Gary Oldman’s character Mason Verger was silly, then the lovely dinner party Lecter put on for Agent Starling with the main course being brain food, that of Paul Krendler (Liotta) and to top it off Hannibal feeding the kid on the plane more brain food. Was just rubbish. I wasn’t grossed out I just thought it pathetic.So for the box set. It’s a shame they can’t include Hannibal Rising but I quite like the outer sleeve with the facemask on it. I just wish the movies were in a gatefold styleholder rather than the standard Bluray cases. Over all not a bad buy.