A box-officee smash and a sweep at the Oscars leaves no doubt about the defining film of this year. While the character of Hannibal Lecter was created by author Thomas Harris, it was Anthony Hopkins' performance that elevated "The Cannibal" to the top tier of all-time great villains. Hopkins has said he was inspired by the cool, calculating homicidal computer HAL from 2001. All that's great, but he wasn't the first choice to play Lecter. Who was, you ask? Sean Connery. Think of that film.
And whatever happened to director Jonathan Demme? He's still making movies, but he obviously peaked here.
Films of Note:
Boyz N the Hood: A great film and a great example of a director (John Singleton) bursting on the scene with an emotional, personal story and then having nowhere to go but down. The scene set to The Five Stairsteps' "Ooh Child" is still one of best uses of a song I've seen.
Cape Fear: DeNiro chews his lines up and lets them drip from that wicked Southern drawl. Amazingly, the best scene in the film--DeNiro and Juliette Lewis in the school auditorium--was ad-libbed and nailed in one take. And in more alternate casting world news, Spielberg was originally set to direct this, not Scorsese, and he wanted Bill Murray to play DeNiro's role. Something tells me he wouldn't have gotten down to 3& body fat.
Showdown in Little Tokyo: My favorite late night cable action movie. From Dolph Lundgren leaping over a moving car to the naked sushi to the emergence of Brandon Lee as a future superstar. Bittersweet now, of course.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day: A huge James Cameron spectacle, bigger than the original in every way. Robert Patrick steals the show as the relentless new liquid metal Terminator. One of the greatest action movies of all time. And that G n' R song still rocks.
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