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BY JASON BLAIR
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METROPOLITAN OPERA
– TCHAIKOVSKY’S
EUGENE ONEGIN
NORBIT PG13
ONLY ON SATURDAY 2/24 AT
10:30 AM
HANNIBAL RISING R
1:05, 1:45, 3:45, 4:30, 7:00, 7:40,
9:45, 10:25
%/2:
1SPDFFETHPUP4IFMUFS$BSFJOBEWBODFEBZPGTIPX
/PIPTUCFFSBOEXJOF%SFTTVQBOEKPJOUIFGVO
12:00, 3:00, 7:10, 10:15
BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA PAN’S LABYRINTH R
PG
1:15, 4:25, 7:15, 10:05
11:55, 1:20, 2:30, 4:00, 5:05, 7:05,
THE MESSENGERS PG13
7:40, 9:40, 10:15
12:20, 2:50, 5:20, 7:55, 10:25
GHOST RIDER PG13
BECAUSE I SAID SO
*12:55, 1:50, *3:50, 4:35, *7:05,
7:45, *9:50, 10:30 *DIGITAL TIMES PG13
1:00, 3:55, 7:10, 9:50
FACTORY GIRL R
1:40, 4:15, 7:30, 9:55
THE QUEEN PG13
12:15, 6:55
BREACH PG13
12:10, 2:55, 7:25, 10:10
SMOKIN’ ACES R
1:35, 4:20, 7:35, 10:20
MUSIC AND LYRICS
NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM
PG13
1:25, 4:05, 7:20, 10:00
PG
12:50, 3:35, 7:00, 9:55
TYLER PERRY’S
DADDY’S LITTLE GIRLS PURSUIT OF HAPPY-
NESS PG13
PG13
3:05, 9:30
12:05, 2:40, 5:15, 7:50, 10:30
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Tasteless
Hannibal the Cannibal’s
early suppers
CHILDREN OF MEN R
THE HOLIDAY PG13
[11:40] 2:30, 5:05, 7:45, 10:25
[11:45] 2:45, 7:10, 10:05
WE ARE MARSHALL PG
DÉJÀ VU PG13
[12:05] 3:00, 6:55, 9:50
9:45
BOBBY R
FLUSHED AWAY PG
[11:15] 2:25, 5:00, 7:40, 10:20
[11:25] 2:10, 4:20, 6:50, 9:30
CASINO ROYALE PG13
STRANGER THAN FIC-
THE DEPARTED R
OPEN SEASON PG
[11:50] 3:05, 7:00, 10:15
[11:20] 2:00, 4:25
[11:30, 12:00] 2:40, 3:10, 6:30, 7:05, TION PG13
9:40, 10:10
[11:35] 2:15, 4:50, 7:35, 10:10
ERAGON PG
HANNIBAL RISING: Directed by Peter
Webber. Written by Thomas Harris.
Cinematography, Ben Davis. Music, Ilan
Eshkeri and Shigeru Umebayashi. Starring
Gaspard Ulliel, Gong Li, Rhys Ifans and
Richard Brake. MGM, 2007. R. 117 minutes.
42111
T
he guiltiest of my guilty pleasure
films, Top Secret! gave me laughing
fits throughout adolescence. Written
and directed by the team behind Airplane!,
Top Secret! stars a young Val Kilmer as Nick
Rivers, an ersatz Elvis Presley who, while on
tour in East Germany, becomes involved with
the French Resistance. A rich parody of
WWII spy films, it’s one of the silliest movies
ever made. It’s also one of the most quotable,
with lines like “I know a little German.”
Pause. “He’s sitting right over there.” The
complexity of Eastern Europe during
wartime was of no concern to the filmmakers,
which probably explains why Top Secret!
came to mind as I suffered through Hannibal
Rising. For fans of Hannibal Lecter, the simi-
larity isn’t a good thing.
Hannibal Rising is a prequel to the Lecter
trilogy, a cycle containing one bona fide clas-
sic (The Silence of the Lambs), a marginal se-
quel (Hannibal) and two versions of the first
installment (Manhunter, Red Dragon).
Novelist Thomas Harris wrote each of the
four Lecter novels but wisely elected to avoid
writing the screenplays — that is, until
Hannibal Rising. I say “wisely” because if
Hannibal Rising is evidence of anything, it’s
that Harris should stick to writing novels and
being a recluse, his primary occupations.
Lambs may have won the Big Five Oscar
statuettes — picture, director, actor, actress
and screenplay — but artistically, the fran-
chise has been in decline ever since.
Hannibal Rising, as its title suggests, ex-
plores the origins of Dr. Lecter, the psycho-
pathic forensic psychiatrist partial to eating
the cheeks of his victims. According to
Hannibal Rising, the boy Lecter grew up in a
cultured household in the family castle in
[11:55] 2:20, 4:45, 7:25, 9:55
Lithuania. In other words, a typical boyhood,
or at least one absent signs of the monster to
come. At the outset of WWII, however,
Lecter’s parents are killed by German ar-
tillery while he huddles nearby with his sister.
But the event that alters Lecter’s outlook for-
ever is the death of his sister by rogue
Lithuanian soldiers, so starved that they eat
her for dinner. This ghastly event occurs off-
screen in Hannibal Rising but recurs themati-
cally to club us on the head.
Hannibal Rising then devolves into a re-
venge flick, with the 20-year-old Hannibal
(Gaspard Ulliel) on the hunt for every soldier
responsible for his loss. Hannibal travels to
Paris to contact his Japanese aunt, Lady
Murasaki (Gong Li); under her tutelage,
Lecter devours her culture, but his training
feels rushed, piecemeal and superficial.
Lecter studies martial arts, sacred masks and
antique swords, which before long he’s using
to chilling effect on the locals, being the curi-
ous boy he is. Then it’s on to medical school,
where Lecter learns to appreciate anatomy
and cadavers. The problem with Lecter’s
preparation in these scenes is that Hannibal
Rising treats him as if he’s a puzzle to be as-
sembled, as if aggregation rather than inspira-
tion is a convincing way to create a character.
Very few, if any, of these moments are subtly
woven or artfully handled. There’s no depth
or complexity to Lecter’s development or by
extension to Lecter himself.
Regrettably, Gaspard Ulliel is poorly cast
as the adolecent Lecter. He looks like an extra
from Dead Poets Society, not the early ver-
sion of Hannibal the Cannibal. Ulliel does
bring an honest accent to the role (he’s
French), not to mention a set of wicked cres-
cent-shaped dimples. But he’s mechanical
here, a fact the screenplay doesn’t help.
Contrived and clichéd in almost every aspect,
Harris’s script doesn’t flesh out the growing
fiend within young Lecter. Instead, Harris
provides us a comically thin treatment of the
origins of the man we all love to hate.
ew
APOCOLYPTO R
7:20, 10:30
UNACCOMPANIED
MINORS PG
[12:10] 2:35, 4:55, 7:15
Adv. Tix on Sale WILD HOGS (PG-13) ★
BREACH (PG-13) DIG
(1200 240 510) 735 1005
GHOST RIDER (PG-13) DIG
(1140 220 455) 720 1000
BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA (PG) DIG
(1200 230 450) 715 935
MUSIC AND LYRICS (PG-13) DIG
(1145 225 445) 730 950
NORBIT (PG-13) DIG
(1150 225 455) 720 945
HANNIBAL RISING (R) - ID REQ'D DIG
BECAUSE I SAID SO (PG-13) DIG
(1145 440) 725 1005
(1155 230 455) 725 955
VOLVER (R) - ID REQ'D DIG
(1130 455) 1010
THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND (R) - ID REQ'D DIG
(215) 730
Adv. Tix on Sale WILD HOGS (PG-13) ★
GHOST RIDER (PG-13) DIG ★
Fri. (225 505) 745 1025
Sat. & Sun. (1145 225 505) 745 1025
BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA (PG) DIG ★
Fri. (215 440) 705 930
Sat. & Sun. (1150 215 440) 705 930
MUSIC AND LYRICS (PG-13) DIG
Fri. (235 455) 715 940
Sat. & Sun. (1215 235 455) 715 940
NORBIT (PG-13) DIG
Fri. (250 515) 735 955
Sat. & Sun. (1225 250 515) 735 955
HANNIBAL RISING (R) - ID REQ'D DIG
(155 430) 725 1015
BECAUSE I SAID SO (PG-13) DIG
Fri. (245 500) 720 935
Sat. & Sun. (1230 245 500) 720 935
NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM (PG) DIG
Sat. & Sun. (1140 210 435) 700 925
BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA (PG) DIG
Fri. (230 500) 730 1000
Sat. & Sun. (1200 230 500) 730 1000
HANNIBAL RISING (R) - ID REQ'D DIG
Fri. (350) 650 940
Sat. & Sun. (1240 350) 650 940
NOTES ON A SCANDAL (R) - ID REQ'D DIG
(310 520)
LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA (R) - ID REQ'D DIG
Fri. 750
Sat. & Sun. (1210) 750
SMOKIN ACES (R) - ID REQ'D DIG
Times For 2/16 - 2/18
Making l 0 ve Sustainable
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Fri. (220 450) 720 950
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©2007
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