Jodie Foster Movie:

		List Price: $29.99		Label: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Salesrank: 161 Released: March 3, 2009
		Our Price: $9.99
		Used Price: $11.34
		MPAA Rating: R (Restricted) Media: Blu-ray

Editorial Review:
A psychopath nicknamed Buffalo Bill is murdering women across the Midwest. Believing it takes one to know one, the FBI sends Agent Clarice Starling (Foster) to interview a demented prisoner who may provide clues to the killer's actions. That prisoner is psychiatrist Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Hopkins), a brilliant, diabolical cannibal who agrees to help Starling only if she'll feed his morbid curiosity with details of her own complicated life. As their relationship develops, Starling is forced to confront not only her own hidden demons, but also an evil so powerful that she may not have the courage or strength to stop it!

Description of The Silence of the Lambs [Blu-ray]:
Based on Thomas Harris's novel, this terrifying film by Jonathan Demme really only contains a couple of genuinely shocking moments (one involving an autopsy, the other a prison break). The rest of the film is a splatter-free visual and psychological descent into the hell of madness, redeemed astonishingly by an unlikely connection between a monster and a haunted young woman. Anthony Hopkins is extraordinary as the cannibalistic psychiatrist Dr. Hannibal Lecter, virtually entombed in a subterranean prison for the criminally insane. At the behest of the FBI, agent-in-training Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) approaches Lecter, requesting his insights into the identity and methods of a serial killer named Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine). In exchange, Lecter demands the right to penetrate Starling's most painful memories, creating a bizarre but palpable intimacy that liberates them both under separate but equally horrific circumstances. Demme, a filmmaker with a uniquely populist vision (Melvin and Howard, Something Wild), also spent his early years making pulp for Roger Corman (Caged Heat), and he hasn't forgotten the significance of tone, atmosphere, and the unsettling nature of a crudely effective close-up. Much of the film, in fact, consists of actors staring straight into the camera (usually from Clarice's point of view), making every bridge between one set of eyes to another seem terribly dangerous. --Tom Keogh

The Silence of the Lambs [Blu-ray] Reviews:
Gave me indigestion
2009-09-06 - I had never seen 'The Silence of the Lambs', so when it came out on Blu-ray I thought I would give it a try. I did not find it to be a great movie. Indeed, I found much of it to be laughable. Now, perhaps this is because it has been parodied so much, I dunno. When the psycho killer said, "It puts the lotion on its skin", all I could think of was the parody scene from 'Joe Dirt'. Also, the part of the story about the vain, media-seeking doctor who 'treated' Lecter in the specially-constructed cell where he was kept was pretty far-fetched. Nor was Lecter's escape believable.

All in all, a watchable movie, but one that, IMHO, is failing the test of time.

My Favorite Movie
2009-08-27 - This is by far my favorite movie. One of the things that really stood out for me the first time I saw it was the acting job done by Ms. Foster in the basement, in the dark. She was the first who I think really played the part like a real person would have. Anyway, the acting was superb, very interesting, yet sometimes gruesome, story, and all around fantastic movie.

Some Films Should Only Be Seen In the Cinema!
2009-07-18 - That's the thing about whodunnits; once you find out who diddit, the film suffers the next time you watch it. I do remember though when I first saw this film in the cinema that I was very much involved in it and watching it on the big screen in near total darkness made you feel like YOU were Clarisse and the final scene in the basement stayed with me for a long time after that day too. It was certainly one of the finest films I had ever seen on the big screen.

Now that I'm viewing this once again but on DVD, I can't help but feel that a lot is lost in viewing this film this way. It made me realise that perhaps a Demme Director's cut version should be released which incorporates the deleted scenes which I thought were pretty good and that would help aid the story along as well. The sound quality of this Fullscreen version is advertised as 5.1 Surround and is pretty good sound quality wise although the picture quality does look as if it could be improved upon and here's hoping a proper Blu-ray or standard format 20th anniversary edition will be released in a couple of years time in a director's cut version so as to add some freshness and life to this great film. An anamorphic widescreen version would also be greatly appreciated.

As it is though, this film is still very, very good but it doesn't reward repeated viewing for me in its current form. Here's hoping and waiting for a 20th anniversary directors cut version!

Oscar really got it right this time
2009-06-20 - Still one of the scariest, most compelling crime dramas ever made. Jodie Foster is just as mesmerizing as Oscar winner Anthony Hopkins in this cat and mouse game between an FBI agent and a serial killer. Ignore all the trashy sequels, the increasingly ludicrous books and the many spoofs of Hannibal Lecter. This is a great film and looks just stunning on this BluRay edition packed with extras. Visit me at michaelgiltz dot com.

"A Census Taker Once Tried To Test Me. I Ate His Liver With Some Fava Beans And A Nice Chianti." Chillingly Delicious.
2009-06-09 - Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster give Academy Award winning performances in what are arguably their best known roles: the notorious criminal and renowned psychiatrist Hannibal Lecter and Clarice Starling, the FBI Agent-in-training who asks Lecter for help in catching a sadistic killer known only as Buffalo Bill. The reason I give this film four stars is two-fold: I. A disturbing scene close to the end of the film where Buffalo Bill dances in drag fully nude; personally, I think the scene should never have made it into the final cut & II. As much as I enjoyed seeing Anthony Hopkins & Jodie Foster in their roles, I do not think this movie should have won Best Picture; Best Actor & Best Actress definitely, but NOT Best Picture. This film unfairly beat out "Beauty And The Beast," a far better film in terms of content and entertainment. Thus, "Beauty And The Beast" is the only animated movie ever nominated for Best Picture. (It's my all-time favourite movie, so I'm kinda biased). Worth seeing for Hopkins' & Foster's performances. Scott Glenn also does an excellent job. SPOILER WARNING: Also, definitely worth viewing for Lecter's escape from a prison in Memphis. SPOILER OVER!! Rated R for a disturbing scene (in my opinion; had the scene not been in the film, I would have given it a PG-13 rating).