How in the name of every prominent Hindu God can a guy working in the back of a film photography store developing home movies for people somehow afford a private house in the middle of the Woods decked to the nines in all the most glamorous 80s fashion.
The serial killer must be getting his money from some other Revenue because there's no way in hell he could afford this place.
Either that or we stumbled upon the world best paying photo development job.
Oh no it looks like I gave away the plot twist and you might be able to guess who the Killer is in this movie now.
I'd say that was a bad thing but I can't imagine too many people are going out of their way to watch Manhunter.
And sadly I don't think there's a good reason to watch Manhunter. I mean it's a okay dramatic crime movie, but it's one of those strange films that feels like it's almost able to hit the mark.
But ultimately fall short because it isn't able to commit to anything. It also doesn't help that everybody looks shubby. But not like 70 shrubby where everyone's got that downtrodden kind of grizzly look to them.
The main actor William Petersen really looks like a shrub in this movie.
Instead everybody looks like they belong in the front of a magazine cover but they decided to take a week-long bender before having the photo shoot. And unfortunately they have about as much personality as somebody on the front of those covers.
So the story opens up with this detective guy who's the best in the business.
He's able to track down the serial killers by manipulating their mannerisms and thought patterns, thereby is able to catch them in the act as he can more or less predict their move.
But he's run into a bit of a problem.
This newest serial killer is beyond his comprehension or at least so he thinks he is.
So he gets the help of Hannibal Lecter (a guy he had previously arrested) to try and get some insight into this new guy. Obviously it doesn't go down well because you can trust Hannibal Lecter about as far as you can throw a 20,000 lb Boulder.
Which leads to something of a giant wild goose chase as Hannibal Lecter tries to help the serial killer by coded messages via toilet paper samples.
How one gets toilet paper in and out of the Maximum Security Prison from an unknown source is beyond me but I guess it doesn't matter.
Intermixed with the rest of the story is a bunch of police procedures and general investigating scenarios that should be more interesting than they ultimately are but because the movie doesn't fully committed to the investigative angle nor to a more interesting character. We just end up with this subpar story of a kind of creepy guy hunting down other creepy guys stop him from killing ultimately weird people that we have no connection with.
The whole thing just fades out into mediocrity.
It sounds kind of mean to say but that's just how it turns out. It's one of those movies you'll watch you might enjoy it at the time but you also Bentley forget about it in a day or two.
Even now while writing this out I'm at a loss of words as to what to put down. I've already forgotten so much about it.
In a lot of ways it kind of reminds me of The Fugitive which was also another middle-of-the-road basic film but somehow it's cinematography and acting was able to elevated to a more entertaining experience.
I've seen that film a couple of times now and I'm still happy to see it again.
Also the last 20 minutes are just awful.
Our detective finally tracks down the serial killer and decides to engage the guy in one-on-one combat but the whole thing's edited so poorly that you're completely taken out of the experience. There's these really obvious cuts where you can tell that they were restructuring the film or doing a retake.
It looks like something out of a really cheap 80s film like the kind of thing you'd see in a Bargain Bin or done by amateur film people.
It doesn't make sense cuz the rest of the movie is for the most part fairly well done, it looks like your typical Hollywood film.
I don't know if they had a time restraint or what was up but really sticks out compared to the rest of the movie.
Also it's just ridiculous watching this man dive from a window to take down a culprit. He's been told he shouldn't engage with as the SWAT team should come in to take him down.
Once again it feels really out of place with this more mundane investigative story to have this ridiculous action scene take place.
Is it a bad film? No.
But I don't know if there's anything here worth checking out that you couldn't find in a better movie somewhere else.
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