— I know I’m not smarter than you.
— Then how did you catch me?
— You had disadvantages.
— What disadvantages?
— You’re insane.

Michael Mann’s adaptation of Thomas Harris’s novel Red Dragon, may not persuade you that its hero, the F.B.I. agent Will Graham, operates on the same skewed wavelength as the cracked killers he specializes in tracking down, but the movie drives along with such intensity for much of the time that you can just let it work on your senses without worrying about whether it makes sense. The main trouble is Mr. Mann’s taste for overkill; attention keeps being diverted away from the story to the odd camera angles, the fancy lighting, the crashing music, and you realize you’re being had. It’s like catching a glimpse of the gimmicks in the magician’s bag. — Walter Goodman