50 God-Tier Acting Moments Buried in Bad Movies

Red Dragon is as forgettable as horror sequels get. It's not as aggravatingly bad as 2001's Hannibal, but it never feels like anything more than a pale imitation of The Silence of the Lambs, although, much like the other films in the thoroughly mixed Hannibal Lecter Quadrilogy, it does assemble a wonderful cast. Edward Norton is terrible in the lead role, but pretty much everyone else smashes it, including Anthony Hopkins in his last performance as Lecter.

Interestingly enough, though, it's not actually Hopkins who steals the show this time around. It's Ralph Fiennes, who plays main antagonist Francis Dolarhyde, a serial killer known as the Tooth Fairy. Fiennes is phenomenally good in the part, and nowhere is this better exemplified than in this cracking scene, in which he slices up a painting of the Red Dragon and proceeds to eat it. 

In this scene, he's sinister yet pitiful, both frightening and vulnerable at the same time, perfectly encapsulating what makes Dolarhyde such a fantastic villain. As much as he deserved a better film, this remains arguably one of Fiennes' greatest on-screen performances.