Every Ridley Scott Movie Ranked Worst To Best

13. Hannibal (2001)

Hannibal gets a lot of grief, mostly because of its inability to stand up next to The Silence Of The Lambs, but it's actually nowhere near as poor as some would have you believe. Sure, it demystifies Hannibal Lecter somewhat after his incredibly creepy role in the preceding film, but it hides some true delights.

The uncredited Gary Oldman is disgustingly watchable as Mason Verger, and his plot to feed Lecter to his pigs is as skin-crawlingly beautiful as it is silly. Ray Liotta adds another strand of fun as corrupt Justice Department man Paul Krendler (and his brain dinner scene is just glorious), and the opera sequence that sees Lecter discover Francesca Neri's foolish attempt to capture him is utterly breath-taking.

The chief mistake was probably focusing on Lecter as the lead character and making him wholly human - even with Clarice Starling back in as his opposite. And perhaps because of that, the film had to rely more on gruesome gore and shock rather than the more satisfying suspense of the original, much to critics' dismay.