Yesterday I finished watching two movies on the same novel:

1986's Manhunter.
2002's Red Dragon.

Michael Mann directed Manhunter which was a Miami Vice feel to it.

I don't recognize the other director, so I won't mention him. But, Red Dragon is more focused on Hopkins' Lecter.

Brian Cox's Lecter isn't very memorable let alone scary.

Tom Noonan looks more the part than Ralph Fiennes. I found him scarier. But, Fiennes has a great scene with Philip Seymour Hoffman, whose Lounds [the reporter] is far sleezier.

The first time I saw the '86 film, I didn't know Joan Allen. I thought she might really be blind. I found Watson too comfortable in her blindness, but the director wanted that.

Kim Greist, who I first knew from "Brazil", is bitchier than Mary-Louise Parker [whose cute nose I adore].

Dennis Farina & Harvey Keitel are both good as the pressuring FBI supervisors. Each in his own style.

Both William Petersen and Ed Norton play the traumatized ex-FBI agent well.

For me, the remake scores the win because of the reprised roles of Lechter and Chilton from "Silence of the Lambs". They are barely noticed in the '86 version.