@avclub-32a2e71c97df5281f1324db72c73a59a:disqus - SotL is so near-perfect that the one or two times Demme pulled a Corman stunt just knocked me back (you know, when he does something that shows you, no matter how high up the food chain he is as a director, that he started out making exploitation schlock for Roger…

@avclub-32a2e71c97df5281f1324db72c73a59a:disqus - I think Lecter comes to realize that about Clarice, and that's part of what ultimately appeals to him about her. In the book Hannibal, there's a comment Lecter makes about Clarice being "Cursed With Good Taste" - he believes she's a far superior person to what anybody,…

@disqus_Nxjp8ql7GM:disqus - the problem is, either Thomas Harris fell in love with his own villain, or there was so much clamor for Hannibal Lecter, The Cannibal Avenger and Lover of Clarice Starling, that he was kind of stuck writing his next book that way.

@cinecraft:disqus - that Clarice has taken down her barriers completely for him, trusting Dr. Lecter like it's clear she doesn't trust anybody else. He's undone by the gift she's given him (and she's smart enough to know exactly what she's giving him, and consciously gives it to him anyway) - which is why, for once,…

And that is the problem, @avclub-6c6094f256f51e83fe02bce6091163e7:disqus - he's too busy giving too much, that he forgets to just breathe and let the character be.

@disqus_on5tuNbLsf:disqus - actually, I hated him as Vlad Drakul! I honestly would have rather had somebody impersonating Lugosi than what Oldman did with that character….

@Guyver6:disqus - sorry, to me he just looks like somebody who OD'd on Method Acting at a young age. He's got really high highs, and really low lows - but (Jim Gordon aside) there's zero midrange to him, no sign of what his characters would be if they were having a normal day.

Actually, @battybrain:disqus, underplaying those characters would have made them so much more powerful his hamming them. This portrayal of Dracula as the historical Vlad Tepes turned vampire, seeking the reincarnation of his dead wife in Mina Harker, would have benefited from his letting us feel his character's pain,…

@beebopette:disqus - actually, I hated Oldman in The Fifth Element, even though I really liked everything else in it.

I have a better idea, @Afghamistam:disqus - rather than watch Oldman posture at "subtle" acting, which is just as hammy as he always is only pretending he's not, why don't you watch the BBC miniseries version starring Alec Guinness for a lesson in how an actor inhabits a role completely, and becomes that person?

Mithros Almighty! Jimmy Fallon's actually got talent!

Not sure if it helps, @avclub-70bfc4b7c3a9c57e00e2dc7aa4daa67e:disqus - why specifically does he hate it? Does he think he was directed to be too OTT? Or is it because he hated the haircut, or something else about about Luc Besson's direction?

@preterite:disqus - I'm pretty sure it was Millar who took Apollo and Mid-Nighter and made them a gay couple. Up until then, they were basically Superman and Batman as…Just Good Friends.

@Afghamistam:disqus - I suppose you prefer Gary Oldman when he chews scenery while talking in ridiculous accents - like he does in The Fifth Element, Air Force One, and Leon.

Mine's Gary Oldman - most of the time, he's everything I hate in "brilliantly talented" actors: Over-the-Top, Acting All the Fucking Time, Always Playing A Character, complete with overcooked accents not his own, rather than simply inhabiting the role and becoming it.

His work on The Authority was good, too - and c'mon, a Devout Anglo-Catholic who came up with Apollo and Mid-Nighter as a loving, stable same-sex couple? (Well, as stable as those two can be, anyway….)

Ratner's a competent director who, if he has a good script, makes good movies.

@Matthew_Blanchette:disqus - ask me if I care.

Honestly, @Matthew_Blanchette:disqus ? Doesn't bother me that much….

Cats don't travel well under any circumstances, @allstonwolfspider:disqus. I had to take a kitten down to a friend who'd adopted him in New York City (about a 250-mile drive), and it took half again as long as it does to drive there normally because I had to stop periodically, take the kitten out of his carrier, and…