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From Hell
Movie Stats & Links |
| Starring: |
Johnny Depp, Heather Graham,
Robbie Coltrane |
| MPAA Rated: |
R |
| Released By: |
20th
Century Fox |
| Web Site: |
www.fromhellmovie.com |
| Kiddie Movie: |
Best to leave them at home. |
| Date Movie: |
She might get grossed out and
snuggle. |
| Gratuitous Sex: |
It's got that and nudity too. |
| Gratuitous
Violence: |
It starts out slow, but gets
pretty gruesome by the end of the movie. |
| Action: |
Not really - mostly a suspense
film. |
| Laughs: |
Nah. |
| Memorable
Scene: |
When the one dude falls out of
the stagecoach. |
| Memorable
Quote: |
None. |
| Directed By: |
The Hughes Brothers |
| Produced By: |
Don Murphy, Jane Hamsher |
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From Hell
A Movie Review |
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The story of Jack the Ripper has been told many times,
in many versions. Sometimes you just get a crazy man, sometimes you
get a time-traveler, and many times you just wind up with a stupid
movie. "From Hell," the latest telling of the tale
starring Johnny Depp and Heather Graham, really isn’t the greatest
movie, but I’ll give it credit for taking some ballsy moves and
not go for the sappy ending.
Here we go…
Johnny Depp plays Inspector Fred. Inspector Fred is a drug addict
who sometimes sees visions of murders. This sometimes will
help him solve them. Heather Graham is a prostitute named Mary
Kelly. She keeps herself looking a little nicer than the other
prostitutes but still could use some new clothes. Anyway, about the
time Mary and her friends see another one of their friend kidnapped,
well, the prostitutes started getting killed off, one by one, each
getting their throats slashed and then gutted somehow. So our good
inspector has some visions, begins to put the pieces of the puzzle
together as to whom the killer might be, but our prostitutes keep
hooking even though their friends are still getting knocked off one
by one. The only one with any sense is Mary Kelly, finally
entrusting the help of Fred, while her friends all end up dead (don’t
worry, that’s not really giving anything away.
"From Hell" isn’t a bad telling of the story of Jack
the Ripper, but it’s probably just too complicated, although this
does keep you guessing who the killer really is. You can easily rule
out the henchmen who actually threaten the prostitutes, looking for
their portion of the hooking proceeds, protection money as it would
be, because they are the easy answer. So, the story delves us into a
world of doctors, corrupt policeman, and the secret society of The
Free Masons, of which the killer could be any of them.
Eventually they wrap up the story and it just turns out the Jack
the Ripper is really just a whack-job, a rich whack-job, but a
whack-job nonetheless.
So is "From Hell" any good? You know, it’s a decent
suspense movie although if you’re looking for lots of action,
chases, fights, and don’t want to follow a pretty detailed movie,
you will probably think it sucks, just like one guy I overheard
leaving the theater. But the movie does evolve into some quality
kills, has some nudity (although Heather keeps her clothes on her
breasts are nearly popping out of her dress), gives you some sex
(although do we really need to see raggedy prostitutes getting it on
with sick, fat, Englishmen?), and Johnny Depp gives another of those
great performances as an inquisitive detective just putting the
pieces together while falling for the girl.
Expect a thinking movie, dark, with a sort of convoluted story
and you’ll like "From Hell." If you go looking for a
Jack the Ripper action film, this ain’t it. And with that I’ll
give "From Hell" 4 stars out of 5. Go ahead and pay full
price, save the matinee for another time.
That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!! |
