Rating: 
Summary: this is a bad movie
Review: Johnny Depp plays Frank Abberline as a greasy drug addict. Heather Graham plays Mary Kelly as a beautiful, healthy and charming street hooker. This alone should tell you that the Hughes brothers aren't even trying to make a remotely accurate film. The ending is partially a rip off of of the superior Michael Caine movie and partially an idiot's fantasy. I'd have to say this is the worst Ripper film I've ever seen.
Rating: 
Summary: your not going to see the 21st century
Review: great telling of Jack The Ripper with Ian Holm whos superb in the role of Jack and Johnny Depp is magnificent as the detective. the killings are bloody and the thrills are great, though the downfall is in the middle with that one freakguy who is all deformed, otherwise The Hughe Brothers pack a wallop in this one
Rating: 
Summary: THIS IS NOT THE TRUE STORY OF JACK THE RIPPER
Review: Wihout Jhonny DEPP this movie is not enought good for attract my watchfulness ! The horror is beside the possible and the conspiracy don't "take the road" with a man who is forced to take differents drugs ! I've not so like this movie and i note 12/20 not bad no good .......between, ...what .
Rating: 
Summary: chilling, fascinating and sickening. A masterpiece.
Review: First I'd like to explain why I gave this movie five stars, despite the fact that it relies more on atmosphere than fact to carry it along. I have been an avid 'ripperologist' for many years, but it is apparent that From Hell does not wish to be taken as a close account of the reign of Jack the Ripper. It makes no effort to be true to the real evidence (although is in some instances), but has taken the essence of the legend and given it a twist. Or several. Therefore, judging it purely on its merit as a horror film, I am left with little option but to give it 5 stars. There. Wasn't that long and boring?
Now to the film...
Johnny Depp is (a rather amazingly attractive) Inspector Fred Abberline, an opium addict who often finds the answer to his cases through dreams induced by 'chasing the dragon'. In other words, somewhat of a psychic drug addict. He is, I am afraid to say, the only major actor in the play who is able to carry off the Whitechapel accent... Heather Graham, who plays the unfortunate Mary Kelly, has no such luck and there seems to be no real reason why someone of Irish origin should talk with an Australian/Cockney/American accent. Perhaps a character study on a prostitute with complicated heritage? Perhaps...
In the beautifully directed, dreary, gas lamp lit backstreets of Whitechapel, the Hughes brothers create terror, suspense and deliver the gore we would all expect, without making it impossible to watch. It is a chilling, fascinating, sickening journey into the mind of a deranged serial killer, with an interesting choice of conclusion which undoubtedly adds to the originality of the film.
It's a horror movie with gore, atmosphere, Depp and the chilling setting of the poorest area of Victorian London, which in itself is a frightening enough concept. All actors are on top form, Graham, Ian Holme and Robbie Coltrane, but as his fans or indeed any movie critic will know by now, Johnny Depp not only acts a film. He steals it. Superb.
You think you know terror... but you don't know Jack!
Rating:
Summary: Mostly, it made me shudder with disgust.
Review: This 2001 film was produced and directed by the Hughes Brothers and based on a graphic novel by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell. As you know, graphic novels are actually comic strips and, even though there is no animation in the film, "From Hell" has the look and feel of that kind of exaggeration throughout. In 1888, there were some real and unsolved murders of prostitutes in London by someone nicknamed Jack the Ripper. That's what this story is based on. It stars Johnny Depp as the inspector who must solve the case. He loves to do drugs and in several scenes he's either smoking a pipe in an opium den or cooking up some laudanum at home. His visions become clues to solving crimes and he's good at his job. The murdered women are always surgically violated and this leads the good inspector to suspect that the murderer knows a lot about human anatomy. And so he seeks out the medical establishment to help him and we all see more than we ever wanted to know about lobotomies. The camera doesn't actually focus on details of the murders themselves, but there is so much talk about them and they are described so graphically, that it made me shudder with disgust. There's the search for the killer of course, and there's also a romance between the inspector and a pretty young woman played by Heather Graham who sure could use a few lessons in acting. Ian Holm is cast as the royal surgeon and, as the plot thickens, one of the suspects is even a member of the royal family. I found it all quite silly as well as disgusting although I think it captured the spirit of the myth of Victorian England as a harborer of dirty streets and dirty secrets. The film is intoxicating in a way, moved fast, and set up a mystery that was intriguing. But there were so many absolutely sickening scenes that I soon grew to hate it.
Rating:
Summary: "At least they got the address right..."
Review: The mystique behind the real identity of Jack the Ripper is probably the only reason why the case has remained interesting for this long. Over 100 years later, the case has never been solved, though there are plenty who claim to know who the real killer is. Enter the Hughes Brothers and their adaption of the popular graphic novel, From Hell. As a movie, it is intelligent and well made, with strong performances and plenty of twists. Johnny Depp gives on of his most memorable performances as Inspector Abberline, who in real life was assigned to the Ripper murders and retired having never solved the case. He is a drug-addicted police inspector who has a reputation for solving crimes through his clairvoyance. His abilities and loyalties are put to the test when prostitutes in Whitechaple, a slum of London, are murdered most foul by the Ripper. The story is nothing new, but new life is breathed into it by the Hughes Brothers artful direction and Rafael Yglesias's colorful screenplay. Also giving stellar performances are Robbie Coltrane as Abberlines intellectual partner, and Ian Holm as the doctor assisting in the investigation. Less than stellar is Heather Graham, though, and her presence as Mary Kelly (one of the victims) and the contrived love story that ensues is the one Achilles heel in this movie. With 2 editions of this DVD out now, the 2-disc set is the one to go with. The well put together "Jack the Ripper: Six Degrees of Separation" is an examination on the murders, the suspects, and the investigation. But the best of all featurettes is actually a hidden easter egg. Highlight "Absinthe makes the heart grow fonder" on Disc 2, and quickly press down and right. You'll see a surgical tool highlighted and it will take you to a 40 minute documentary called "Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution" (snippets of which are seen in the interactive parts of the first featurette). This was produced in 1980 and features an interview with author Stephen Knight, who wrote the book on which the graphic novel, and this movie, is based. It is a fascinating documentary, and one that sketches broad strokes on the killings and the conspiracy that covered them. The other good featurette is the aformentioned "Absinthe makes the heart grow fonder", which is a breif lesson on the history of the notorious drink, and it's impact on culture and art. Skippable is the horrible Heather Graham-hosted "A View From Hell", which is a retread of well-known facts. Perhaps good for one or two viewings is the Hughes Brother's "Tour of Murder Sites", where they walk you around the From Hell set is Prauge. It would have prefered a tour of the actual murder sites. A lot of people didn't like this movie, calling it a glorified slasher movie. While the violence is plentiful, the intelligence of the script and the style if directon make this distinction unfair. It is a great movie, and the 2 DVD treatment will provide you with hours of entertainment, as well as a history lesson on the Jack the Ripper case.
Rating:
Summary: Eh. It all depends on your opinion of gore.
Review: I purchased this movie on a whim, and am now seriously regretting it. The film is excessively gory, so much so that I spent half the film with my eyes shut, screaming. If serious blood, guts and gore (we're talking about the ritual slaughtering of female hookers in London) do not bother you, then I would suggest it. Me, I don't have the stomach for it. But the plot line is good, and it develops well during the movie, although it does take some time to get into the plotline. Johnny Depp does a wonderful job as Inspector Aberline, although his opium-induced "visions", like his flashbacks as Ichabod Crane in Sleepy Hollow (if you're looking for a suspenseful, Johnny Depp period film, this the one I would defintely recommend), are sometimes too violent to watch. Heather Graham, who, like Johnny, has affected a rather convincing Cockney accent for the role, gives a good performance as Mary Kelly, the [tart]. All in all, I probably won't be watching it again any time soon, but for a less squeamish person (and I mean a MUCH less squeamish person, because the images of the dead bodies were enough to disturb me) it might be worth a rental.
Rating:
Summary: Fin de Siecle-Get it!
Review: I am somewhat confused. This movie is not based on real events, rather, it is based on a comic book adaptation by Alan Moore. Admittedly, it is a bit gruesome, nonetheless, I found it to be very entertaining. I have never seen a movie that captured so well the fin de siecle ambiance of the late Victorian Age; it was as if I had been transported to London in 1888 (I have never been there, but this movie has an allusive effect). It is a shame that so many reviewers expected a sort of high budget docu-drama. After watching this movie, I suggest that you listen to one of Mahler's later symphonies. It is too bad that absinthe is illegal, for that would be the perfect accompanyment. A smattering of Poe or Conrad would not hurt either. Unfortunately, most of us are more comfortable with the trappings of the early twenty-first century rather than the late nineteenth. As Michael Chichton has said, most of us are temporal provencials. Take a trip to the past via literature and you may have more appreciation for this very sublime and exquisite movie.
Rating:
Summary: Scary, but not perfect
Review: The infamous story of "Jack the Ripper" and his five known victims is one of the few true-life horror stories that is as equally disturbing as anything the sick and twisted mind that calls itself "Hollywood" has ever made up. After all, "Jack" and his crimes existed well over a century ago, and his name and story are still common knowledge. Shocking even by modern standards, in 1888 what "Jack" did to five city prostitutes was downright unheard of - I'll spare you the gruesome description and even recommend that you cover your eyes and ears for that part of the movie. It's a strange thing to call a serial killer "great", but if one ever was, "Jack" was the greatest, right down to the fact that he was never caught. One hundred years later, what no one wanted to face then, is now too obvious to ignore. "Jack" had to be someone with a top-of-the-line knowledge of human anatomy, something that only an educated man could have had. Not to mention, that being the most-wanted man in England and never getting caught, would require that you reside in the last place anybody would ever look, such as a comfy, upper-class seat on the social ladder. This scenario, that the murderer was actually one of the guys running the show, is what the Hughes' brothers' 'From Hell' centers around. Johnny Depp stars as the sleepily dispassionate, middle-class detective, Fred Abberline, who is slightly psychic and unashamedly tired of life. Abberline is put in charge of the investigation when a middle-aged prostitute is murdered in an indescribably violent fashion. After another woman of the same social situation is killed the same way, Abberline seeks out their friends, to find out whether the fact that these two women knew each other is coincidence or not. The standout among these ladies of the night are Irish-born Mary Kelly (Heather Graham), an eye-catching, younger woman who resorted to working the streets when her mother died. Seeing as Johnny Depp and Heather Graham are both attractive and famous, a romance blossoms between their characters, which ultimately serves the purpose of giving Abberline a reason to care about who the next victim will be. In retrospect nothing worth going into detail about happens, as far as the plot is concerned, after Abberline and Kelly meet; but while viewing the movie there are few dull moments. Heather Graham, who annoys me mainly because I don't understand what's so special about her, gets a passing grade as a street-smart prostitute whose fate is one of the bigger flaws in the accuracy of the story. Johnny Depp, whose acting talents are seemingly limitless, saves a role that could have easily seemed bland or nondescript if played by another actor. Although not without flaw, for the most part 'From Hell' is not a horrible movie. Its diversion from the truth is a tad annoying, and its sloppy attempt at an explanation as to why things actually happened the way the movie suggests, yet history tells us the identity of "Jack the Ripper" was never discovered, is a little too confusing. The movies best points are style and scenery. Having never lived in London in the late nineteenth century, I do not actually know what it would be like; however, it certainly feels like the Hughes' brothers have successfully captured that feeling. I give it three stars, because although the plot was inconsistent and the characters were under-developed, the acting was good and method superb.
Rating:
Summary: Dissecting the Remnants of a Gruesome Past
Review: Walking through the dark entries of time is sometimes a frightening thing to behold. The men that have been made legends, the women that have been crafted into nightmares, they are all out there and all stunning in their prowess. Here, we are talking about more than the ghastly, more than deeds that were haunting, because they have done more than dwindle and drift away in their own centuries. Here, we have monsters that survived the test of time.
Amongst those, there are some that people know better than others, and some that still leave their mark on us when we close our eyes to dream. Many have had their lives transmodified until they became more than mortal, more than a part of the human sects they fed from, while others became specters that killed and walked away into the night. In From hell, we address one such figure that walked away going by the name of Jack the Ripper. While the subject has been covered many times over, it is still one that fascinates the darker side of our curiosity and makes us want to probe deeper into understanding. Thus, the Hughes Brothers, known for making quality films but not for showcasing pieces like this, looked through the Allan Moore looking glass and created.
And what they created was a stunning piece of work, but that lands just a little too flat for me to give it a whole five stars because of the very end and because of a little too much love.
Here, we follow the exploits of a detective rumored to be more than a detective as he searches for a man that is obviously skilled at what he does. We see murders that are sometimes harrowing in their graphic depicts but that are more often left to grizzly description, and we see a small trial of crumbs that the killer leaves behind that point to who he is.
And that is the point to the chase, finding out who exactly he is. Judging the product as a whole, I would have to say that the Hughes Brothers did an excellent job when they converted From Hell from the graphic novel into a movie. This isn't to say that it was perfectly smithed, but the directions they decided to take, forging what they wanted to on their own, worked out well. Through an expert use of shadows that made the night seem even deeper, sound that made the moments of stark terror seem even graver, and the use of props as signatures, the feeling of the time and its terror was set. Here, the period was recreated, the clothing fitting the people that were chosen for their roles well, and the Ripper's antics were captures as they should have been captured. Motivated, perhaps, but nonetheless horrifying. For anyone that enjoys movements in horror that are about atmosphere and subjects that have been approached before but from a different angle, then this might be something that interests you. It is dark, to be sure, filled with concepts that are interesting and that lead the viewer down some odd corridors, and it has the ability to keep one's interest. It does, however, contain some graphic moments, so be warned of those little lovelies ahead of time.
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