Review of From Hell (2001) by Pete K — 28 May 2009

If you don't know who Alan Moore is, have never read 'From Hell', and are interested in seeing Johnny Depp in a murder mystery, by all means. If you don't fall into that category, oh for the love of CHRIST, where to begin?

The title of this movie is about the only thing that is shared with the BRILLIANT comic book by Alan Moore. But you'll notice how it's not "Alan Moore's From Hell"? That's because he wanted nothing to do with this movie after he saw what they had done to his story! To say that this movie is loosely based on Moore's original work is to be generous beyond belief. I urge you to go read the graphic novel, not because the standard gripe of, "the book is better than the movie" applies here, but because in this case, the book is an entirely different story than the movie!!! So if you liked this movie, you'll absolutely go gah-gah over the book.

The casting is completely wrong for this period piece. Yes, Johnny Depp is a wonderful actor, and he does just fine here, but really, we couldn't get an English actor? Not a single one??? I'm the executive producer of this movie, and when I'm thinking of actors for this movie, I immediately have this bolt of genius and go, "You know who would be great in this movie? Johnny Depp!" Yup, and then I'd call it a day and go do a few lines of coke, or something. And the only reason Heather Graham is in this movie is because her star was rising at the time. There was no need for American actors to play a single role here, and yet, I suppose Depp and Graham were a large part of why people went to see this movie. A shame, really.

The plot is boiled down to a simple Jack the Ripper whodunit. Yeh? So? Nothing new there. Heck, I saw and episode of DOCTOR FRICKIN' WHO that did about as good a job as this movie did using the Ripper theme. Again, if that is all the writers got out of the original 'From Hell' material, I doubt they even read the graphic novel in the first place.

If you're a Johnny Depp fan, see this movie to be a completest If you like movies about Jack the Ripper, you've already seen this one elsewhere. And if you've read the comic, for godsake, do NOT think you're seeing anything that resembles Moore's work!