From Hell

Sensational and accomplished.

Their discretion makes From Hell less a horror movie than a classical film noir.

Depp gives yet another introspective, slightly mopey performance -- Graham never begins to act (and never has begun, as far as I know). But they're surrounded by an authentic, first-rate English cast.

So beautifully realized as a mood piece that it takes a while for a slight disappointment to register.

With almost as many subplots as corpses, the movie maintains its mild watchability only because the Ripper saga still engrosses.

Feels stagy, stiff and entirely unnecessary.

The Hughes boys blow it by burying a fine cast -- Robbie Coltrane as a cop and Ian Holm as a royal sawbones are standouts -- in stock scares, sappy romance and cliches that really are from hell.

................................................................................................................................................................Masterpiece Movie Everything Is Masterpiece the script, the acting, the end.... Who give negative reviews for this movie don't know what is a Great Script

From Hell would almost be interesting if it wasn't for the bungled love story, awful accents and empty conclusion. There are a few nice things about this Jack the Ripper flick but overall it's a mess.

Coal-soaked skies and grime-caked slums serve as backdrop to this dark, grisly nineteenth century chase; Johnny Depp, unconventional police detective, in tireless pursuit of Jack the Ripper through Victorian London's back alleys. Frolicking in filth, From Hell takes delight in sharing as much century-old depravity as it can dream up. Unkempt taverns, dimly-lit opium dens, malevolent secret societies, illicit after-hours transactions, morally-dubious medical experiments... we're constantly drenched in dirty material. Which sets quite a mood, fitting for the proximity of one so notorious as Jack, but also straps the viewer with a heavily crowded plot. There's just too much going on, too many surface-scratched subplots that don't amount to much of anything, while the hook (oh yes, we're hunting a faceless mass-murderer) gets bogged down and overlooked, kicked like a tin can down the road. Depp's role is rather reserved by his usual standards: a hazy, somnambulant drug addict who desperately lopes from one bloody crime scene to the next. While our detective trips, in a series of tonally discordant hallucination scenes that smack of late '90s film trends, he catches foggy premonitions that prod him toward his next big break. It's all rather silly, really, a shoehorned mystical slant that is (somewhat ironically) addressed, scoffed at and discarded in Alan Moore's phone book-sized original graphic novel. There's something good buried here, between the accurate reproduction of essential locales and the eternally-intriguing subject matter, but it's ultimately left buried. The extra-slow second act nearly put me down and out, and I don't think I'd have missed anything if it had.

The scrutiny is left all the way to our imagination and when the time comes to answer, it never matches the description we had in our head. From Hell The Hughes Brothers, the directors, aren't actually living up to the reputation of the Brothers' show. Not to say that every of such duos have given us the best that there is out there. But if you look closely, you will find one quality embedded in them, in their work. And it is that they are entertaining. They'll hook you in and convince you, no matter how outrightly wrong and questioning their methods would be. And this is really annoying for the makers, since they could never arrest you with their thrills. And to top it off, the film claims to be of horror genre and not for a single moment are you ever enchanted. So shocking, disenchanting the viewers is a secondary element. From script to execution, this gossip-y gullible town thinks similar of its audience who is told to feed off from those same elements. Now one going through those same events than the one's observing would definitely be more into it. And even that is not the case here. Addition to that, these "ones" that are told to go through and are in it, also doesn't seem to enjoy. Even the actors, the performance feels too effortful to ever be taken seriously. Johnny Depp, the sung, off-the-boundaries, police detective, is way too reserved to ever put itself into danger. The stakes never communicates with us. And it is primarily because these performers won't care for any of the ongoing fiascos in this spooky town. How are we then supposed to buy into the gossip that they are numb towards. Why would we invest on something so formal and subjectively pretentious. From Hell is from hell. The methods, the laws and the routine is something that would never appeal to us. Why bother, then? is the final reaction we have as we bid goodbye to this doomed town.

This is a perfect example of both the writers and directors having absolutely no idea wtf they're doing. From Hell is an awkward blend of three genres (detective, horror and thriller) and none of it works well together. It's poorly paced, written and directed. And considering how acclaimed the source material was, This movie does nothing to even come close to living up to it. It's just a total failure across the board.