From Hell

‘Twas time for some previews, milord? SPY GAME–Robert Redford and Brad Pitt in a movie together? How will we ever tell them apart?!

Tony Scott brings us yet another movie about a young guy (this time a CIA agent) being trained by a retiring guy. But as hackneyed as that plotline is, this time it looks like it could be quite good. Lots of action and paranoia. Could it be that Tony is trying to make an unofficial sequel to 3 Days Of The Condor with its star like he did with The Conversation and Enemy Of The State? As long as it’s as good as that one we’ll be alright. Hopefully it’s better, though.

FRAILTY–Matthew McConaughey comes out of hibernation (or does it only seem like he’s been away for a while–that last movie he was in (The Wedding Moron) was a big hit, but does anyone remember it?) to play the brother of a possible serial killer.

The problem with the preview is that I didn’t really get that from it. I’m not sure what I got from it, but it wasn’t that. Looks like it could be good, anyway. And Bill Paxton not only plays Matt’s brother, but he directed it, too. Hope it’s good. I’ve always like ol’ Bill.

THEATRE OF BLOOD–Wait a minute! This is an old movie! That’s one of the pleasures of seeing a new movie at the Alamo Drafthouse. They show old trailers that go along with the movie. This one is an old Vincent Price flick where he plays an actor who kills himself after he gets bad reviews. (If only some more recent actors took this advice…just kidding…maybe.) But then the critics start being murdered in horrible, bloody, nasty ways. Is Vince still alive? Is he a ghost? And is that Jeff Lynne from the Electric Light Orchestra standing next to him on his throne? Weird. I’ve got to seek this one out. Looks like a hoot. (Wait. Did I just say “hoot”? What’s wrong with me?)

TIME AFTER TIME–This one I have seen and it’s, well, pretty good. Malcolm McDowell plays H.G. Wells and invents a time machine. David Warner plays Jack the Ripper who promptly steals Wells’ time machine and comes into the modern times. Mary Steenburgen plays Wells’ love interest. It’s pretty much just late 70s/early 80s cheese, but it is a cut above.

Now for the real movie:

The Hughes Brothers, who have until now been known as “black directors,” have decided to take on the Jack the Ripper story.

Johnny Depp plays Inspector Frederick Abberline, one of the best detectives in Whitechapel (one of the worst slums in 1888 London). He’s actually semi-psychic, but the only time he seems to see things is when he’s in the opium den. Sgt. Peter Godley (Robbie Coltrane from GoldenEye, The World Is Not Enough and, of course, The Pope Must Diet) has to come in and wake him up every once in a while to make sure he gets his job done. But he’s usually on the job, and when he is he’s brilliant.

This is when Mary Kelly (Heather Graham not doing too badly this time, although she looks a little rougher than usual…go figure), a local prostitute, and her friends start being butchered one by one. But it’s the way they was done. ‘Twas the way they was done that calls for a man of Abberline’s talents.

So Abberline and Godley start following the trail of the Ripper (although they rarely ever call him that), start realizing that it must be an educated man, get stopped by some of their superiors and start losing hookers left and right. And, and Abberline and Mary Kelly start to fall for each other.

As far as history goes this movie is almost complete bullshit. There was no connection between the victims (except that they were all whores, sorry, “unfortunate women”) and, as far as I know, there was no great psychic after them. This seems to be a conglomeration of all of the myths and theories about Jack that popped up years later. Things like the thought that it may have been a prince or one of his minions.

Unfortunately, according to one of the top profilers in the business, John Douglas (he was the basis for Scott Glen’s character in Silence Of The Lambs), Jack was most likely just some lower class bum who was just passing through, maybe even retarded. A far cry from the distinguished gentleman we’ve all come to know and fear.

So the history is questionable. But as entertainment this is some great stuff. The Hughes Boys know exactly how to build the suspense and make you fear an unseen character. AND they know that you don’t have to show every gory detail. Yes, it’s a gory movie, but there’s more implied gore than actual screen gore. They’ll sometimes give you flashes or far away shots, but rarely will it be up close and personal. That makes it all the more real, like we’re actually flies on the wall as opposed to the corpse.

But it was still too much for some people.

The attention to detail was pretty amazing, too. Never ones to go out of their own time (except for the disowned Dead Presidents…but that’s not too much out of our time) the Hughes Bros. have proven that they can do it better than a lot of the posers out there these days.

Johnny was, of course, awesome as the haunted inspector who has to save his love from a killer as he tries to save himself from “the dragon” of opium. Kind of an “Ichabod Crane Gets Serious” type of role. More Sherlock Holmes and less Angela Lansbury.

Robbie, always undervalued as a dramatic actor, was also great as his ever as Abberline’s ever-tortured friend and co-worker who has to keep up with his boss all the time and keep him from knowing how worried he is about him.

It’s a great little horror/suspense film about our first serial killer. It does something that we always try to do with horrific events: it tries to make sense of it. This event may be far in the past, but we’re still trying. And maybe a movie like this will help us to take our minds off of another, more recent horrific event that we just can’t make sense of.