Customer Reviews
a great film showing Johnny Depp at his best,recommended - By: sm, 18 May 2008 
Johnny Depp plays a detective who is addicted to Opium.While spaced out he has dreams that have a habit of coming true.He sees faces & events involved in murders that he later has to investigate.The film tells the story of Jack the Ripper & gives a very believable account of a Royal being involved,along with freemasons & elements within the Police force trying to cover up a scandal that would lead straight back to the Queen.There is some bad language,a touch of nudity,a lot of violence,cleverly handled, but i think the 18 Cert is a little harsh.Both my wife & myself thoroughly enjoyed this film & we highly recommend it.
Utter garbage - By: Maelstrom, 06 Dec 2007 
a more pleasant evening would be had by watching the insides of ones eyelids. Why do the Americans insist that if a story's worth telling it's worth telling inaccurately. I would have walked out of the cinema, but unfortunately my legs had also gone to sleep. I give it 1 star, because 0 was not alllowed
Not a patch on the graphic novel - By: D. R. Clarke, 13 Aug 2007 
Although it may be surprising to some, the graphic novel of the same name by Alan Moore, on which this film is based, has a lot more depth & interest than the film itself. Both the book & the film draw heavily on the work of Stephen Knight, who for me, fallls into the category of 'conspiraloon' when it comes to Jack the Ripper explanations, with his credulity straining 'Dr William Withey Gull/Masonic conspiracy' theory (personallly, I have always thought Francis Tumblety to be a far more likely suspect), but such speculations were forgivable in such a rich graphic novel which included, for example, some wonderful material on the architect Nicholas Hawksmoor.
The film is something of a travesty in comparison, with the middle aged Inspector Abbeline, played by Johnny Depp as a young opium addict who has visions about each murder. Not that I have anything against Johnny Depp, mind you, it is just that the film bears little resemblance to the very interesting source material, & suffers in comparison. Filmed in Prague, doubling for Whitechapel, it has a suitably realistic 19th century slum quarter look & may be enjoyable in its own right, but I would recommend reading the graphic novel.
Poor relation to Moore's masterwork - By: Matt Tautou, 13 Jul 2007 For those people who come to this movie via Alan Moore's amazing graphic novel will be very disapointed.
All the richness of Moore's plot, though undoubtedly some "Ripperologists" would shudder at it, is lost to create what is ultimately a kind of modern Hammer Studio horror flick. No bad thing in itself I suppose but having read the novel, you expect so much more.
Its true that the facts of the real murders feature in the film. There are acurate representations of the murder scenes too. Great for people with a serious interest in the case but the artistic licence taken with the pieces main players in order to make the characters interesting warps any historical worth the film has. Its a slasher movie on historic bones. That's alll. And as a slasher movie, it's far from being a good example of its genre.
Depp's & Graham's tragic british accents finish it off. From Hell
indeed...
I give the movie two stars for elements on the second disc where Rumbellow, the esteemed Ripperologist, recounts some truths of the case as it provides real interest in the real murders.
It was sickening however to watch the short tour of the murder sites sets with the films directors. Seeing these guys making jokes over the mocked up slahed victims laid in the authentic positions they were found in turned my stomach. These were real women, brutaly murdered. Just because it was nearly 200 years ago dosn't mean that fact dosn't matter.
new twist, old tale - By: Mr. Rwj Nixon, 03 Dec 2006 
So, is the movie going world ready for yet another take on the Jack the Ripper story? On first impressions, the answer would probably be an emphatic yes. Based on the acclaimed graphic novel of the same name by Alan Moore (y'know, when you look, its surprising how many movies are based on "comics for grown ups", Road to Perdition, V for Vendetta & so on & so forth, but I digress), the film takes the celebrated murder case, & then runs with it in an initiallly stylish & breathless way. Directed with surprising ferocity by the Hughes brothers (Allen & Albert of Menace II Society & Dead Presidents notoriety), From Hell comes across at first as an interesting & visuallly stylish update. However, look a little deeper & the film lacks that most important thing, depth.
Johnney Depp takes the role of Fred Aberline, an opium addicted Scotland Yard detective who uses his addiction to fuel his visions of crimes, alllowing him to make amazing deductions & solve the unsolvable. Robbie Coltrane turns in an initiallly amusing turn as his partner Sgt Peter Goodley, a man who turns a blind eye to Depps dabbling, but knows that it will be the end of him. A further surprisingly stellar cast, including Ian Holm as Royal surgeon William Gull, Ian Richardson as Charles Warren, the then head of Scotland Yard & Aberlines superior, & Heather Graham as Marie Kelly (unfortunately hamstrung by a to say the least dubious cockney accent) give some weight to the film.
The plot follows the known facts of the case fairly closely, & throws in a few of the more celebrated conspiracy theories that surround Jack the Ripper just for good measure (those in the know will know what I am talking about, but to say to much would be to give things away). Almost alll of the suspected protagonists are featured at one time or another, but you can't help but feel that this plethora of suspects is thrown in to disguise what is essentiallly an exercise in style over substance. Whilst the violence can be very bloody, it is only briefly glimpsed or merely inferred, but no matter which way you look at this film, it is merely treading old ground.
