Jack 'n the Hood

Rating: 8/10 (10 December 2002)

7 out of 10
Whatever happened to movies about little kids and their animals? You know-`Black Beauty,' `Free Willy,' `My Dog Skip'-that sort of thing. I remember coming home from school as a kid to my little sister watching `My Little Pony: The Movie' and thinking, you know, the world's an okay place. I could leave the screen door unlocked and go sip a lemonade on the back porch without a care in the world.
Now everywhere you go people are killing each other and making movies about it. I figured at first that this was just a modern trend since, you know, the world's going to hell (or is it from hell? No, to hell) anyway. But apparently this sort of thing's been going on for a while. It's just that they didn't have movies back then.
So I guess a movie about Jack the Ripper has been a long time coming. Now growing up, I always just understood Jack to be someone else's dad who coached t-ball and worked at a factory and lurked around elementary school playgrounds ripping little girls' clothes off. Hell, it made sense at the time. Needless to say, I never included myself in Jack's exclusive victim demographic. If anything I envied him and tried to emulate his work during my playground fare.
After seeing `From Hell,' I am now much more scared of Jack the Ripper. Yeah, I know, he's dead (or is he?-I smell a sequel. No, he's actually dead.) But what's to stop little Tommy now from becoming Tommy the Ripper or little Susie from becoming Susie the Ripperess? I am truly scared for all of us.
I suppose that's the mark of a good film (or is it?-I smell a trick ending. Yeah, it's a good film.) Allen and Albert Hughes (`Menace II Society,' `Dead Presidents') have taken a rather unusual spin on their usual theme of violent suburban life in `From Hell,' and for the most part it is a glorious one. It took keen eyes to recognize that the victimization of prostitutes, or `unfortunates,' in late 19th Century England was merely a derivative form of the inner city chaos that many live with still a hundred years later.
`From Hell' stars Johnny Depp (`Ed Wood,' `Dead Man,' `Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas') as the laudanum/absinthe addict Inspector Frederick Abberline who has been pulled out from the opium den just in time to star in the new Hughes Brothers' film `From Hell.' Just kidding-I love Johnny Depp. Actually they need him to fry Jack the Ripper's gourd. And since all the drugs he takes give him magical powers and a British accent, this is not the exact same movie as `Sleepy Hollow.'
Abberline is quick to fall in love with one of the unfortunates, or `sluts,' Mary Kelly (Heather Graham, `Boogie Nights') because she is the only one of them with box office appeal (sorry guys, no naked here-or is there? I won't say-or will I? Read on.) and has the least dirt applied to her face in the makeup room. He is quick to get the help of Sir William Gull (Ian Holm, `The Sweet Hereafter,' `Brazil'), physician to the royal family, to aid in tracking a killer who appears to be an educated man with a thorough knowledge of human anatomy (Jack the Ripper). And a budget for grapes.
But Jack the Ripper is quicker at killing them all-or is he? I won't say. As opposed to the graphic novel on which it is based, `From Hell' wisely chooses to conceal the identity of Jack until the end, so it has the same effect as Christopher Walken's appearance in `Sleepy Hollow.' Come to think of it, just replace Walken as Jack, Christina Ricci for Heather Graham, and Johnny Depp for Johnny Depp and it's the same damn movie. Aw man.
Actually, Depp was better as Ichabod Crane, but `From Hell' is probably a better movie. Granted, it's sort of a one note film-Jack kills a prostitute, her friends wince, Depp warms up the opium cooker, rinse and repeat. But it's reasonably well written, even better acted (by Heather Graham of all people), and even still better filmed-it looks like something between `Moulin Rouge' and `Requiem for a Dream.' Of course, `From Hell' is strictly entertainment for all you gore- and Heather Graham (keep reading) skin- hounds. But the restraint of the gore (compared to such recent fare as `Hannibal'), as well as the allusions to 19th Century medicine and freemasonry make this film creepy and disturbing as hell. Or is it from hell? Dammit, I've got to stop doing that.
So, in conclusion, if you want to know if Heather Graham gets naked in this movie, you'll just have to see it for yourself. Hahahahahaha. (And I disappear in a flash of smoke).