Poor in a variety of ways, only for JTR fans

Rating: 4/10 (2 January 2008)

Akin to "Jack The Ripper"  starring Michael Caine  this film is a mish-mash of bad tempi, bad acting, sloppy direction and a quite poor script that's wasted on good actors such as Johnny Depp, Ian Holm and Robbie Coltrane. This film made me lose interest more than once, which is bad considering I'm a serial killer-fan. While The Hughes Brothers have directed the massive "Menace II Society", this film is far off that past greatness. Heather Graham's part is that of the Madonna-like prostitute, and very little of London of those past days is displayed "as were"; for more information about the East End-district of London, please read Patricia Cornwell's "Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper - Case Closed" and for even more details, Leslie S. Klinger's "The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes" will provide a lot of the cultural climate, the vast gap between the poor and the rich and those times in general (even though I'm sure there are better anthropological studies available).
This film is recommended only for those very interested in Jack The Ripper.