Ready for another movie take on “Jack The Ripper”? Here it is and it’s getting more attention than usual because it’s directed by some up and comers, twins called the Hughes Brothers. But you probably don’t care about that.

Johnny Depp plays the Inspector on the case. He’s also an opium addict, so there’s something new. Heather Graham plays Mary Kelley, the pretty hooker, who along with a group of her fellow prostitute sisters, is on Jack’s hit list. Why are they on Jack’s hit list? Well, that’s for you to figure out. Of course, you might want to spend your time enjoying the stylish production work of this movie, because the conspiracy behind Jack’s work is really not all that interesting.

You can pick from between five or six characters who might be the killer. Besides being an opium addict, Inspector Depp also has some kind of physic visions. And in these visions he obtains clues about the killings. If you’re looking for graphic scenes of these killings, you’re probably going to be disappointed. Yes, Jack does slit their throats and then cuts out their organs with the skills of a surgeon, but you don’t really get to see much of that. Or, maybe you don’t want to. It’s just that we’ve been down this road so many times before with so many Jack movies, it’s kind of a yawner. I mean, Jack may have been the first serial killer with the chilling methodology, but one hundred years later we’ve got Jeffrey Dahmer actually boiling and eating the organs.

That means that if the murders aren’t that interesting and the story behind Jack’s rampage isn’t that interesting, that pretty much only leaves the acting skills of the cast and the whole production elements of the movie. And you don’t really care about that, do you?

But in case you do, here goes. Depp is fine, but if you saw his movie from a couple of years back with the headless horseman, you’ve seen him play this character before. The quiet, thoughtful, caring detective who can separate himself from the politics of his police work and get the job done. And this despite being an addict. As for Heather, well she doesn’t really do much except represent what will become the last of the ten little Indian prostitute girls that Jack is after. For a hooker, she doesn’t seem to work much either. Funny, her group of friends are largely ugly and unsympathetic, but Heather is the shining sweetheart at the center of it all. There is actually a more interesting performance from Ian Holm, as the personal physician to the royal family. There’s at least some depth to that character.

“From Hell” is dark and gloomy and that’s okay, but after all, it’s set in rainy, ugly London. I’ve got to say, the editing and some of the sets and scene changes are eye catching, but that just doesn’t cut it. Why bother with another Ripper movie? It just didn’t move the needle for me, and at two hours long, it was too slow a needle. I give it a “5.0”