Category: Movies

Based on Alan Moore’s graphic novel, From Hell is a flashy, dark, well-meaning film that ultimately fails to deliver on its promises.

I’d hoped for more from Johnny Depp and Ian Holm. Both are actors I respect, but unfortunately their talents are largely wasted on a plot that I figured out about a quarter of the way through.

Depp’s Inspector Abberline’s opium induced talents are called in to investigate a recent series of grisly murders. A certain Mr. Ripper apparently has it in for the local working girls. One in particular, Mary Kelly, played awkwardly by Heather Graham, tickles the inspector’s fancy and provides the necessary love interest.

It turns out, like most badly conceived thrillers, that the killer is the last person you’d suspect. (Actually, the second-to-last here.) Even though the actor’s voice was lowered when playing Jack, it was painfully obvious who it was early on, although the whole Freemason/Queen angle was intriguing if a bit labored.

The actual look of the film is quite good – pleasantly dark and Psycho-like in its renderings of all but the final killings. But unlike The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (also based on a Moore novel), the visual trappings don’t overcome the pedestrian direction.

It’s a nice enough choice for Halloween, and Graham isn’t difficult to look at (although the Carrot Top hair color drove me batty), but From Hell ends up being just another fill-in-the-blank Ashley Judd-esque disappointment – fun to look at, but hard to watch.

Silence! You die now! Moo-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!

If you liked that, you’re gonna love Lady Death.

Lady Death‘s choppy animation, lame plot and dismal voice acting doom this comic book adaptation early on. It reminded me of the old Thundercats cartoons with the sex factor dialed up to eleven. But even with the busty albino heroine, by the end I was so bored I would have killed for a few good “Snarfs” and a lesson about fire safety.

The story centers on Hope, a young girl who’s evidently unaware that her cruel father, Matthias, is actually Lucifer. Matthias not only angers the townspeople, but also enslaves Hope’s love interest. The “Lord of Lies” is eventually found out, retreats to Hell and leaves his daughter to suffer the locals’ wrath. (Talk about your deadbeat dads!)

In a Salem-like trial, Hope is tricked by the ever-present, and ever-annoying, Pagan into begging for deliverance. She is granted a place in Hell where, like any angry teen, she dons a leather thong bikini and amasses an army of the undead to get her bloody revenge.

Along the way we’re treated to such wonderful dialogue as:

“Now you die!”
“Get out!”
“Join me!”
“Never!”
“Hear me!”
“Kill me now!”
and the ever-popular “Silence!”

As if that weren’t bad enough, the actors often sound like dim high-schoolers reading aloud from textbooks, which I have to assume is the target audience.

The DVD extras are uninspiring as well. Most of it is Ken Burns style panning over background paintings and pencil sketches, and I turned off the behind-the-scenes featurette after discovering the director was responsible for Disney’s Gargoyles.

Lady Death is a film where characters sport pointy beards, swords have names and clawed fists are constantly clenched. And in an era where graphics novels and superhero movies are gaining respect, this feels like a big step backwards.

“Abandon all hope ye who enter here” indeed.

At the end of this animated “prequel” Van Helsing remarks to the rescued damsel that their predicament “wasn’t so bad.” To which she replies “I agree. It was worse.”

Ding ding ding! We have a winner!

In the early days of animation the studios would wash the cels so that they could be used again. This of course, destroyed millions of frames of classic animation art. Oh that this were possible in this case.

Van Helsing, voiced by Hugh Jackman who also played the character in the motion picture, is sent to London to track down a killer who’s been offing young women. The madman turns out to be a Mr. Hyde (yep, that one) who’s somehow bottling their life essences to restore Queen Victoria’s youth and beauty so that he can marry her and live happily ever after with her in his fiery underground lair.

There’s a lot of fighting and chasing and in the end Van Helsing saves the Queen and thwarts Jekyll/Hyde. Of course his wussy assistant is along for the ride and provides what I can only assume they intended to be comic relief.

I’d like to take this moment to point out that I am a man in his thirties with a wife, a son and a nice house in the suburbs and I realize that film was not made for me. But I think it’s too violent in spots for the children it’s obviously aimed at.

For example, a young woman is killed early on quite graphically and her body is shown limp with blood covering her newly slit throat. Needless to say I’m not recommending this one to parents.

The animation is serviceable at best and seems to reside somewhere between trying to be modern anime and a 1970’s Saturday morning superhero cartoon. One exception being what appears to be some computer animation in the train sequence that’s actually very good.

So what we’ve got here is a poorly produced commercial for the live action feature film that people are suckered into purchasing. The DVD includes a “behind the screams” look at Van Helsing, some fluffy interview material with Jackman telling you how great the movie is, and some promo stuff for the video game.

I’m waiting for the full-length movie to arrive from Netflix and I’ll be posting a review soon. I can only hope that it doesn’t live up to its prequel.

It’s not often I write “thank God someone made this” in my notes while reviewing a film. But Susan Dryfoos’ “The Line King – The Al Hirschfeld Story” deserves such praise and more.

A lovely biography of entertainment caricaturist Hirschfeld, this film is a fascinating look behind the pen of a man who transcended his genre to become almost an art form unto himself.

Dryfoos thankfully showcases hundreds of drawings throughout the film as entertainers, artists and others discuss a man who described his goal as not to make a subject beautiful, but interesting.

Hirschfeld, of course, being the most interesting character of all. The camouflaged “Nina”s, the barber chair in which he created decades of work, the almost Santa Claus-ish look of the artist – all add up to a man that, if he were imagined by a Hollywood writer, would be deemed wholly unbelievable by cartoonists such as myself.

Myself being a stay-at-home-dad, I was fascinated to learn that he was raised by his father while his mother supported the family. I also connected with his respect for his wife’s editorial abilities. My wife is often consulted (OK, harangued) about my latest cartoons and her advice is always spot on, even when I don’t like to admit it.

There are a few goofy moments (Hirschfeld’s surreal bongo solo and his attempts as using a computer and graphics tablet), but overall the film is a wonder from beginning to end. A fitting tribute to an artist whose work was both interesting and beautiful.