UnowPriceless hyped garbage

Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Dotbankey A lot of fun.

Leofwine_draca This made for television movie tells you everything you ever wanted to know about the famous, real-life case of Jack the Ripper, the murderer who slaughtered prostitutes in Victorian London and neatly removed their internal organs. The film concentrates on a detective's investigation into the murders and therefore cannot be missed by any self-respecting mystery fan, as it's an above average and taut thriller with lots of star performances and a nicely portrayed Victorian London, complete with pea-soup fog, cobbled streets, and lurking figures in black cloaks.The cast is populated by British actors and actresses, even though the film is an American production. Just about everybody you've ever seen in British television and film turns, there are just too many names to list: Ray McAnally, Michael Gothard, Susan George, Harry Andrews...the list goes on. It's Michael Caine, though, who steals the spotlight with his portrayal of a dogged detective (also an alcoholic, way before Bruce Willis or Arnold Schwarzenegger picked up the bottle in their films). Some people have called his performance hammy, well maybe it is, but it's entertaining anyway. I mean, who wants to watch subdued actors who don't give it all they've got? Unfortunately Jane Seymour turns up as the obligatory love interest, and the less said about her performance, the better. On the other hand, Ken Bones is a wonderfully neurotic clairvoyant, and Armand Assante does a wonderful transformation from Dr Jekyll into Mr Hyde before our very eyes with the aid of some prosthetics (and he isn't afraid to be ridiculed when it turns out he's bald). Assante's performance is nicely slimy.I would go so far to say that this could be a definitive portrayal of the Ripper murders. It's not perfect by any means, for a start there are too many red herrings and people get blamed for the murders just for the sheer sake of it. Also, the whole city of London is far too clean and respectable, nobody is smoking or taking drugs, difficult to believe but merely a product of the political correctness of our time (but altering an audience's perspective of the Victorian era just to comply with modern day issues? It's a fact that people smoked, there's no point trying to deny it and this omission just makes the producers look ridiculous).On the plus side there is oodles of suspense, plenty of atmosphere, and good and assured performances from a distinguished cast. The film may run for slightly too long (it goes on for about three and a half hours) but I can say that I didn't get bored while watching any of it, as Caine had me riveted throughout. The actual gore content is kept low, but a brief flash of a room where a prostitute has been dismembered and parts of her body are draped everywhere is very unsettling.

Alain English I came across this picture on Hallowe'en this year, when a DVD copy of it was being sold with "The Guardian". Having gotten familiar with Jack the Ripper earlier this year doing a play about him, I found the idea of the infamous serial killer in a movie with Micheal Caine irresistible. I wasn't disappointed.The film shows the investigation of the famous killings in 1888, in the Whitechapel district in the East End of London. When a spate of apparently motiveless prostitute killings start bloodying the streets of Whitechapel, the local constabulary find themselves powerless. They call in Scotland Yard who send in their best detective Frederick Abberline (Caine) who pursues the case with a ruthless tenacity in the face of rising corpses and mounting public pressure...It is actually quite an effective piece of film-making, even on a television budget. The streets of Victorian London are captured well on screen, Caine gives his customary brilliant performance and he is surrounded by a very strong supporting cast, including Lewis Collins as his assistant Godley, Ken Bones as crazed psychic Robert Lees and Ray McAnally as the Queen's doctor Sir William Gull. Armand Assante as stage actor Richard Mansfield and Jayne Seymour as the lover of both him and Abberline give great performances.Without giving too much away, the film's theory as to the identity of the killer and the reason the case has been marked unsolved is actually a highly plausible one and the build-up to it is suspensefully enacted. The film does well to show Abberline's thought processes as he breaks down the logically how the killer operates.Better than the more slickly polished Johnny Depp effort "From Hell" (which arrives at similar conclusions to this one), this is definitely a must-see for all the Jack the Ripper buffs out there. Case closed.

Caz1964 This is my favourite of the Ripper movies,although i don't believe all the facts are right.This film gives us its own solution,as we all know Jack the Ripper was never caught,so to give us a theory at the end made this mini series more worth watching,just to see what they would come up with.All the theories presented in this drama are all legendary old ones,that have long been eliminated,for instance the Duke of Clarence theory,well really his name just went well with the legend but thats about all,its been proved that he was never in the country on any of the murder dates.The same goes for all the other supposed suspects in this film.The best theory for me is the one of the Montague John Druit,whose body was found floating in the Thames shortly after the last murder,he was a failed medical student,its the only one of the original theories that still carries any weight,and yet it isn't mentioned in the film.Recently Ripperologists done a search on all the mental hospitals in the country,to see if any patients were admitted in late 1889.There were two, one was a very old infirm man who it couldn't have been,the other was a young pole who we now believe was either Aarron Kosminski or Nathan Kasminski,both of these men had gone missing during the late 1880s,which ever man it was the hospital decided to register him as David Cohen he apparently was very violent and had to be restrained .The polices chief witness,who has never been identified,pointed him out as the man he had seen running away at the scene of one of the murders.So what is now known is that David Cohen was definitely Liz Strides killer,the other murders are still a mystery.The chief witness would not give evidence in court against a fellow Jew,which could have brought about bad Anti semitic feelings from the public.So it ended that the police were satisfied that they believed their killer was incarcerated in a mental hospital and out of harms way.David Cohen is now believed to have been a paranoid schizophrenic,and wouldn't have been able to stand trial any way. This is one of the most up to date stories on Jack the Ripper and to me makes a lot of sense,its often been quoted that the police didn't appear to be searching for any one in late 1889-1890,they had become a lot more relaxed and more confident on their beat. It was always obvious that there was a big cover up from the authorities,but not the cover up people thought it was.They decided to hush this all up,for the right reasons, i think they made the right decision.We will never be really sure who killed all the other women,and if their deaths were in any way connected with David Cohen,it will remain a mystery.Back to the film i thought it was really well acted,especially from Micheal Cain,Lewis Collins and Ray Mackanally,who i believe was his last film before his sudden death.If you don't know much about the theories on Jack the Ripper this isn't a bad film to start off on as it has all the usual suspects that for years crop up with the now infamous legend.

wriglee Hi all. In this film,the way they piece together the clues is just amazing! None of us really know what really happened in 1888,but i have watched this film,over,and over again,and i find it definitive. But,this was made before the discovery of 'The diary of jack the ripper'And thats another story! I love the cast in this 1988 film,it,s a sensible portrayal of a true mystery,and i rate this very high,(mistakes aside) If you look at the facts in this film,they REALLY do make sense!!!The coach theory,where there was a driver and a killer is very interesting,it might explain why not much blood was found at the murder scene! I,m glad this film cut out the gore,and concentrated on the mystery,this is a MUST for any ripperoligist! Excellent!