A follow-up to Michael Caine's surprisingly successful TV-Movie Jack The Ripper (1988), this film suffers from a plodding pace, despite being half the length of its predecessor, and being produced by the same team.
Good production value does only so much to counter bored performances and uninteresting alterations to the original story. While it admirably doesn't rehash the Good Girl/Bad Girl dynamic of previous versions, its alternate approach of expanding the character of Jekyll's love interest (Cheryl Ladd) doesn't really add much, and another subplot involving a sleazy newspaper reporter (is there any other kind in genre movies?) is a chore to get past.
I love Michael Caine, and he did receive Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for this one, but I'm not sure why, as he seems uncertain how he wants Jekyll to come across. Meanwhile, the fact that Hyde is entirely mute, and the makeup comically extreme, make me suspect Caine may not have even played Hyde (A stunt double is most apparent during the transformation scenes).
Running throughout is a general undercurrent of nastiness, as one unappealing character after another is introduced, some for seemingly no reason then to just be unpleasant.
Disappointing, considering the talent involved. *1/2 out of ****Stars
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Good production value does only so much to counter bored performances and uninteresting alterations to the original story. While it admirably doesn't rehash the Good Girl/Bad Girl dynamic of previous versions, its alternate approach of expanding the character of Jekyll's love interest (Cheryl Ladd) doesn't really add much, and another subplot involving a sleazy newspaper reporter (is there any other kind in genre movies?) is a chore to get past.
I love Michael Caine, and he did receive Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for this one, but I'm not sure why, as he seems uncertain how he wants Jekyll to come across. Meanwhile, the fact that Hyde is entirely mute, and the makeup comically extreme, make me suspect Caine may not have even played Hyde (A stunt double is most apparent during the transformation scenes).
Running throughout is a general undercurrent of nastiness, as one unappealing character after another is introduced, some for seemingly no reason then to just be unpleasant.
Disappointing, considering the talent involved. *1/2 out of ****Stars
statistics: Posted by FritzFassbender — 2:30 AM - Today — Replies 1 — Views 246