The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

You get the feeling this movie is going to be a forgettable experience after the first few minutes of viewing, production qualities are terrible from the outset and you will see better acting on a Demtel Infomercial. From a B grade movie perspective it's not even funny.

Don't even watch this out of curiosity, it's a waste of 90 minutes of your life. If ever you had put off going to that slide night at a friend's place then just substitute the 90 minutes you would watch this movie and sit through it with the comforting thought that sitting through those 641 holiday snaps is a much more rewarding experience than watching this movie.

You really wonder why movie studios release these types of movies but by packaging it in a glossy title then you definitely get the feeling they're just out to make a quick buck. I will however remember "Vendetta Films" and "RedAnt" who released it and approach any movies made or promoted by them very suspiciously in future.

John Carl Buechler and his MMI company did most of the effects in all the old Empire pictures for Charles Band, and this is a very direct throwback to that style of schlock. Badly directed, paced and written, with guest star actors that look lost, it never the less manages to be kind of fun in it's earnestness. And Tony Todd does seem to enjoy playing Mr.Hyde. It's actually one of the better Hydes. other than the overdone makeup and general nod and wink attitude. Slap a 1986 date on it rather than 2006 and it would be in good company.

Unlikely the best version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde you would expect to view. Plus the transformation of Hyde into a Hyde/Ape hybrid.

I'm not going into the story, as I'm sure most people are familiar with the story of Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde already, so I'm just gonna go with the technical aspects. The film looked like a film school student's attempt to make a full-length feature. The actors were sub-par, the settings looked fake (I mean come on... a chief of police should have an actual OFFICE, not a CUBICLE!!), the dialog was amazingly horrible (listen to the dialog between Utterson, who is the chick detective, and the chief of police... it is so bad, it's hilarious!) and the special effects were low-quality. Mr. Hyde's make-up looked ridiculous... I think they used 2 wigs for Hyde, as in some scenes it looked black and in other scenes, it looked brown. The ending (which, as I said, I will not divulge)... well... what I will say about the ending is that it didn't tie the story up for me in a neat little package. In fact, the whole story was so jumbled up and it's obvious that the script needed at least one or two more revisions. Overall, it was confusing and it looked cheaply made. However, if you're stuck watching it with your boyfriend because he has to screen it for work, as was my case, it was a lot of fun joking the movie the whole time. But otherwise, I wouldn't pay to see this movie.

Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The (2006)

** (out of 4)

John Carl Buechler (Friday the 13th 7) wrote and directed this updated version of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic novel. In the film, Dr. Jekyll (Tony Todd) is experimenting with chimps when he decides to take the drug himself, which of course turns him into the murderous Mr. Hyde. If it weren't for the excellent performance from Todd, who most people will remember from Candyman, this movie would have been a lot worse. These types of horror movies are made each and every week but not all of them feature some a great performance so it's rather sad to see Todd wasted in a pretty weak film with an even weaker screenplay. There are a few switches from the original novel but for the most part this film is pretty faithful and since we've seen this story countless times the original aspects here aren't good enough to keep the film moving. The supporting cast are all pretty bland to bad and this really sticks out when you see them acting with Todd. Buechler's direction is a tad bit all over the place as well. It's never quite clear what he's trying to do with the material even though he wrote it. At some points it seems like he's wanting to make a suspenseful story but then at other times it appears he wants to throw tons of gore at us. Another problem with the film is the use of some bad, fast editing and poor CGI effects. Back to Todd, he alone makes it worth watching the film as he pulls off both roles very well. Like Christopher Lee, I think Todd could branch out into more serious roles but most of the time he's wasted in films like this.