Jekyll & Hyde

Another film that stands and falls with Michael Caine. Especially what this virtuoso does in the last 25 minutes is unprecedented. Caine proves that you don't need super-expensive digital effects to become a convincing Hyde. Because if one is a great actor (which he is), a simple mask is enough. The film as such is a decent atmospheric TV treat appropriate to its time - some of the actors, direction and music sometimes behave like a cheap B-horror movie, just to make the viewer tense or to shock (example - a dead man is lying on the floor, the camera quickly pans to the shocked face of his finder, he screams, the music is blaring in high notes... Ed Wood rag). The culmination is the very end (the last minute), which is so awkward that you have to smile. God, why!? As a result, Jekyll & Hyde deserves four lesser stars. But I have not seen a better version of Stevenson's (admittedly much peppered here) novel. (24/06/2010)