Tribute: A.J. Cook

It is tribute time again. It has been a while since I have done one of these tributes, since I have been waiting for the movie that will be reviewed along with it. With college and swimming and watching a bunch of movies at the theater, it has taken a while for me to get around to getting this movie moved up in the queue and sent to me. The actress I picked for this tribute isn't a big horror actress. She happens to be one of my favorite out there though and she has been in at least a couple of horror movies. If I could meet just one person from Hollywood, she would be the one with Christina Ricci being a very close second. When I noticed this movie was on its way up my queue and I would have it soon (turns out I didn't get it soon though) I decided that this would be my next tribute. So I present to you, A.J. Cook.

Andrea Joy (A.J.) Cook was born on July 22, 1978 in Oshawa, Canada, to Mike and Sandra Cook. Mike is a teacher and Sandra works for a psychiatrist. A.J. didn't get the acting bug until the age of 17. Before that time she was a dancer. She started dancing competitively at the age of 4 in the styles of tap, jazz, and ballet. She also taught dance in Oshawa. Upon seeing the film Dirty Dancing, she decided that she wanted to be an actress. Her first job was in a McDonald's commercial. A.J.'s first credited film role was in the film Laserhawk as Pretty Girl #1. Her first big role didn't come around until 1999 when she was cast in The Virgin Suicides. Since then she has been in several movies along with being on several TV series as well. You can currently find her on the television series Criminal Minds. You can find a complete filmography here.

Since I have already explained why I picked A.J. Cook for this tribute, I will try and explain why I like her so much. I first remember seeing her in a movie called Out Cold. I liked the movie for several reasons. It wasn't the best comedy around but it had its moments for sure. A.J. caught my eye right away, and I was a little disappointed that she didn't have more scenes. I haven't watched everything she has been in but I am slowly getting there and love it when she has the lead role. My favorite movie that she has been in so far would be Final Destination 2. One of the few sequels that rivals the original film. I will be straight forward. A big part of why I like A.J. Cook so much is based on her looks. I think she is very beautiful woman. I love her voice as well. She may not be the best actress around according to some but she is certainly my favorite.

A.J. Cook movies that I have reviewed so far are:

Wishmaster 3: Beyond The Gates Of Hell

Yes there is a review in this post! The movie I watched today would be Ripper: Letter From Hell (2001). It starts off with Molly (A.J. Cook) running around on an island that seems to have a lot of dead bodies on it. We are given no clues as to what happened here but Molly makes her way to a boat where she makes her get away. Five years later we catch up with Molly who is now taking a college course on profiling serial killers. We discover that Molly was the only survivor of a mass killing in which the killer has never been caught. Marshall Kane (Bruce Payne) is teaching the class and seems to have a secret of his own. Marshall asks the class what they would do if he were to kill one of them right now. Some don't seem bothered by this question, even after he picks up a knife and starts to walk around the room. He suddenly cuts the throat of one of the students but not all is as it seems. He does this to show them that they need to think outside of the box when it comes to killers. Soon after this though, some of Molly's classmates turn up dead. Molly figures out that the killer is killing people in the same way that Jack the Ripper killed his victims. Who could be doing this though? That is a question perfect for this class.

The effects weren't too bad for this film. Some of the killings get pretty bloody but at least once the blood looked a little fake to me. The killings could be pretty cool at times. The first murder occurs over a rave dance. A woman is stabbed over and over and the camera picks up a trail of blood that flows to a hole in the floor. This happens to be just above one of the people dancing and she gets a shower in blood. It takes her a little while to notice which I thought was a little odd. Another one takes place in a saw mill that could have been a lot better than it was, but it still turned out pretty good. The acting was really good. A.J. Cook sports a different hairstyle and even has a tattoo. She is a little bit more of a bad girl in this film but still pulls off being the lead. Ryan Northcott looks a lot like a Baldwin brother. You can also find Claire Keim, Derek Hamilton, Daniella Evangelista, Emmanuelle Vaugier, Kelly Brook and Jurgen Prochnow as the creepy Detective.


Ripper: Letters From Hell started off pretty cool on the island. I also liked the setting of the murders happening to a class about serial killers. This movie could have gone somewhere really good but as soon as they tried to say that the killer was a copycat killer of Jack the Ripper, it lost some steam. Why? Because they weren't copycat killings at all. The first murder was supposed to have the same amount of stabbings as the first Ripper victim. In an overlay of the stab wounds, it is shown that they are even in the same place. Now I can see some of them being in the same place but all of them? I could be wrong but that was the impression that I was given.

This isn't a bad slasher movie. It tries to be more than just a slasher movie and comes close to that. The ending is left open just enough that you might still be guessing as to who did it and just what the ending actually means. I think because the Ripper murders have never truly been solved, they tried to leave the ending for this movie open as well. If you like the slasher genre then you can't really go wrong with this one. It is just too bad they had to try and include things about the Ripper. It is very informative about the Ripper murders however. I was just disappointed that they tried to say these were copycat murders when they were no where near that.

3 out of 5 When under a saw, move a little faster