Sherlock Holmes
Director: Guy Ritchie
Year: 2009
Genre: Adventure/Mystery
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Rachel McAdams, Mark Strong
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0988045/
Overview
Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes gets a new lease of life in Guy Ritchie’s, em, Sherlock Holmes….
Holmes is on the case of a serial murderer and breaks in on the last stages of a sacrificial ritual. Capturing the criminal he kick starts a series of black magic events that could shake the foundation of the British Empire.
Substance
Both RDJ and Law give good performances as the leads; both close enough to my preferred takes on their characters, thought Holmes is a tad scrappy for my liking.
The plot is quiet a good Holmes plot and fits with many of the stories I remember in previous incarnations, such as the ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ and ‘Murder by Decree’ – the Ripper case. In many ways a reasonably standard Holmes plot. Something unexplainable and unstoppable happens, then Holmes explains and stops it, but now with the sharp humour one has come to expect from both RDJ and Ritchie.
Rating: 
Style
The whole Victorian thing looks lovely, and there are plenty of fancy looking techniques to represent Holmes’ super sleuth skills. A lovely looking film all around.
Rating:
Entertainment
Quite thrilling in parts. Plenty of action sequences and lots of whodunnits*. The biggest flaw is that with whodunnits it can be nice to try figure out whodunnit. And since they want Sherlock to appear to be Mr Supersleuth, they don’t give you any clues to anything so that he can overwhelm you by flashbacking to ‘clues’.
*in this case mysteries, since you know whodunnit.
Rating:
Summary
Well worth a watch. Glad to hear they’ve signed on to do a sequel. Nice to see the Holmes franchise on the go again.
Overall Rating: 
3 Comments to “Sherlock Holmes”
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By Michael, 07.01.2010 @ 04:19
Murder by Decree? Tut, tut, not a proper Holmes story now is it? Sherlockians would not be pleased
Must get around to watching this. Though from what Ive read both the more martial and anti-social nature of Holmes and the fact that RDJ is not Basil Rathnorne, and certainly not Jeremy Brett, I get the distinct feeling that while I might enjoy it I’ll be labelling it as not “really” Sherlock Holmes.
By Tim, 07.01.2010 @ 15:19
it must take a regular viewer of holmes to appreciate this movie. i went with 3 lads and we were disappointed, 1 even fell asleep at the start for a bit. id tell people their money could be better spent elsewhere.
By Dave, 11.01.2010 @ 01:38
@ Mick – hahaha, what a faux pas! How will I show my face at the bridge club this month!
@Tim – yeah, I am hearing very mixed reviews on this. Personally my liking of RDJ, Holmes, mysteries and Victorian London as a setting may be colouring my views on it!