Sherlock Holmes

[angelaudie]

Saw this tonight with my mom.

The good:
Robert Downy Jr. is hot and was completely charming as Sherlock. Jude Law was also charming and funny as Watson. Downey and Law had great chemistry together. I needed no explanation why Watson put up with Holmes's crap and stuck with him. Downey and Law completely sold me there.

The fight scenes were pretty solid as well though they started feel repetitive after awhile. I did think it was neat Watson and Holmes would use their medical knowledge to incapacitate somebody. It's more believable that Watson and Holmes would know that people are weak in certain body parts and to hit them hard there instead of portraying them as superheroes.

Hans Matheson is in this! Yeah, he's not in it much but I'm of the belief a film automatically becomes better when Hans Matheson shows ups!

I know we didn't see much of her but I liked Mary, Watson's fiancee. She put up with Holmes pretty well and seem to accept the insanity that comes with hanging out with him. If the do a sequel (let's face that it that ending is setting up one) I hope we see more of her.

The bad:
The story. For the love of God what was supposed to be the plot of this movie? It's like the writers just put story ideas on board, blindfolded themselves, threw darts at the board, and then tried to cram all those points the darts hit into the movie. The last 10 minutes, when everything was finally explained, was the best part.

The directing. Ok, I think Guy Ritchie has talent as a director and there was some interesting shots but overall I don't think his style works with this kind of movie. It just felt off. Ritchie does better with smaller budget films.

Rachel McAdams. Ok, it kills me to put her in the bad category. She didn't do a bad job but she just didn't mesh well. Every time she showed up I would think, "Can go back to the Holmes and Watson bickering/bromance?" She didn't have chemistry with Downey. Watson and Holmes making out in the end would have felt more organic than Adler kissing Holmes!

WTF:
Ok, what was up with Downey's accent? He's done British accents before and did them well. It was like Downey couldn't make up his mind if Holmes is supposed to upper or lower class or not. One second he sounds like a upper class Brit and the next he be using a Cockney accent.

Bottom line:
Not a bad film overall but I see this is more of a rental. If you must see it in theaters check out the matinee. If they decide to do a sequel hire a better writers, replace Ritchie as the director, and drop the Adler character.

[Mutagen]

I just posted almost exactly the same thing, although a condensed version, in the "What did you see?" thread. Agree with you completely on Robert Downey Jr. being sexy as all hell - and this is coming from someone who normally doesn't get that worked up about him. Also agree with you on Law and McAdams, and YES, I hate saying that about her because normally I love her. But she was kind of lightweight in this movie.

The story. For the love of God what was supposed to be the plot of this movie? It's like the writers just put story ideas on board, blindfolded themselves, threw darts at the board, and then tried to cram all those points the darts hit into the movie. The last 10 minutes, when everything was finally explained, was the best part.

Seriously!! There were several points when I had NO idea how close to solving the mystery we were. I just had to kind of sit back and say "Okay, movie, wherever you're going with this..." This is why I really think Robert Downey Jr. was so excellent, because somehow I could still be interested in what he was doing even when I had no idea why the hell he was doing it.

Plus, the villain made me laugh at a few key points where he wasn't supposed to. I don't know if it was the actor's fault, or the way wardrobe made him look, or the script, or what.

I know we didn't see much of her but I liked Mary, Watson's fiancee. She put up with Holmes pretty well and seem to accept the insanity that comes with hanging out with him. If the do a sequel (let's face that it that ending is setting up one) I hope we see more of her.

Yeah. As much as I was enjoying the slashy vibes, I appreciated the fact that <<they didn't kill her off or get rid of her in some contrived way, and the movie actually seemed to take her engagement to Watson seriously - kind of a refreshing way to treat a potentially "extraneous" female character.>>

[angelaudie]

Mutagen, it was especially surprising they didn't kill off Mary because in the books Mary does die! Then again, if Guy Ritchie's wish to get a sequel comes true well I guess we know what who will probably get hurt....

[yournamehere]

Y'all have captured my thoughts perfectly. Seriously, enjoyed the hell out of it.

[Spinderella]

I wanted to see this over the holiday, but missed my chance. I'll have to check it out next weekend, but the reviews you all have given sound pretty much what I've heard. Still, Downey makes me go to his movies.

Can't wait!

[bklynred]

So what's the consensus, is it worth a full price, matinee or rental?

[Deleted]

I say full price. We saw it today and absolutely loved it. RDJ owned the movie, and they actually made me LIKE Jude Law, damn you Guy Ritchie!!! Speaking of, divorcing Madonna must have been good for him, because I thought that he made a damn good movie. Bring on the sequel!

[angelaudie]

I viewed this more of a rental or a matinee if you can't wait that long. But, with that said, I think I'm in the minority since almost everybody I know loved it.

RDJ owned the movie, and they actually made me LIKE Jude Law, damn you Guy Ritchie!!!

Hee. I think Jude Law has bit of the Sean Penn effect. You know he's a sleazy guy but he's a talented enough actor that you can forget about that sleaziness when watching him in a film. He does have charm and charisma onscreen.

Speaking of, divorcing Madonna must have been good for him, because I thought that he made a damn good movie.

Though I stand by my assessment that Guy Ritchie's style doesn't quite mesh with this movie I do think this is the best film he's made in a LONG time (keep in mind I haven't seen RocknRolla). Last Guy movie I saw (more like bits of) was the one he directed Madonna in. That movie was just bad. Not so bad it's funny. Just bad. Period. End of the sentence. I couldn't even finish it all.

Bring on the sequel!

Oddly enough I'm all for a sequel too. Yeah, I've pointed out all the flaws but I really do want to see Downey and Law onscreen together again and I did enjoy their interpretations of the characters. Just hire better writers next time. Ritchie has made no secret he wants to do a sequel and it did pretty well this weekend I say odds are there will be one.

[Deleted]

Guess I'm in the minority... saw this last night with my husband and my mom. My mom and I both hated it, and my husband thought it was pretty mediocre. I wanted to love it. I love RDJ, Sherlock Holmes, and big, silly, character-driven action movies. I thought the first 30 minutes of this were tons of fun. But then it just got dragged down into interminable, badly directed action sequences. The special effects in the final action sequence were distractingly bad, too.

But I agree: I did love Mary! RDJ and Law were great, too, but they couldn't save it for me.

I don't know. I thought I was the target audience for this. I was not expecting at all for it to be faithful to the Sherlock Holmes stories except using the names of various key characters, so that wasn't my problem with it. I just really think Guy Ritchie sucks as a director and the writers did a horrible job, too. In someone else's hands, I might have liked it more. As it stands, I thought it was a giant turkey.

[magazinewhore]

I agree with much of what has been said here. I found it a mediocre action movie. Way too much CGI, especially when you're filming in an amazing (and old) city like London. I suspect little of it was actually shot there, which to me is a huge shame. Victorian London is a huge part of the story, use it! And so many elements were so unbelievable, I just ceased caring. Like little Jude Law is going to incapacitate the huge French guy? C'mon. I say rental. Other things bothered me too, like the fact that Rachel constantly wore a full-on makeup job. No one but a prostitute would have done that back then. It had the same issue so many action pictures have: Sherlock basically had almost superhuman problems. I realize he was a genius, but it would have been much more compelling to see him miss or have things not work out exactly as they thought he would (like in the fight scenes). For example, if I compare it to Raiders of the Lost Ark, in Indy Jones, you have a similar character who was very smart and was an expert in his field, but he actually got hurt in fights, and that made it that much more interesting because you didn't always know how he was going to get out of his predicaments. To me, the movie was all style and little substance. And I like RDJ.