Sherlock holmes 110/4/2023 ![]() Blackwood is sent to the gallows and sealed in his tomb, only to reappear (to Holmes' undeniable satisfaction) seemingly still alive. In a really very good opening sequence, the two burst in upon the fiendish satanist Lord Blackwood ( Mark Strong) in the act of committing a dastardly act. He and Watson (who is, you recall, only a doctor, although one with clients who must be puzzled about his office hours) spring readily into action like Batman and Robin. Yet Holmes has the body of a lithe athlete, the skills of a gymnast and the pugilism of a world champion. Holmes' canonical devotion to cocaine is here augmented by other drugs and a great deal of booze. The character has been played memorably by Basil Rathbone, Jeremy Brett, Frank Langella, Peter Cushing, John Barrymore, James D'Arcy, Michael Caine, John Cleese, Peter Cook, Rupert Everett, William Gillette, Stewart Granger, Charlton Heston, Anthony Higgins, Raymond Massey, Roger Moore, John Neville, Leonard Nimoy, Christopher Plummer, Jonathan Pryce, Nicol Williamson - and now Robert Downey Jr., who is not the least of these.ĭowney's Holmes is at once more dissolute and more fit than previous incarnations. Well, Holmes, like Hamlet, has survived countless interpretations. ![]() Both of them now seem more than a little gay it's no longer a case of "oh, the British all talk like that." Jude Law even seemed to be wearing lipstick when he promoted the movie on Letterman. Holmes tosses aside the deerstalker hat and meerschaum calabash, and Watson has decided for once and all to abandon the intimacy of 221B for the hazards of married life. "Sherlock Holmes" enacts the strange new rites of hyperkinetic action and impossible CGI, and Holmes and Watson do their best to upgrade themselves. I think I became an Anglophile on those winter nights when I sat curled up in my dad's big chair, a single lamp creating shadows in the corners of the room, reading the Modern Library edition of the stories while in the basement I heard the comforting sounds of my parents doing the laundry.Įvery Holmes story is different and each one is the same, just as every day has its own saint but the Mass is eternal. Outside is the fabled Victorian London, a city we all know in our imaginations. Villains and cases come and go up the staircase at 221B Baker Street, but within that refuge, life stays the same: Holmes all-knowing and calm, Watson fretful and frightened, clues orderly, victims distraught, never a problem not seemingly insoluble. One of the comforts of the Arthur Conan Doyle stories is their almost staid adherence to form. ![]() But block bookings are not likely from the Baker Street Irregulars. It's likely to be enjoyed by today's action fans. Guy Ritchie's film is filled with sensational sights, over-the-top characters and a desperate struggle atop Tower Bridge, which is still under construction. Though Jared Harris as Moriarty absolutely stole the show.The less I thought about Sherlock Holmes, the more I liked "Sherlock Holmes." Yet another classic hero has been fed into the f/x mill, emerging as a modern superman. The action sequences were good (especially Moriarty and Sherlock's "fight" on the veranda as well as the forest scene), but it seemed to lack any sort of tension as there wasn't really a mystery like there was in the first movie. The soundtrack was equally excellent but the world felt cleaner, less gritty than it had in the first. I thought it was really belabored at times and it felt like there was an awful lot of waiting for something to happen. And then you're brought back down by Sherlock casually explaining the reality behind each of the "magical" effects and how every single one of them was shown to you throughout the movie, like him licking the stone of the tomb (originally I wrote it off as him being weird) or the things in the chemists lab. I love how it withholds information from you so that by the end of the movie, as Blackwood's starting to do his thing at Parliament you start to even maybe possibly believe in magic because it seems like Blackwood's murders WERE starting to move out of the realm of realistic possibility. ![]() I loved the buildup, I think the portrayal of Victorian London was excellent, and the soundtrack is so good.
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