Sherlock Holmes Review Thread

[Foggy]

I watched this yesterday, and it was a lot of fun, it was in the same essence as the first Pirates movie.

Have any of you seen it, do you agree/disagree?

[Lord_Stewie]

Haven't seen it. Heard awesome stuff about the flick. Definitely a must check out for me.

thanks for the review.

[thaima1shu]

I watched it and kind of came away from it just kind of ... meh. I don't really know what to think about it really. I just didn't like it very much. I guess I wasn't really a huge fan of the story. I just didn't feel very interested by it.

[tbizzle]

Just got back from seeing this. It was all right, nothin to write home about. Had some humor and some cool fight scenes, but nothin too special

[Angela Liu]

I definitely enjoyed it. Guy Ritchie's adaptation has been, for the longest, touted as being the "action side of Holmes" -- and while there are certainly more than a few fisticuffs, chases, and occasional big, explosive sequences to go around, the film as a whole is a far more cerebral outing than one may suspect. It's still very much rooted in the solving of the murder mystery, the crux of the storytelling propelled by the deductive reasoning and improvised know-how of the good detective. I had seen the term "fiercely intelligent" being used to describe the film. That may be a great way to put it.

The plot is ridiculously convoluted, almost to the point of being labyrinthine, but that's actually a good thing in this case. The movie lives for the details, the red herrings, the double twists. The pseudo-horror supernatural element brings to mind hints of The Hound of the Baskervilles, and keeps one guessing till the last explanation is rattled off. This layer of density, I think, will make for terrific repeat viewings. Downey's take on Holmes is pretty awesome, his oft slovenly showcase masking the character's true brilliance. There's a sequence early on in the film, shortly after we're introduced to Irene Adler, where this is firmly established. This is a man who's intellectual facilities are constantly firing on all cylinders, even when he's in an apparent drunken stupor. It's a ballsy approach, and it works. Likewise, Ritchie's direction keeps this badboy afloat. He definitely plays it fast and loose, and the overall pacing alludes to that. Modern camera shifts, quick-frame zooming and the occasional slow-mo effect are the norm, but it's an effective way to visually interpret Holmes' thought processes and steel trap mind.

Having said all that, I don't think the film holds a candle to many of the classic movies or television series that had come before it. Barry Levinson's Young Sherlock Holmes holds a special place in my heart, and many of the Jeremy Brett-related works are too heavily-ingrained to shrug off so easily. It's still a solid detective story, certainly an entertaining one, and a lot smarter than the pre-hype and trailers painted it out to be. It's just missing a lot of the endearment and rich character beats from previous works in the medium.

[Steve]

I went to see this with my family on Christmas Day and I enjoyed it. It wasn't quite the riveting, edge-of-my-seat ride I was expecting, but it's definitely a good movie and I recommend seeing it. I felt the movle dragged on a little long at times and would benefit from having about 10-15 minutes shaved out of it.

[ManUtd]

Watched this last night, it wasn't great but entertaining enough IMO.

[Propellarhead9]

I saw it on Christmas and loved every minute of it.

[Elvis]

I need to go see this next weekend.

[awongshing]

I saw it and thought it was pretty good. It was entertaining. I would need to see it again on Blu ray.

[iori]

Loved it, started thinking I can't wait to see the blu while in the theater.

[Grevlin]

Fun movie, I'm a fan of Robert and Jude.

[Show spoiler]And I love that they introduce Prof. M!

[sfmarine]

Pretty good reviews so far on here. I decided to see Avatar for a second time instead lol. Maybe I'll catch it next week.

[tommyboy81]

I liked it. I was expecting to much but came away happy. The bass on our sound systems should get a work out when this comes out. Looks like there will be a sequel. Or try to have one.

[coolmilo]

I saw SH today and I thought it was pretty good. Based on what I heard in the theaters, Sherlock Holmes is going to have powerful LFE if the BD is encoded correctly. It was POWERFULL!!!! This movie was a lot of fun.

[Zvi]

I didn't like that much. If it wasn't SH movie, just someone else, then perhaps I'd like it more. Ok, it was "adaptation", but

[Show spoiler]I have no idea why would SH had to have bad hygiene, wear dirty clothing most of the time and never be "cleanly shaven" when Conan Doyle repeatedly noted the opposite in his novels.

And his overall image too, SH was supposed to be real "British gentleman", calm, cold, etc. Downey is a good actor, but whatever was portrayed in this movie is real far from the SH Doyle wrote about.
Too convoluted of a plot, plus IMHO that movie could benefit from shorter runtime.

[Show spoiler]As far as I can tell, there will be a sequel to this and most likely they'll make a joke out of Moriarty too.

[Foggy]

Who else thought the slow motion bits during fights were fantastic?

[Red Hood]

Originally Posted by Foggy

Who else thought the slow motion bits during fights were fantastic?

Those were great, but for some reason I was always expecting something to go wrong when he actually tried to perform what he planned out.

[J0NESI]

saw this yesterday it was ok. i could have just rented it.

[Jeremy1983]

Originally Posted by Merc

Those were great, but for some reason I was always expecting something to go wrong when he actually tried to perform what he planned out.

Yep me too. I was underwhelmed with the film. Aside from another entertaining performance from RDJ, it was just OK.