Sherlock Holmes (2009)
Country: US/GER/GB
Technical: col 128m
Director: Guy Ritchie
Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Rachel McAdams, Mark Strong, Kelly Reilly, Eddie Marsan
Synopsis:
Holmes is disturbed by Watson's plans for imminent matrimony, but his intellect is consoled by the apparently supernatural challenges posed by a conspiracy emanating from the Temple of the Four Orders, a kind of Masonic group which threatens to remove the government and take over the British Empire.
Review:
Conan Doyle comes slap up to date in Ritchie's poseur hands with an action hero Holmes and Watson, voguishly slowed down and speeded up shots, a modern American female rival, and expensive set pieces like the accidental launch of a vessel undergoing dry dock repair. The bouts of mesmerising deduction are delivered sotto voce and at bewildering speed by a nevertheless charismatic Downey Jr., thus losing much of their impact on both characters and audience alike. The plot itself has much of the arch trickery and 'let's see that again' revisionism of films like The Illusionist and Ritchie's own Lock Stock. No great shakes, but plumbing new absurdities in Hollywood's ignorance of London topography when a flight from Westminster suddenly winds up on the yet to be completed Tower Bridge.
Country: US/GER/GB
Technical: col 128m
Director: Guy Ritchie
Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Rachel McAdams, Mark Strong, Kelly Reilly, Eddie Marsan
Synopsis:
Holmes is disturbed by Watson's plans for imminent matrimony, but his intellect is consoled by the apparently supernatural challenges posed by a conspiracy emanating from the Temple of the Four Orders, a kind of Masonic group which threatens to remove the government and take over the British Empire.
Review:
Conan Doyle comes slap up to date in Ritchie's poseur hands with an action hero Holmes and Watson, voguishly slowed down and speeded up shots, a modern American female rival, and expensive set pieces like the accidental launch of a vessel undergoing dry dock repair. The bouts of mesmerising deduction are delivered sotto voce and at bewildering speed by a nevertheless charismatic Downey Jr., thus losing much of their impact on both characters and audience alike. The plot itself has much of the arch trickery and 'let's see that again' revisionism of films like The Illusionist and Ritchie's own Lock Stock. No great shakes, but plumbing new absurdities in Hollywood's ignorance of London topography when a flight from Westminster suddenly winds up on the yet to be completed Tower Bridge.
Country: US/GER/GB
Technical: col 128m
Director: Guy Ritchie
Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Rachel McAdams, Mark Strong, Kelly Reilly, Eddie Marsan
Synopsis:
Holmes is disturbed by Watson's plans for imminent matrimony, but his intellect is consoled by the apparently supernatural challenges posed by a conspiracy emanating from the Temple of the Four Orders, a kind of Masonic group which threatens to remove the government and take over the British Empire.
Review:
Conan Doyle comes slap up to date in Ritchie's poseur hands with an action hero Holmes and Watson, voguishly slowed down and speeded up shots, a modern American female rival, and expensive set pieces like the accidental launch of a vessel undergoing dry dock repair. The bouts of mesmerising deduction are delivered sotto voce and at bewildering speed by a nevertheless charismatic Downey Jr., thus losing much of their impact on both characters and audience alike. The plot itself has much of the arch trickery and 'let's see that again' revisionism of films like The Illusionist and Ritchie's own Lock Stock. No great shakes, but plumbing new absurdities in Hollywood's ignorance of London topography when a flight from Westminster suddenly winds up on the yet to be completed Tower Bridge.