Sherlock Holmes (2010)

[Kurug3n]

Will Holmes And Watson Be Gay In New Movie?

5 August 2009 11:51 AM, PDT

The British tabloid News of the World's suggestion that the upcoming Sherlock Holmes film will imply a homosexual relationship between Holmes and Dr. Watson is kicking up a minor ruckus. The Sunday newspaper, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp empire, quoted Robert Downey Jr., who stars as Holmes in the movie along with Jude Law as Watson, as saying, "We're two men who happen to be roommates, wrestle a lot and share a bed. It's bad-ass." The New York Post, another News Corp newspaper, picked up the story on Tuesday and quoted conservative critic Michael Medved as saying that "making Holmes and Watson homosexual will take away two-thirds of their box office. Who is going to want to see Downey Jr. and Law make out?" The inference, however, may be off the mark. In Holmes's time, it was commonplace for two straight roommates to share a bed (consider even the Laurel and Hardy movies). And no one accused Inspector Clouseau of having a gay relationship with his martial-arts-loving assistant. And Downey never suggested in his News of the World interview that the two characters have a sexual relationship. Director Guy Ritchie, he said, "wanted to make this about the relationship between Watson and Holmes. They're both mean and complicated."

[Jill]

Holmes/Watson?  Want to see it. It sounds hilarious. It's even older than Kirk/Spock.

[dave jenkins]

Variety:

Posted: Mon., Dec. 14, 2009, 4:00pm PT

Sherlock Holmes

A Warner Bros. release presented in association with Village Roadshow Pictures of a Silver Pictures and Wigram production. Produced by Joel Silver, Lionel Wigram, Susan Downey, Dan Lin. Executive producers, Michael Tadross, Bruce Berman. Co-producer, Steve Clark-Hall. Directed by Guy Ritchie. Screenplay, Michael Robert Johnson, Anthony Peckham, Simon Kinberg; screen story, Lionel Wigram, Johnson; Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson created by Arthur Conan Doyle.
 
Sherlock Holmes - Robert Downey Jr.
Dr. John Watson - Jude Law
Irene Adler - Rachel McAdams
Lord Blackwood - Mark Strong
Inspector Lestrade - Eddie Marsan
Mary Morstan - Kelly Reilly
Sir Thomas Rotheram - James Fox
Lord Coward - Hans Matheson
Mrs. Hudson - Geraldine James
 
By TODD MCCARTHY
If you can get over the idea of Sherlock Holmes as an action hero -- and if, indeed, you want to -- then there is something to enjoy about this flagrant makeover of fiction's first modern detective into a man of brawn as much as brain. To say that this is not grandpapa's Sherlock Holmes will be either irrelevant or a plus for most of the intended audience, who know the iconic Victorian/Edwardian-era sleuth by reputation if at all. A good number of Robert Downey Jr.'s "Iron Man" fans will likely follow him here, as he turns the venerable deerstalker-capped and becaped figure into a gym-toned, half-deranged Holmes unlike any seen before. Worldwide prospects look potent.

Memorably played 14 times by Basil Rathbone through the '40s, Holmes has been seen only intermittently onscreen since then, notably in Billy Wilder's inspired but tragically truncated 1970 "The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes," as well as in "The Seven-Per-Cent Solution" in 1976 and "Young Sherlock Holmes" in 1985; on British television, played by Jeremy Brett; and in an animated series, voiced by Peter O'Toole.

Theoretically, Arthur Conan Doyle's genius of Baker Street is as open to reinvention and reinterpretation as any character, so there is a measure of amusement to be had in observing the contortions producer Joel Silver, director Guy Ritchie and screenwriters Michael Robert Johnson, Anthony Peckham ("Invictus") and Simon Kinberg ("Mr. and Mrs. Smith") have gone through to refit the character to the presumed requirements of the mass international audience.

Their choice was to transform the historically slim, reclusive, intellectual eccentric into an evident manic depressive whose idea of recreation is to slum in what looks like an East End precursor of the fight club. Such Holmes purists as may remain will blanch, but young audiences, particularly males, will likely swill the topped-out serving of sweaty masculinity, flexing muscle, imaginative violence, unusual weaponry, impudent banter and ballsy effrontery.

Although Downey's recent ascent to action-blockbuster topliner defines the nature of this new Holmes, the thesp's essential identity as a resourceful and vigorous character actor asserts itself up to a point. Distractingly, for the time period, he sports a wild-haired, stubbled look that makes him resemble Al Pacino's kid brother, and there are times when his well-accented Britspeak reaches such basso depths that his dialogue can't be fully understood. But his keen eyes, quick tongue and edgy combustibility do lend credence to a man who's able to see, anticipate and comprehend things others can't -- which, in this case, includes a slow-motion compendium of the bodily harm that awaits his opponent at fisticuffs.

Once past the nonsensically overloaded martial-artsy opening stretch, a worthy opponent to Holmes announces himself in the person of Lord Blackwood (the ever-impressive Mark Strong). Condemned to die for the murder of several women, this self-possessed practitioner of black magic ominously warns that, "Death is only the beginning," as he is led to the hangman's noose, after which he is duly pronounced dead by none other than Holmes' sometimes partner and chronicler, Dr. Watson, now transformed into a dashing pretty boy by Jude Law.

Unfortunately for Holmes, Watson and the other citizens of London, Blackwood shortly resurrects himself and undertakes to establish his New Order, with part of the plan being Britain's reconquest of that former colony across the Atlantic. Blackwood's organization, a Masonic-like cult with members in high places, also prefigures fascist iconography in terms of greatcoat design, hair stylings and expressive scowling, so at least sartorially, its members have a distinct edge on the disheveled Holmes.

In addition to taking on men twice his weight in hand-to-hand combat, Holmes diverts himself by undermining Watson's relationship with his fiancee (Kelly Reilly) and coping with the return of Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams), a master criminal who has twice bested Holmes in the past and whose personal intentions with him are far from honorable. Curiously, the one area of traditional Holmesiana the script doesn't really transgress is his lack of romantic attachment. Some backstory and offscreen shenanigans with Irene are suggested, but there remains a reticence to doing anything dramatically interesting with this woman, who is not very well integrated into the rest of the story, a shortcoming the normally resourceful McAdams is unable to do much about.

Action scenes are devised to accentuate aspects of turn-of-the-century industrial London, ruffians of notably indestructible stature (particularly a scar-faced giant who just keeps on coming) and deaths of a diabolically creative nature that only the scientifically adept Blackwood could concoct and the encyclopedically knowledgeable Holmes could analyze. After a well-prepared dramatic climax in Parliament, a putative action exclamation point feels hokey and too CGI-dominated.

Olde London town probably hasn't looked this filthy onscreen since David Lynch's "The Elephant Man" and every frame has been crammed with visual stimulation thanks to Sarah Greenwood's detailed production design, Philippe Rousselot's gritty lensing and Jenny Beavan's determinedly creative costume design. Ritchie has never worked on a scale anything approaching this before and, while some of the directorial affectations are distracting, he keeps the action humming.

Still, the single most important craft contribution is Hans Zimmer's score. Overbearing in the opening scene and opportunistic in its lift of a key melodic phrase from Ennio Morricone's "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" soundtrack, it soon settles in to provide not only narrative propulsion, but enormously helpful mood colorings. The orchestrations are particularly fresh, with bracing use of the zither and other unusual instruments introducing surprising textures throughout.
 
Camera (Technicolor), Philippe Rousselot; editor, James Herbert; music, Hans Zimmer; production designer, Sarah Greenwood; supervising art director, Niall Moroney; art directors, James Foster, Nick Gottschalk, Matt Gray; set decorator, Katie Spencer; costume designer, Jenny Beavan; sound (Dolby Digital/SDDS/DTS), Chris Munro; supervising sound editor, James Mather; sound designer, Michael Fentum; re-recording mixers, Ron Bartlett, D.M. Hemphill; visual effects supervisor, Chas Jarrett; visual effects, Double Negative, Framestore, Prologue Films; special effects supervisor, Mark Holt; stunt coordinators, Franklin Henson, Frank Ferrara; fight coordinator, Richard R. Ryan; associate producers, Lauren Meek, Peter Eskelsen; assistant director, Max Keene; second unit director, Paul Jennings; second unit camera, Alan Stewart; casting, Reg Poerscout-Edgerton. Reviewed at Warner Bros. Studios, Burbank, Dec. 3, 2009. MPAA Rating: MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 128 MIN.
 

Read the full article at:
http://www.variety.com/story.asp?l=story&r=VE1117941784&c=31

[Groggy]

I'm still vacillating over this one. It looks like it could be goofy fun or it could really sucks. The trailer has a real Pirates of the Caribbean vibe to me, which could be good or bad. I have only the scantiest knowledge of the original Holmes so any criticisms or reservations I have are not in any way related to fidelity to Doyle. (Not that there's much point in staying faithful to a guy who believed in fairies, but anyway...)

[dave jenkins]

http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content/id/71984/sherlock-holmes.html

[The Firecracker]

I'm much more interested in seeing this than Avatar.
Although, that isn't saying too much.

I'll get my chance in Georgia next week.
They have much cheaper theatres.

[dave jenkins]

A pan: http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/movies/far_from_holmes_Er3juyKWncJZhGCWAni4IO

[dave jenkins]

A rave (but with SPOILERS): http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jjmnolte/2009/12/26/review-star-chemistry-lifts-sherlock-holmes/#more-285214

Here's the essential bit:

The glue that holds the narrative together is not a somewhat convoluted –though smart in places – story, or the tense, suspicious romance between Holmes and Irene (has anyone ever created romantic sparks with McAdams?), but rather the detective’s affectionate friendship with Watson. Contrary to the rumor, there’s no gay subtext at work here. The dynamic between the two adventurers is similar to Hope and Crosby‘s “Road” films not a mountain named Brokeback. Holmes knows he’d be lost and lonely without his old friend to guide him, and though he doesn’t know it, Watson would be terribly bored were he to go through with his plans to marry and stake out a life as a run-of-the mill physician.

That’s not to say the film doesn’t employ other charms. There are a couple of terrific actions sequences, one involving a shipyard and the other a slow-motion explosion, and the washed out cinematography does a lot to hide the CGI’d cityscapes and create the perfect wet and foggy atmosphere for such a dark story.  But the real plus is Ritchie’s success where it truly counted and that’s the genuine star chemistry between Holmes and Watson. Much can be forgiven if a film’s central relationship works, and as was the case with “Iron Man,” the blockbuster that made Downey Jr. the superstar comeback story of the decade, it’s hard to imagine how much lesser “Holmes” would be without him.

Fun, frivolous, and bearing no agenda other than pure holiday escapism, Guy Ritchie and Jude Law have officially earned a comeback, Downey Jr., has cemented his, and that promise of a sequel made just before the final fade sounds good to me.

[Groggy]

Saw this in theaters today. Allow me to waste your time.

Pretty much everyone's suspicions about Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes (2009) is confirmed: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's pipe-smoking, uncommonly-intuitive super-sleuth has been reimagined as a modern action hero in the mould of Batman, James Bond or Jack Sparrow, with the requisite gadgets, fight scenes, exorbitant special effects, tough gal love interest, and world domination plot to deal with. It's best to take the film on its own lightweight terms, rather than as a faithful adaptation of Doyle.

Eccentric but brilliant private eye Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.) and his sidekick Dr. Watson (Jude Law) track down the devious Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong), a nobleman whose interest in Satanism and the occult has turned to murder. Blackwood is hanged for murder, but it soon appears that Blackwood has somehow risen from the dead, leading his shadowy, Hellfire Club-style society in a plan using magic and sleight-of-hand to take over the world. Holmes, Watson, Scotland Yard Inspector Lestrade (Eddie Marsan) and devious conwoman Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams) must team up to put a stop to Blackwood's designs - which will result in the gassing of Parliament and, theoretically, ruling the world.

Sherlock Holmes has relatively few surprises to offer, however well-executed they are. The characters are straightforwardly colorful, and the plot fairly predictable (in generalities if not specifics), the humor semi-clever pseudo-wit so often employed in this genre. Still, the film is mostly engaging, even if it digresses overmuch in its exploration of Holmes' eccentricities (boxing, training flies with a violin, poisoning Watson's dog). Director Ritchie handles the film's action scenes well, particularly Holmes' lengthy shipyard confrontation with a hulking, French-speaking muscleman (Oran Gurel), with a prominent though not overbearing use of CGI. Hans Zimmer provides a wonderfully lively, period-invoking score, and the movie certainly looks like Victorian London, making it an effective enough bit of period escapism.

Robert Downey Jr. gives a predictably colorful, hammy performance, making Sherlock out to be Jack Sparrow, PI mixed with Hugh Laurie's House. It's a fun performance and certainly carries the film well-enough but it's nothing original - especially since Downey played a similar character in 2008's Iron Man. Jude Law is fine as Watson, but Rachel McAdams (Mean Girls) is a stiff and uninteresting love interest. Mark Strong has fun chewing scenery as Holmes's nemesis, and it's always nice to see James Fox (A Passage to India), even if he shows up just long enough to get knocked off.

If you take Sherlock Holmes as a fun popcorn film, it's enjoyable enough. Just don't expect any great sophistication, artistry or wit, and you should be fine.

http://nothingiswrittenfilm.blogspot.com/2009/12/sherlock-holmes.html

[Dust Devil]

Please, I don't have the time to go through reviews, in short terms: Sherlock or Schlock Homes?

[dave jenkins]

Schlock, of course. But in a fun way.

You were expecting art?

[Dust Devil]

Hardly, I wasn't even expecting the movie, but there's always that 0,001 chance it might be a masterpiece.

[The Firecracker]

The action set pieces are pretty boring. In fact, the bigger the set piece the more boring it is (the Boat and the CGI anchor). The slaughter house set piece is the most exciting bit. The banter between Law and Downey is very entertaining but it isn't very funny (I laughed once or twice).
The main problem with the film is you're never really given much of a mystery to follow.
The best bits of these detective movies and/or novels is you can try to solve what's going on along with the characters.
We aren't given that.
We just have Smirnoff Holmes swishing around a room and explaining to the audience, through flashback, how this or that happened and why this is that way and such...


A lot of IMDBer's are claiming this to be the closest adaption of Doyle's Holmes novels.
I don't know about all that but it's still A serviceable movie and nothing more, regardless of its accuracy.

6/10


EDIT: One of the reasons these action scenes suck is because of the fighting.
I guess Downey and Law couldn't be bothered with doing some fight choreography or, perhaps they did and it was so bad that the editor had to make do with what was given to him.

Because what's up on the screen is awful.
Jump cuts, fast camera movement... you just can't follow it.

[dave jenkins]

Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows (2011) - 7/10. Pretty much like the first one, but made a little more interesting this time with Moriarity as the villain (I also liked the Bonds best where the hero goes up against Blofeld). The Holmes-Watson love-hate buddy patter goes stale pretty quick, but there are compensations. Most memorably, the film's endgame where, during a chess match, Holmes and Moriarity attempt to outthink each other not only on the board, but in a projection of the death-struggle that both know must inevitably follow. Using the patented method Ritchie has employed in the first film and earlier in this one, Holmes talks his way through the action before actually doing what he's planned. This time, though, just as he's reaching a satisfactory conclusion, Moriarity interrupts with his own sequence of moves. Are they communicating telepathically? That doesn't have to be the case--they're just so much in each other's heads that they could be thinking the same thoughts simultaneously. The effect, though, produces something akin to what a sci-fi author might call psychic fuguing (one thinker thinking the same thoughts after those of another thinker, with "variations" (i.e. countermoves)), which I found pretty clever. I also appreciated the clever riffing on the Reichenbach Falls conclusion. The music is the usual Hans Zimmer barely-tolerable crap. The titles at the end are nice.

[titoli]

I've found finally the stomach to go through this piece of imbecility and it's a clear pity that the copyright on Conan Doyle's stories has expired since the 1980's, as the estate would undoubtedly have brought these people to court. Downey sucks as usual, all the more so playing a charcter named SH. The other actors are even worse. Half the time the action is imbued in semi-darkness which prevents seeing what is happening on the screen: a clear advantage in the case. Zimmer, as usual hommages ( though "steals" is an apter term) from Morricone (clearly the main theme is based on Cheyenne's theme). I give it 5\10 because of the ruse of having deductions illustrated one by one and then see their effects one after the other. But that is not even 60'' of a more than 2hours bore.