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.
I disagree with this review now that I rewatched the movie on a big screen. The main problem lies, of course, with having names given to characters having little to do with their models. Had they given other names to them the movie could be more acceptable as the action scenes are good (oddly the late Firecracker didn't appreciate the ship scenes). As a SH movie this is not even worth the rating I gave at the time, but as entertainment it gets as much as I gave recently to the follow-up: 7/10
