Sherlock Holmes

[Banh Mi]

Saw this one today. It's a pretty good movie, but that depends on what you expect walking in. House M.D was based on the original stories of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. About a brilliant yet highly eccentric detective who solves cases by deduction. Not having many friends, his stories are chronicled by his faithful friend the good Doctor John Watson.

In this movie, Sherlock Holmes is like a mix between House M.D. and Die Hard or any action movie with a team of 2. Alot of emphasis is put into the alluded to martial prowess of Holmes in the book. Boxing, Baritsu, stick fighting, that's almost all Holmes does.
Watson on the other hand isn't the passive observer and scope through which the audience follows Holmes. No, Watson is an *** kicking hero in his own right.
It's also interesting to see into the mind of Holmes and how he thinks and makes his deductions.

The action is entertaining to watch, the fight choreography is done right, no crazy camera angles and unrealistic wire fu. Alot more action than you would expect from the deductive thinker Sherlock Holmes.

The mystery and story is also fun, but hard to follow sometimes, sometimes you see a series of events happen but you don't really know the significance of it, nor does the film tie them together very well but it's not a big deal.

Overall, I enjoyed this movie, it's not epic great, but it's a fun 2 hours.
Has anyone else seen it? What are your thoughts?

Here's what I thought about the characters, but this probably won't interest people who don't follow the Sherlock Holmes stories.

click to show/hide spoilers

This movie doesn't really emphasize the thinking capacity of Holmes, sure he makes some fast calculations. But you notice more the action, then the clues he gathers and weaves together to create a solution. It's an adventure story more than a detective case, you see some rather impossible things, then it's explained at the end. Not the standard find the murderer and how he did it type crime that Holmes is famous for.

Instead, they accentuate his eccentricities when he's not opening whole sale whoop ***.

They're also alot more violent, or find much more occasion for it. In the stories, Holmes rarely gets into scuffles that he ends up telling about the skills he has more than demonstrates it.

If anything, this is like the Inverse Sherlock Holmes. While Holmes in the book is big on gathering clues and solving mysteries, relatively low on eccentricity and low on violence.
Movie Sherlock Holmes is high on violence, high on eccentricity and low on mystery solving.

[Lady Zhuge]

I saw the preview for this movie awhile ago and have been looking forward to seeing it. Considering Robert Downey Jr. is cast as Holmes and Jude Law is Watson, I'm definitely not expecting your run-of-the-mill Sherlock tale. Will check it out soon, possibly this weekend.

[remember_Cedric]

Darn! I was late and missed quite a big chunk of the movie. However, from where I started off, I was quite satisfied with the movie. The explosive actions seem rather exaggerating though. Shouldn't what happened in there should have killed Watson?

RDJ and Jude Law come together with above average chemistry.

[MrIllusion]

click to show/hide spoilers

I particularly liked the scene of Holmes in the fighting match, where he ran through all the moves in his head that he felt would definitely take his opponent down.

Although I would have preferred if he didnt actually go on to beat his opponent to a bloody pulp. I thought it would be more fitting if he knew he could defeat his opponent, but not actually act out on his impulses.

[limeic]

I agree with you, MrIllusion. Well, let's just say that...

click to show/hide spoilers

the pretty lady has a bewildering effect on Holmes.

[The Khan]

The sherlock holmes written by arthur conan doyle was a very good fist fighter

[pemberly]

The sherlock holmes written by arthur conan doyle was a very good fist fighter

yeah, boxing, but i doubt he wrote that sherlock holmes is skilled in martial arts.

[xJadedx]

The movie was entertaining. RDJ and Jude Law were quite good, maybe not portraying the characters as the original, but their own takes on the characters were quite nice. The story was a bit predictable though.

[johnmartin]

It is the fantastic Movie.One for this modern age of non-thinking action-packed blockbuster movies.I liked it very much!
Movie reviews