Sherlock Holmes: AWESOME

[GAR]

Saw Sherlock Holmes with Jude Law and the other guy. Not my favorite actor but of course, very good.

In this role he plays Dr. Watson.. perfectly.

It's alot more like the paperbacks, unlike the serials with Basil Rathbone where you see the villain crouching around the corners during the pursuit the whole show and then he's caught, and the reveal comes down like "this is what occurred when you were at the lady's house, and how the knife was blue and because the sky is blue you did it - arrest him" kinda end-of-story assembly.

This is a great movie: people died, people got stabbed and shot, but not like gore-for-gores'-sake kinda thing (see my review of that shitty Avatar flick).

I'm not the one for gratuitous violence, and in this pic sure there's explosions and fighting and all that but it's sensible and I don't recall any fucking filthy language, so this pic gets high ratings on the GAR meter for date-freindly movies!

Okay, now for those naysayers who might think, Hey waitaminnit, I know the story from the Rathbone serials on TV, or we had to read some of that in school.. well, those flicks weren't in color for one. Two, this is more 19th century London than you really wished to know so it's period-heavy: great visuals done really well and with todays modern special effects, it blows DOORS off Avatar.

We go to movies to enjoy a story, not for tech-gaping at some BlueNAKED's fucking blue BUNGHOLES dancing around.. compared to Sherlock Holmes side-by-side, Avatar sucks I give it a 3 of 10.

[x] XLNT script, well-drawn out drama, appropriate character dialogues
[x] XLNT cast, not that this flick really needed hidollar name-recognition at this point (who's heard of Jude Law and the other guy, compared to Sherlock Holmes?)
[x] XLNT direction, either going back to work initiated Madonna kicking director Guy Ritchie out of the nest, or she give him the boot and now he's working again - who knows - but he did a really good job.

Maybe being the house-hubby of a lunatic gave him enough time to think up exactly how to set this thing up and move it thru the story, cuz it shows alot of thought and it's a killer flick. Go see!

8 of 10 IMO, not perfect but closer to the book than previously done.

[GAR]

Before I see shit replys about Robert Downey Jr., let me just say that there is some comedy, irony, and intellectual wry humor here that it takes a great straightman to make the gags work: and that's Jude Law's effort not Downey.

Downey plays the clown in real life. I've heard about enough of his exploits in real life - so what effort is it for him to play Sherlock?

The Sherlock in the book is an alcoholic, cocaine addict with an experience range in pharmaecuticals more in the David Lee Roth realm of things, as is the Robert Downey Jr. in the real-life realm. So in my mind when I heard he won the role of Holmes my initial thought was "gee, how poignant."

And then at the last minute, I let Lefty choose the movie and was surprised she chose this one!

I knew it had a chance to flop with Downey in it, but how really good Law is, would be to understate things. Jude Law makes it work.

Expect this pairing to be the next franchise to crop up, if Downey can stay off the dope. Can't wait for the next one and probably go see this one again myself..

[sadaist]

Before I see shit replys about Robert Downey Jr.

Not sure what you mean about that. I happen to really like Robert Downey Jr. I liked him in his early stuff of his career and I am very happy he has recently straightened his life out and gotten a huge career boost. Hopefully he is being wise with this career jump right now. It reminds me of a while back with Nick Cage...Con Air, The Rock, Face Off, etc... Have to capitalize while you are the hot item.

[Dan]

So Who Pays For The Tickets,You Or Your BoyFriend?

[Terry]

The whole biz looks like too much CGI (and, from the commercials, pretty bad-looking CGI) to induce me...plus the over-the-top tv commercial blitz has turned me off...plus Jude Law sucks...plus McAdams doesn't show her bush or boobs...

Downey has done a lot of good work, but he's also done a fair amount of work where he's been the best thing going in a film that otherwise was average-to-poor.

Pass.

[sadaist]

plus McAdams doesn't show her bush or boobs...


Pass.

Damn, that girl is one perfectly beautiful piece of art. I watched The Notebook 3 times just to gawk at her.

[Terry]

Damn, that girl is one perfectly beautiful piece of art. I watched The Notebook 3 times just to gawk at her.

She IS pretty fucking hot.

[GAR]

Without giving too much away they do end up fucking: but you figure out they just had at it before the scene, they don't show anything of the sort. So no nudity, no macking, no making-out or that sort of stuff.

A family-friendly flick.

Dan back on Ignore User: because you're rude and because you cuntribute NOTHING absolutely nothing, never ever.

[Kristy]

So Who Pays For The Tickets,You Or Your BoyFriend?

[GAR]

The whole biz looks like too much CGI

Pass.

This one's about the story, I tell you. There's not many scenes with CGI, but if you've seen the trailer with the slo-mo fisticuffs scene that's about the heaviest it gets.

[Hardrock69]

Dan back on Ignore User: because you're rude and because you cuntribute NOTHING absolutely nothing, never ever.

Hmmm....funny you should say that.

[Candy Girl]

Without giving too much away they do end up fucking: but you figure out they just had at it before the scene, they don't show anything of the sort. So no nudity, no macking, no making-out or that sort of stuff.

A family-friendly flick.

Dan back on Ignore User: because you're rude and because you cuntribute NOTHING absolutely nothing, never ever.

*cough, cough, cough* windowlicker

[Nickdfresh]

Not sure what you mean about that. I happen to really like Robert Downey Jr. I liked him in his early stuff of his career and I am very happy he has recently straightened his life out and gotten a huge career boost. Hopefully he is being wise with this career jump right now. It reminds me of a while back with Nick Cage...Con Air, The Rock, Face Off, etc... Have to capitalize while you are the hot item.

I've always thought Downey was a cut above other actors and I think was described perfectly as "the thinking man's actions hero" in a recent MSN review of the film. He's one of the few American actors entrusted to pull off a British accent while UK and Irish actors routinely do an American accent believably if not perfectly. While that sounds trite, I think the genuinely talented actors like Downey and Depp become separated from the pretty boy lite-weights with polish and sophistication whereas a lot of American male actors come off as buffoonish or stunted...

[Terry]

Damn, that girl is one perfectly beautiful piece of art. I watched The Notebook 3 times just to gawk at her.

Is The Notebook worth checking out on strictly a plot-level; is it a decent story/flick, or it is more or less only useful for shucking out a fresh batch while watching McAdams getting pooned?

[Terry]

Not sure what you mean about that. I happen to really like Robert Downey Jr. I liked him in his early stuff of his career and I am very happy he has recently straightened his life out and gotten a huge career boost. Hopefully he is being wise with this career jump right now. It reminds me of a while back with Nick Cage...Con Air, The Rock, Face Off, etc... Have to capitalize while you are the hot item.

Yeah, but in the case of Cage, it was kind of a shame that "capitalize" to him only went as far as going wherever the money was for a LOT of those post-Leaving Las Vegas films, regardless of content.

I mean, however much he got paid for that slab of shit Ghost Rider, it was both too much AND not enough, you know?

Matchstick Men was pretty darn good, though.

[Dan]

Dan back on Ignore User: because you're rude and because you cuntribute NOTHING absolutely nothing, never ever.

Cry Me A Fucking River,GAR.

[Seshmeister]

I've always thought Downey was a cut above other actors and I think was described perfectly as "the thinking man's actions hero" in a recent MSN review of the film.

I don't think so.

"Actions hero"?

[Nickdfresh]

Cry Me A Fucking River,GAR.

Just in case GAR misses this.

[Nickdfresh]

I don't think so.

"Actions hero"?

Hey, he's fucking busy! He's a multitasker...

[jhale667]

Dan back on Ignore User: because you're rude and because you cuntribute NOTHING absolutely nothing, never ever.

Ironically, you just described your entire post history.

[ZahZoo]

So Who Pays For The Tickets,You Or Your BoyFriend?

Neither... he craftily snuck in through a side door in the Google movie review link...

[chefcraig]

The whole biz looks like too much CGI (and, from the commercials, pretty bad-looking CGI) to induce me...plus the over-the-top tv commercial blitz has turned me off...
Pass.

Funny you should say that. When the ads for Holmes first started showing up a while back, I drew a parallel to The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen. I absolutely loved Alan Moore's comics, and immediately thought "Now how badly is this going to get fouled up?" Seeing the ads for this film brought a sense of deja vu. Definitely looks like a renter or barring that, a viewing on TNT next summer or fall.

[Golden AWe]

I'm really looking forward to this film. I did enjoy the british Jeremy Brett-starring "Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" the most, so far. Some action, lots of good drama and thinking, plus dark humour.

Robert Downey Jr.? My favorite appearance from him was on TROPIC THUNDER, that ended up to be a surprisingly smashing comedy thanks to his role as a stereotype black hero on a action film.

[Terry]

Funny you should say that. When the ads for Holmes first started showing up a while back, I drew a parallel to The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen. I absolutely loved Alan Moore's comics, and immediately thought "Now how badly is this going to get fouled up?" Seeing the ads for this film brought a sense of deja vu. Definitely looks like a renter or barring that, a viewing on TNT next summer or fall.

Agree 100%.

[Seshmeister]

I'm really looking forward to this film. I did enjoy the british Jeremy Brett-starring "Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" the most, so far. Some action, lots of good drama and thinking, plus dark humour.

Yeah the Brett ones are flawless and brilliant.

There hasn't been any need to do more Holmes since these were made in the 1990s. Since there is no way to do the original stories better I think they are going for novelty stuff in this film instead.

[chefcraig]

I'm really looking forward to this film. I did enjoy the british Jeremy Brett-starring "Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" the most, so far. Some action, lots of good drama and thinking, plus dark humour.

Yeah the Brett ones are flawless and brilliant.

There hasn't been any need to do more Holmes since these were made in the 1990s. Since there is no way to do the original stories better I think they are going for novelty stuff in this film instead.

Early in the 1980's, I purchased two collections of the Conan Doyle series, one in a hardbound, two volume set called The Annotated Sherlock Holmes, the second as a set of paperbacks. Having devoured this material, when a few years later PBS initially broadcasting the Brett series here in the United States, I dutifully taped each episode on VHS. I wholeheartedly agree that this was the best interpretation ever of the Holmes series. As of the past 18 months, the series has been rerun here locally on Thursday and Sunday evenings.

I am in compliance with the idea that a radically new version of the stories was the only way to go, yet am also dismayed that this may have included modernizing the characters into glib action heroes. "Sherlock Holmes, the macho, bare-knuckled brawler"? Surely a direction other than Clint Eastwood's Every Which Way But Loose could have worked. What's next, an orangutan?

The thing is, certain liberties have been taken with the character, removing some flaws while instilling new ones. For some of us purists in the crowd, it would seem that exploring the original (and untapped) conflicts of the character would have been the way to go, without need of introducing new ones.

[jhale667]

"Sherlock Holmes, the macho, bare-knuckled brawler"? Surely a direction other than Clint Eastwood's Every Which Way But Loose could have worked. What's next, an orangutan?

"I say, Clyde ol' chap - right turn, if you please...."'

[Seshmeister]

"Sherlock Holmes, the macho, bare-knuckled brawler"? Surely a direction other than Clint Eastwood's Every Which Way But Loose could have worked. What's next, an orangutan?

With Guy Ritchie directing that's very likely.

To be fair its been getting decent reviews and Downey usually lifts stuff a bit.

I never really pictured Holmes as a 5 foot tall American with a 6 pack though...

[Guitar Shark]

I am in compliance with the idea that a radically new version of the stories was the only way to go, yet am also dismayed that this may have included modernizing the characters into glib action heroes. "Sherlock Holmes, the macho, bare-knuckled brawler"? Surely a direction other than Clint Eastwood's Every Which Way But Loose could have worked. What's next, an orangutan?

Craig, you have a way with words, my man.

[Hardrock69]

I agree.

I grew up watching the Basil Rathbone versions. Strangely enough, the fact those were in black and white and made in the 30s-40s, when they were only 50 years removed from the period depicted (1880s or so), made them seem more "authentic" to me.

That said, one thing I love about the state of the picture industry today is that the film makers are no longer limited by technology. ANYTHING at all that can be imagined can be done via CGI.

The one thing I really like about that is that one can recreate authentic looking cityscapes and backgrounds depicting historical eras and locations that previously could not so easily be done. Certainly when a cast of thousands is required. Now, instead of having to hire 4,000 extras, you can hire 40 and make them look like 4,000.

A good example of the cityscape notion is the Peter Jackson remake of King Kong.
It was meant to be a tribute to the original by setting it partly in 1930 Manhattan.
So you see what New York City looked like in 1930 in full color....in a truly realistic fashion.

So I am looking forward to seeing this latest version of Sherlock Holmes not so much for any sort of "action movie" crap.....but more to see how they have depicted 19th-century London. And I am also of the opinion that Robert Downey Jr. is a superior actor, on the same level as Johnny Depp. He is of a high enough caliber he can pick and choose the roles he plays and does not appear to be the sort of cash-grab actor Nick Cage is. I mean christ, Nick Cage seems to appear in any kind of film these days where they throw a pile of money at him. I dug National Treasure, but the second one was not as good, and God help them if they do a third one.

Sorta like the Indiana Jones stuff. What in the hell can you do to top a story where you are dealing with a box that supposedly contains God?

Or in National Treasure, it is the search for the greatest treasure of all time....so what the fuck can they do to top that in sequels? Nothing.

I will go to see Sherlock Holmes later this week.

[sonrisa salvaje]

I grew up watching the Basil Rathbone versions. Strangely enough, the fact those were in black and white and made in the 30s-40s, when they were only 50 years removed from the period depicted (1880s or so), made them seem more "authentic" to me.

Same here. I should know better than to check the menu around midnight because i am going to get pulled into one of these. I love'em to death.