Review of Sherlock Holmes (2009) by James W — 24 Dec 2013

The story didn't fully grip me as it never reaches any exciting heights, despite a few twists along the way, but Sherlock Holmes is still an undeniably fun adventure largely bolstered down by the talents of Jude Law, Robert Downey Jr, Kelly Reilly and Rachel McAdams.

The famous character in more washed out and down on his luck in this movie, best of all seen when Watson opens the curtains and essentially blinds Sherlock, as if he were a vampire. The characters are interesting each with their own quirks, I really liked Watson played by Jude Law who gets easily irritated by Sherlock's erratic behaviour, and Rachel McAdams looks the part and plays it very well with some feistiness thrown in.

Of course Robert Downey Jr is brilliant, the accent, the little gestures and the slight mad look in his eyes all come together for a breezy and solid interpretation of this famous detective. Mark Strong however, frankly sucks.

His line delivery is poor, coming across totally comical and all the seriousness is swept away, he actually does nothing apart from stand on plinths shouting words of wisdom and threat, this is Strong's worst performance and one I'd like to forget.

Guy Ritchie's style is a mixed bag, the slow motion action scenes look spectacular, the fights are bone crunching and the dockside explosion sequence is jaw dropping, but it feels like he can't settle on a tone as it jumps from light hearted fun to sometimes dark and sinister tones, but at least that doesn't completely ruin what is a fun little adventure with excellent CG landscapes and a top cast.