Review of Sherlock Jr. (1924) by Daniel K — 08 Dec 2010

4: This is officially the oldest film I own on Blu-Ray, apart from Three Ages, which shares the disc space. It looks pretty impressive whether one considers the release date or not. What is so incredible is the sheer brilliance of the picture though.

It defies reasoning to think that a "chase" scene filmed in 1923/4 could trump the best efforts from modern times. Whether one is talking The French Connection, Vanishing Point, the Bourne films, The Matrix trilogy, T2, T3, the Indiana Jones pictures, the Bond films, etc, I'd say none are as entertaining and amazing as this.

Buster Keaton actually did this! To see it is to believe it I guess, but I suspect it will remain incredible to my dying day. I'm not even sure it's his best. As good as Bogdanovich's homage is in What's Up Doc, it is no Sherlock Jr.

This film finally pushed me over the edge and resulted in the purchase of a digital audio recorder. I frequently author reviews in my head as I'm falling asleep, but rarely remember them with accuracy when I sit down at some later date to write the review.

No longer. I can now simply turn over, grab the recorder, and transcribe my ruminations on that later date. There isn't really a whole lot to the story, but there doesn't halve to be. Keaton even has a banana peel gag here.

I won't attempt to describe the films brilliance though; one simply has to see it to understand it.