Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes as Superman? No, Virginia, this is not your grandmother's Basil Rathbone.

I was quite willing to see a reimagination of the part, but some may not be. But Robert Downey Jr always leaves you wanting more. And, surprise, he and Jude Law bring a pleasant wittiness to their roles, respectively, as Holmes and Watson. But there's a new thing that's been added: their relationship seems to be the only true love affair in their lives. Oh, sure, there are attractive women about, but their eyes are only for each other. And it works.

It would be easy to blame director Guy Ritchie for all that went wrong with this version of Sherlock Holmes. The sound mixer, for instance, created a situation where we miss about one-fourth of the repartee, due to their mumbling or an abundance of volume for the background music. The music itself is strange, often strangely inappropriate to the time. The screenplay is a mish-mosh of crazy ideas thrown together -- there's a plot hidden in there, but various scenes, and there are many of them, do not forward the plot and seem to only be there to add a sense of play to the proceedings.

I can't recommend this movie to anyone who likes to see a logical progression of the story. But if you want to see male bonding, this is the movie for you. It wasn't for me.

Thumbs down.