poorly done, but a few saving graces

Rating: 3/10 (2 July 2010)

Sherlock Holmes is well known enough. What is important in Sherlock mysteries is "atmosphere". We need to get a feel of the times he lived in, and of the London fog.
This film captures some of the feel, but not nearly as well as the old Basil Rathbone films. They weren't perfect, but they were more entertaining than this.
This film does give us a better "Watson", however. He was never meant to be the simpleton. Here, he is a man of deeds, as he was intended to be.
The failure of this film is in Downey. He gives us the worst impression of Holmes imaginable. He is not convincing, and you cannot understand a single word this hack says. The fact that the other actors are somewhat coherent with their British dialects (which is a mistake to use dialects too British) makes Downey's miserable performance a caricature of Ineptitude.
The characters and events are a million times more predictable and cliché than the old Basil films as well. A few characters work, the giant and the bad girl are fairly well designed. Other than that, ho hum.
We have no idea what is going on, or where these places they go to are. It is all just a muddle. Poorly written or poorly directed, it doesn't matter. The end result is the fault of the director.
Just not much going for this ordeal. A failure, any way you look at it.