Hopefully not a Sherlock Holmes benchmark.

Rating: 5/10 (7 January 2011)

This almost manic Guy Ritchie interpretation of Sherlock Holmes was not for me. It had tiny glimpses of what the Holmes Watson double act are about. The fact that these two actors tried to gel on screen was as good as it got. Very occasionally the humour was good and there were even traces of the books on this screen version. I noticed Holmes firing the gun which left holes in the wall was, in fact, shown in ITV series 'The Naval Treaty' – so authenticity! Yet most of the time the action packed almost slapstick style way Holmes leaps about all over the place (yes I know he gets about quickly but not this quickly) plus the constant fight scenes; together with gun toting as in American westerns, and Jude Law's mate-y 'street' voice for Dr Watson put me off. Trouble is I have grown older used to the slower finesse, charm and sophistication of previous versions of Sherlock Holmes – especially the ITV Jeremy Brett version. I have them all as CDs. In my opinion the ITV series is the benchmark others have to follow. Sherlock Holmes is not supposed to be filmed with the same aggression of The Terminator or The Matrix Maybe. At least this Sherlock Holmes 1, 2, 3, 4 series will appeal to those kids used to fighting it out on computers. I just hope it does not become a modern benchmark for Sherlock Holmes films.