Brilliant Crime thriller in victorian London

Rating: 9/10 (4 January 2010)

What a wonderful movie! How this doesn't win something in the Oscars will be beyond me. Last week I saw Invictus and raved about it but this is marginally better in all quarters and I hedge a bet on Robert Downey for best actors over Morgan Freeman or Gerard Butler (Law Abiding Citizen). Tremendous entertainment which had the whole audience at the cinema laughing and crying with every moment right to the end. Robert Downey did indeed act Holmes to perfection by his own interpretation if not by the Holmes we might have expected from the Conan Doyle novel. Watched it with my 11 year old son who didn't flinch at the scenes when Holmes was displaying his fighting skills but he plays PS2 most days so he has seen it all, got the teeshirt! Great great simple dialogue between Holmes and Watson but I didn't appreciate even just two American actors noticeably appearing in the movie and allowing their presence. the first was the politician guy who died with the gun in his hand and the second was the woman (Mary) giving Holmes grief at the end. Amazing reconstructed scenes of victorian London, even great thought in detail to the street scenes, wow, great stuff! Definitely a movie to watch again on DVD because there is so much to absorb and wonder about the movie. Powerful entertainment! Jude Law for me was highly disguised as Watson and acted well though Downey excelled from his good support in 'Soloist' to surely claim an Oscar for best actor. Is this another British movie getting Oscar credit?