Not Your Mother's Sherlock Holmes

Rating: Null/10 (4 January 2010)

Sherlock Holmes as imagined by Guy Ritchie, is not the Sherlock Holmes of Basil Rathbone or Jeremy Brett. Downey brings a certain punkiness to the role which somehow I had never imagined Holmes to be capable of. Yes I know he was a morphine smoking junkie, but dash it sir, he was a classy one! I'm not saying I didn't enjoy the movie, but it was all just a little frenetic for someone brought up on a more cerebral imagining of the great crime solver. Some of the geography left a little to be desired too. I mean they go into the sewers beneath the Houses of Parliament and pop up in no time at all, next to a half built Tower Bridge.several miles away to the east along the Thames. Hmmmm.. curious my dear fellow.
The story involves some confection of Hellfire Club type sacrifices of young women, dastardly noblemen and a plot to take over the British Empire. Or something. It's really not that important. The costumes are pretty, the acting smart and the movie is entertaining, in a Friday Night Fluff kind of way – in fact it's probably the best Friday Night Fluff I've seen in a year. Rachel McAdams is a beautiful Irene Adler and Jude Law is excellent at bringing some pith to Watson. It's a chance for any number of British character actors to pop up and earn a few bob, including James Fox, Geraldine James and the quite wonderful Eddie Marsan as poor old leaden footed Inspector Lestrade (Marsan was last seen as the vitriolic driving instructor in Happy Go Lucky.)
No, what annoyed me just a little was some of the rather cartoonish CGI. There were just too many places where it was obvious we were looking at a computer image, which in this day and age I find really inexcusable. And some of the studio scenes which were supposed to be outside were very badly lit, making it quite obvious that the action was taking place indoors. Perhaps I'm being a little pedantic, but if you are going to use CGI instead of real locations or studio sets, make it seamless, and if you are using studio sets get the lighting right. Thanks!