A trainwreck. Movie about buffoonery, not Sherlock Holmes. Should have called it buffoonic Captain Britannica

Rating: 4/10 (14 December 2011)

There is an uneasy vibe one gets from the trailer of the new Sherlock Holmes movie, a vibe that the movie might suck and dear god does it suck and suck hard. Where do I start? The awful grating British accent of Downey which falls apart in that sped up, manic tone that Sherlock Holmes has throughout the movie or the super-hero Sherlock Holmes that can do the entire Jackie Chan routine in his head or that the entire plot is dumb as a rock, especially for a movie with the words Sherlock Holmes in its title.
The movie does feel high budget. There are expensive looking shots and special effects that litter the movie as the Europe-trotting duo go on their adventure. However, the main theme of the movie is costumed buffoonery - Holmes disguises himself as a woman (for some weak plot points), Watson has a bachelor party, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson squabble like an old couple while we get bombarded with a bevy of unlikable buffoons like Holmes' brother and a squawky Prof Moriatry. All of this buffoonery going on in a paper thin plot, a plot that feels like its been lifted from Captain America; Germans and weapons. Captain American Britannica would be a more accurate title than Sherlock Holmes.
There are bombings because it seems like they had a budget for a bomb exploding and wanted some costumed bomb explosions. The plot doesn't tell a story but more like puts all the set-pieces into a time line. This is a movie to avoid unless you can forget all the annoying problems with movie and go watch it for the explosions.