didn't like it

Rating: 4/10 (18 October 2012)

Director Guy Ritchie tries to give a new avtar to Sherlock Holmes as befitting the modern era---and totally fails !!
No , the time Sherlock Holmes lives in is still the 1890s , but his personality is tried to be changed by the director .
Instead of the cool Sherlock Holmes who seemed to be unruffled by any situation and lived a life of calm detachment , we get to see a comedian who is not averse to disguise himself in women's clothes with lipstick and mascara and all---oh i forgot....the situation demanded it..... But why does the director have to invent such a situation at all ??
And when the time comes to deal with the villains , this Sherlock Holmes transforms into a action machine that would put a Rambo to shame..... He does somersaults and what not---and the cameraman adds special effects straight from the matrix movie to enhance the action .
In fact , all tricks in the book are used to try to make the movie work- --in fact , too many tricks , and what we get too see is a movie where too many things happen too fast . Indeed , the pace of the movie is breathless .
But the movie has no seriousness and mocks itself as it moves along , with the caricature of Holmes behaving in a silly manner trying to crack stupid jokes .
Only the villain , Holmes' old enemy Professor James Moriarty is dead serious in his acting , and also in his aims . And he aims to start a world war by creating an incident which would put France and Germany at loggerheads with each other . He hopes to reap enormous profits by selling weapons and ammunition to both sides in the conflict .
But Holmes , the ever prescient detective , smells the scent of his plan and decides to stop him .
But before all that Moriarty tries to kill Holmes friend Watson on his honeymoon ---something that Holmes prevents by singlehandedly fighting the horde of assassins in an superactionpacked sequence. Shades of Arnold Shwarzneggar in Commando ?? Or Sylvestor Stallone in Rambo ?? Naah..... In fact the action is all second rate , and unconvincing .
So does Holmes manage to stop a world war from happening ??
Don't bother to watch the movie for that..... It isn't worth it .
Go and read about world war one and world war two instead . Yeah , those wars did happen anyway . I guess Holmes was either too old or dead by that time and couldn't prevent them.....
Verdict---not good.