The Case Of The Curate's Egg

Rating: 7/10 (15 January 2012)

I really wanted to like this, as I loved the previous Mitchell offering.But this one was let down by scores of anachronistic props and modern dialogue which grated on the nerves. The M1906 Mauser pistol and the 1912 Vickers Machine gun were bad enough but when Watson started firing what appeared to be a World War 2 Owen sub machine gun things got really stupid.This was all after the date being boldly stated as 1891 in the first scene. We also had not one, but two, Checkov's guns. i.e. a device is introduced early on that we just know will be used in a later scene. Like the obvious man trap in Straw Dogs that was just obviously going to have someone in it by the last reel. Here it was the magic Dungeons and Dragon's style healing serum, and the ridiculous cyberpunk/ Thunderball style micro breathing apparatus. Two get out of death free cards for our hero that were total pants.
Despite all this there were magic moments of acting and direction, but I was just too appalled by the under use of Irene Adler and the pointless intrusion of Naomi Rapace together with too much Band of Brothers style gunfire which made it all look like the Battle of the Bulge in several scenes.