![]() Sporting a stubble and unkempt hair, Downey brings plenty of physicality and his trademark devil-may-care charm to the role, well-matched by Law who, for once, resists the temptation to prance and preen. She asks the sleuth to track down a missing person who soon turns up dead, and her intentions remain opaque for much of the movie. Rachel McAdams plays Irene Adler, a master criminal and old flame of Holmes, who twice bested him in previous encounters. A Satanic serial killer and leading light of a cult bent on world domination, Blackwood is hanged and Watson certifies he’s dead, but the man rises from the grave to wreak havoc on dank, dirty 19th Century London, in cahoots with people in high places. ![]() Smith and the dreadful Jumper) – follows Holmes and Watson as they investigate the curious case of Lord Blackwood (a menacing Mark Strong). The convoluted plot by three screenwriters- newcomer Michael Robert Johnson, Anthony Peckham (Invictus) and Simon Kinberg (Mr. And the drawn-out climax relies too much on blatantly obvious CGI effects, lessening its impact. There is a weak sub-plot in the relationship between Jude Law’s Watson and his fiancee (a colourless Kelly Reilly), which is threatened by Holmes’ clumsy intervention the bromance between Watson and Holmes is far more compelling. The result is an appealing mixture of stylized violence involving an array of exotic weaponry, droll humour – chiefly emanating from the lively banter between Holmes and Watson – and suspense. Instead we get a re-invented Holmes who uses both brawn and brain to outwit and outmuscle numerous adversaries. To them, it matters not that Ritchie and his writing team have jettisoned almost all the mannerisms and trappings of the Edwardian crime-solver indeed, just about the only similarities between the two personas are that they are extremely intelligent, puff on pipes, and are assisted in their endeavors by a doctor named Watson. ![]() * * * * (4 STARS): Sherlock Holmes as a dishevelled, karate-chopping, kick-ass action hero and manic depressive? Devotees of the iconic detective created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle may well blanch at the idea, and Basil Rathbone, who played the dapper sleuth 14 times in the 1940s, might be spinning in his grave.īut today’s audiences, many of whom would have little or no sense of that history, are highly likely to embrace Robert Downey Jr’s brash new interpretation of the character in Guy Ritchie’s smart, stylish comedy-thriller. ![]()
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