Sherlock Holmes

Before Sherlock Holmes, I was treated to a preview of the latest Kevin Smith opus "Cop Out". A spoof of buddy cop films, that will no doubt end up instead of a film to mock the formula, show why we shouldn't follow the formula so closely. Almost immediately after, I see Holmes and Watson, together, stopping some sort of demonic ritual. Complete with a deduction that might as well be a one liner, I thought to myself "How about, instead of making spoofs, we go back to actual buddy cop films?"

That's what Holmes is. It's a buddy cop film. It's the story of a unconventional, aloof, brilliant man, and the straightlaced smart-yet-still-average partner. Like Mel Gibson and Danny Glover, Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law have excellent chemistry.

Downey and Rachel McAdams, who plays love interest Irene Adler, not so much. Perhaps a better actress or a more well defined character might be a bit more interesting. She is a perky Femme Fatale who too easily becomes a sad, lovestruck tragic figure. Imagine that character, but played without any sort of real range of emotion. Luckily, her scenes are limited.

Holmes and Watson have just solved their last case together, and Watson is anxious to be free of Holmes and live an average to normal life. Holmes, anti social, arrogant, and overall unlikable to many spends much of the movie trying to find ways to bring his friend back. Meanwhile, Watson keeps finding himself excuses to join Holmes as a former Villain, Lord Blackwood, seems to have risen from the grave.

After a first act that sort of lingers on for way too long, our heroes fight and think their way through a series of brawls, secret passages, deductions, and deathtraps that could have only come out of republic serials. As much as an ode to the classic adventure film as "Indiana Jones" (but without the quality, unfortunately), it's a fun little film. With enough of that Classic Sherlock Holmes style to, if not please, satisfy the purists.


*** out of ****