Let me start this by saying that I have willingly and enthusiastically watched this movie twice in the past two days. The people who know me are probably still overcome with shock at that statement; since even movies I enjoy and reccomend I usually can only “enjoy” once, so to see a movie twice in as many days is a grand anomoly for me.
Let’s also get this out of the way; it is an unapologetic action movie and frankly that’s fine. It represented itself as such, the action scenes were smart and imaginative. I was especially fond of when it showed Holmes planning his attacks in slow motion before the full speed melee. This actually isn’t too far from Sherlock Holmes “canon”, where he is mentioned specifically to be an expert in Barjitsu which was, and still is a legitimate martial art as well as Ju-Jitsu. The fact that they remembered that Dr. Watson was a decorated military man and used it also really worked in this version of the Holmes mythos.
The art direction I also found supurb, from the very realistic, gritty urban London of the 1800’s to notes that showed the set dressers actually read some Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, from the infamous “threadbare robe” to the organized mess of Holme’s chambers.
As far as the acting went I freely admit I’ll watch Robert Downey Jr. in almost anything, but he was a special delight in this role-though I do admit I noticed touches of his Chaplin performance scattered throughout the piece. Jude Law “rocked the stashe'” as a very capable and believable Watson. There were also no disappointments in the supporting cast as they all distinguished themselves well with the material.
Quite frankly, this was the most fun, most enjoyable movie that I’ve seen in years. In fact this is a film I actually intend to purchase eventually and I NEVER buy DVDs; that’s how much I liked it. It’s a good one, go put it on your NetFlix que or something and don’t take it too seriously.
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