1182 replies to this topic

[Tybre]

Just got back from seeing it.

I made a deliberate effort to ignore my die-hard Holmes fandom (otherwise it would be receiving an incredibly poor grade indeed) and I must say I still didn't care for it. Oh, sure, it had all the makings of a good film, but I still didn't like it all that much. The plot was mediocre, first and foremost. Second, have to say I don't much care for RDJ as Holmes. Sure, he does a good job with it and there's no denying the man is a good actor, but I just don't much like him in the role of Holmes. But my biggest issue with the film is: I was bored. For very large swathes of the film I was bored. And even when I wasn't bored I was just barely past being bored. There is a major problem with your film if the only times I'm not yawning (and I literally did yawn; I lost count after the seventh) or sighing my immense boredom through my nose are when Holmes discovers the cattle prod thing and the two moments of Watson bickering with the boatman. There are other problems I have with it, even ignoring my Holmes fandom, but those are the big three for me.

from me. Regardless of how I try to view it.

[Jackanaples]

Saw the movie a couple days ago and plan on seeing it again tomorrow.

I enjoyed the movie. Many changes made between the script I read and the finished film; all for the better. Liked the disguises, and Ritchie's way of showing how Holmes's mind works through a problem. Took particular pleasure in watching Holmes dispense with the supposed supernatural powers of Lord Blackwood.

Downey Jr.'s Holmes plays up bohemian aspects of the character and I liked that. His Holmes definitely needs his Watson, to interact with the normal world if nothing else. Law made a dynamic Watson as well. All in all very nice to see the pair not played as old men for a change.

It hurts me to say this but I might have cast another actress as Irene Adler instead of Rachel McAdams. McAdams is generally one of my favorite actresses on this side of the pond but she seems a bit slight here in comparison to RDJ's Holmes. Would Michelle Monaghan have been a better fit maybe? I don't know.

As for alcohol replacing cocaine, I disagree. When Watson sees Holmes in 221B, he's in the middle of one of his depressions and hasn't left his rooms in two weeks. It's clear at that point he's also been using something in the time. It's never mentioned what it was, but it's definitely not alcohol.

That evening, Mary asks Holmes what he can discern about her. He notices and says far too much to be polite, and embarrasses her. She and Watson leave, and Holmes fights in the bareknuckled boxing match. It's only after the fight when Holmes leaves the ring that we see him drink. I interpreted this (and to a certain extent the boxing match itself) as Holmes attempting to turn off his mind for a bit.

That's the way I saw it, though perhaps I missed something. There's always tomorrow's screening.

And now, to watch the fabled Russian Sherlock Holmes...

[Tybre]

Saw it again with friends earlier today. It's odd. I like it. I mean it's not great, but I do like it, but at the same time I'm still bored for such large swathes of the film that I pretty much don't like it. So...mixed I guess? I really do like what's there, but then at the same time what's there doesn't engage me terribly much when I watch it. I dunno. Was better the second time round, though, I will give it that since my brain can't seem to make a decision about anything else. And now I'm off to go watch me either some Granada or some Lenfilm, I think.

[zencat]

I'm laid up with a cold (one last kick in the from 2009) so I'm in bed watching the Granada series. MAN, I love this series and Brett!

[Tybre]

I'm laid up with a cold (one last kick in the from 2009) so I'm in bed watching the Granada series. MAN, I love this series and Brett!

Haha, exactly what I did when I was homebound for a week with a cold (hopefully you don't have that, though, that was a very nasty one and at one point even the doctor thought it may have been bronchitis). Have to say when it comes to Granada, Burke > Hardwicke for me. Brett is great though.

[Revelator]

Well Holmes does get into a brawl in The Priory School and pretty much takes the guy out Downey-style. And let's not forgot who won the fight at Reichenbach.

Yes, against that noted martial artist Profesor Moriarty. Perhaps if the Prof shows up the sequel he'll be practicing Krav Maga. And there are no brawls in The Priory School. You're probably thinking of The Solitary Cyclist, and of this specific passage, spoken by Homes to Watson about a truculent suspect:

He ended a string of abuse by a vicious back-hander which I failed to entirely avoid. The next few minutes were delicious. It was a straight left against a slogging ruffian. I emerged as you see me. Mr. Woodley went home in a cart.

Calling this "Downey-style" is a stretch, especially since when the story was filmed by Granada Jeremy Brett was able to perfectly capture its spirit with a flurry of old-fashioned fisticuffs. And a Downey-style fighter would have presumably been able to avoid getting trounced in The Illustrious Client.

Don't know why people are saying this boxing thing in Sherlock is a Hollywood invention. It's absolutely rooted in Doyle, as are Holmes's judo skills.

It's also the least essential element of the stories and one of the aspects that least interested Doyle, who was a boxing fanatic and even wrote a novel on the subject, and yet never bothered writing a real scene of Holmes in a boxing match, or of any scenes centered around Holmes' martial arts skills--all the supposed examples one could point to are quickly narrated second-hand and taken out of the way of the story. And those who point to space constraints overlook the fact in all four of the Holmes novels there are no real combat scenes either. They would have been beside the point. The entire point of Holmes is that he doesn't triumph because he's a good fighter or a brilliant one but because he's brilliant at induction and deduction. Doyle occasionally gives us hints of Holmes's strength and prowess at boxing and martial arts, to show us that though he mostly uses his brain Sherlock is no wuss. But the stories and Doyle are comparatively uninterested in hand-to-hand combat and physical badassery, and emphasizing the physical side of Holmes is rather like emphasizing the scholastic side of James Bond.

Edited by Revelator, 31 December 2009 - 04:12 AM.

[Tybre]

It's also the least essential element of the stories and one of the aspects that least interested Doyle, who was a boxing fanatic and even wrote a novel on the subject, and yet never bothered writing a real scene of Holmes in a boxing match, or of any scenes centered around Holmes' martial arts skills--all the supposed examples one could point to are quickly narrated second-hand and taken out of the way of the story. And those who point to space constraints overlook the fact in all four of the Holmes novels there are no real combat scenes either. They would have been beside the point. The entire point of Holmes is that he doesn't triumph because he's a good fighter or a brilliant one but because he's brilliant at induction and deduction. Doyle occasionally gives us hints of Holmes's strength and prowess at boxing and martial arts, to show us that though he mostly uses his brain Sherlock is no wuss. But the stories and Doyle are comparatively uninterested in hand-to-hand combat and physical badassery, and emphasizing the physical side of Holmes is rather like emphasizing the scholastic side of James Bond.

While I agree whole-heartedly, overlooking the fighting aspect would also be a mistake. Holmes got into his fair share of scuffles. Sometimes just a quick tackle, sometimes a proper fight. And sometimes, well,

In an instant he had whisked out a revolver from his breast and fired two shots. I felt a sudden hot sear as if a red-hot iron had been pressed to my thigh. There was a crash as Holmes' pistol came down on the man's head. I had a vision of him sprawling upon the floor with blood running down his face while Holmes rummaged him for weapons.

As always very brief, but certainly one of the more detailed accounts of violence in Holmes. And, continuing square from where that leaves off,

Then my friend's wiry arms were round me, and he was leading me to a chair.

"You're not hurt, Watson? For God's sake, say that you are not hurt!"

It was worth a wound -- it was worth many wounds -- to know the depth of loyalty and love which lay behind that cold mask. The clear, hard eyes were dimmed for a moment, and the firm lips were shaking. For the one and only time I caught a glimpse of a great heart as well as of a great brain. All my years of humble but single-minded service culminated in that moment of revelation.

"It's nothing, Holmes. It's a mere scratch."

He had ripped up my trousers with his pocket knife.

"You are right," he cried with an immense sigh of relief. "It is quite superficial." His face was set like flint as he glared at our prisoner, who was sitting up with a dazed face. "By the Lord, it is as well for you. If you had killed Watson, you would not have got out of this room alive. Now, sir, what have you to say for yourself?"

If nothing else, the film certainly gets that right. And if anyone's curious, that's taken straight from The Adventure of the Three Garridebs. Overall not one of Conan Doyle's best (which is perhaps part of why it is so oft forgotten) but still a good story, and the above is easily my favorite part of it.

[marktmurphy]

That was a lot of fun. I didn't totally love it as it was a bit too flashy in places for me; I like an adventure movie in the sort of Indy/Zorro vibe, but generally it worked well. I think the idea of having Holmes as a sort of intellectual superhero who can analyse his opponents is a brilliant one and certainly doesn't feel wrong at all; and I do really enjoy seeing Holmes and Watson as a pair of adventurers. He's Holmes; just a slight variation on him. The scene where he was blindfolded and taken to a mystery place which he instantly identified, along with his host was fantastic! The unmasking at the end was good and definitely felt more in keeping with Holmes than something like Silk Stocking: a villain and his schemeing tricks is the sort of thing Holmes should be working out; not the method of a madman. Downey was occasionally hard to understand but generally his very good self (although I didn't think he was as good here as in Iron Man) and Law was also surprisingly likeable.
Did anyone notice that as the big countdown to the last of Big Ben's chimes is going on the score was playing a sort of action movie music version of the tune Big Ben plays? I liked that!

And that wharf explosion was one of the best bits of special effects I've seen recently; absolutely brilliant. Like that Daniel Craig Sony ad only better!

And I also don't like alcohol replacing the cocaine, but as I pointed out, this was necessary to get a PG-13 rating. It's just one of those things that has to be done. I'm sure the filmmakers don't like it any more than we do.

To be honest I can't really see it working in there at all. It's a light film and in the bit where Holmes is without a case it's played more for laughs (the whole 'eye surgery' bit) so I just don't think it would have worked anyway. There's a comedy dog in there! Anybody who says Richie 'wasn't brave' enough to have him using cocaine is rather missing the point of what he was trying to achieve tonally.
It just doesn't make much difference to me. As for the other Homes clichés; the violin is in there but he plucks at it rather than the rather overdone lonely tunes other Holmes saw at it to get (whilst Watson rolls his eyes and walks off etc.)- this Holmes sort of distractedly fiddles (arf!) with it rather than plays it; and the pipe is never overplayed: he just takes a pipe occasionally. All in all they managed to make it feel relatively fresh whilst not betraying the spirit: I think it's a good accomplishment.

Have to say when it comes to Granada, Burke > Hardwicke for me. Brett is great though.

Yeah, definitely agree. Shame he wasn't around for long.

The entire point of Holmes is that he doesn't triumph because he's a good fighter or a brilliant one but because he's brilliant at induction and deduction.

Well, that's what we get in the film too. It's a more action oriented, adventure version of Holmes so we get more fights (I have no problem with that) but he's more clever than he is an amazing fighter. He wins his fights through intelligence: I like that. In Doyle him and Watson are always prowling about the place telling each other to bring their revolvers so there was always an edge of violence and adventure: Miss Marple doesn't exactly go around with a machete just in case!

[marktmurphy]

On a different bent; check out these new pastiche reprints:

Scroll of the Dead

The Veiled Detective

The Ectoplasmic Man

War of the Worlds

The Man From Hell

The Stalwart Companions

They sound quite a bit of fun to me! I suppose you have the Houdini one already, Zencat!

[zencat]

Well Holmes does get into a brawl in The Priory School and pretty much takes the guy out Downey-style. And let's not forgot who won the fight at Reichenbach.

Yes, against that noted martial artist Profesor Moriarty. Perhaps if the Prof shows up the sequel he'll be practicing Krav Maga. And there are no brawls in The Priory School. You're probably thinking of The Solitary Cyclist...

Yes, The Solitary Cyclist. I actually just watched The Solitary Cyclist yesterday and realized I made an error. Don't know why I was thinking Priory School.

They sound quite a bit of fun to me! I suppose you have the Houdini one already, Zencat!

Oh, I sure do. Every edition in fact. There have actually been several Holmes-Houdini team-ups.

I'm considering getting that War of the Worlds pastiche. Always wanted to read it.

[stromberg]

I'm laid up with a cold (one last kick in the from 2009) so I'm in bed watching the Granada series. MAN, I love this series and Brett!

A while ago, Koch Media released two DVD box sets with the German versions of the Granada series, one containing 13 and the other one 12 episodes. The 13th episode on set 1 is an episode that was never shown on German TV and was never dubbed, but they decided to put that one on the DVDs as well.

I was surprised enough to find another box set from a different publisher, which contained the 5 movie-length episodes a few weeks ago. But I never expected this to happen: due to the success of their two box sets, Koch Media decided to get the German rights to the remaining 11 episodes, have them dubbed in German and bring out a final box set.

What a great find for me, and all this two days before Xmas, the perfect gift to myself.

[bond 16.05.72]

It wasn't amazing but it was fun 2 hrs at the cinema and I enjoyed RDJ's performance and Law was not bad, Mark Strong was top drawer but seems to be in danger of getting type cast as a villain in big budget blockbusters, Robin Hood is up next and I believe he's playing Guy of Gisbon. A lively score by Hans Zimmer.

[Revelator]

A while ago, Koch Media released two DVD box sets with the German versions of the Granada series, one containing 13 and the other one 12 episodes. The 13th episode on set 1 is an episode that was never shown on German TV and was never dubbed, but they decided to put that one on the DVDs as well.

Which episode is it? I'm curious why it was never shown in Germany. I'm sure the fellow who dubbed Sherlock was a fine actor, but the German public nevertheless missed out on hearing Jeremy Brett's beautifully modulated voice.

[stromberg]

A while ago, Koch Media released two DVD box sets with the German versions of the Granada series, one containing 13 and the other one 12 episodes. The 13th episode on set 1 is an episode that was never shown on German TV and was never dubbed, but they decided to put that one on the DVDs as well.

Which episode is it? I'm curious why it was never shown in Germany. I'm sure the fellow who dubbed Sherlock was a fine actor, but the German public nevertheless missed out on hearing Jeremy Brett's beautifully modulated voice.

Checked this out and noticed that I told a bit of rubbish, here (goes to show what happens if you make statements from memory without checking your facts )

The first Koch Media box set contained what was originally season #1 and #2, all dubbed. the second box set contained the original seasons #3 and #5 (minus Hound). #3 was dubbed, but #5 is completely subtitled, without any dubbing (it was never shown on German TV, probably not part of the TV deal, and thus never dubbed). This new box contains the newly dubbed (also never shown on German TV) seasons #6 and #9. The movie length episodes were seasons #4, #7 and #8 (plus Hound from #5 and are available in a box set published by Polyband.

Only 25 out of 41 episodes were shown on German TV, the rest was never available over here. I could certainly have done without the dubbing, but it's great that they found it necessary (and worth some money) to give the remaining episodes a proper treatment. Holmes still rules

As to missing out on Brett's original voice, the German audience isn't really fond of original movie versions, let alone TV series. Few blockbusters sometimes get a week or so in larger cinemas, but that's it. The only TV series that ever ran in the original version was Monty Python's Flying Circus.


As to the new movie, I still have mixed feelings about it Wasn't very fond of it when I saw the first trailers, but what I'm redaing here has made me curious about it. Will have to wait until Jan 28th, won't be out until then over here.

[Vauxhall]

And that wharf explosion was one of the best bits of special effects I've seen recently; absolutely brilliant. Like that Daniel Craig Sony ad only better!

The Sony ad was precisely what I thought of too!

[dodge]

Holmes was trained in bartitsu

...which Conan Doyle made up, and so Hollywood has every right to take liberties with in order to show Sherlock's fighting prowess onscreen.

Check and mate.

Rejoice, friends, for I hath crossed the Tybre:

Bartitsu might have been completely forgotten if not for a chance mention by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in one of his Sherlock Holmes mystery stories. By the 1890s, Conan Doyle had become weary of chronicling the adventures of Sherlock Holmes. He had actually killed Holmes off in his 1893 story, The Adventure of the Final Problem, in which Holmes apparently plunged to his death over a waterfall during a struggle with his arch-enemy, Professor Moriarty.

However, such was the public clamour for the fictional detective’s return that Conan Doyle capitulated and revived Holmes for another story, The Adventure of the Empty House, in 1901. As Holmes himself explained his apparently miraculous survival:

"When I reached the end I stood at bay. He drew no weapon, but he rushed at me and threw his long arms around me. He knew that his own game was up, and was only anxious to revenge himself upon me. We tottered together upon the brink of the fall. I have some knowledge, however, of baritsu, or the Japanese system of wrestling, which has more than once been very useful to me. I slipped through his grip, and he with a horrible scream kicked madly for a few seconds and clawed the air with both his hands. But for all his efforts he could not get his balance, and over he went. With my face over the brink I saw him fall for a long way. Then he struck a rock, bounced off, and splashed into the water."

In fact, "baritsu" did not exist outside the pages of the English editions of The Adventure of the Empty House. It is possible that Conan Doyle, who, like E.W. Barton-Wright, was writing for Pearson’s Magazine during the late 1890s, was vaguely aware of Bartitsu and simply mis-remembered or misheard the term; it may even have been a typographical error or a concern about copyright. It should also be noted that a newspaper report on a Bartitsu demonstration in London, published in 1900, had likewise misspelled the name as baritsu.

Given that Doyle had Holmes define "baritsu" as "Japanese wrestling", it seems likely that he had in mind the jiujitsu aspect of Barton-Wright's martial art when he wrote "The Adventure of the Empty House".

In any case, the term "baritsu" was considered to be too esoteric by Conan Doyle’s American editors, who further added to the confusion by substituting the word "jiujitsu" in the American editions of the story.

This confusion of names persisted through much of the 20th century, with Holmes enthusiasts puzzling over the identity of baritsu. It was not until the 1990s that scholars including Y. Hirayama, J. Hall, Richard Bowen and James Webb were able to positively identify the martial art of Sherlock Holmes.

Typo =/= made up. The point stands. Bartitsu exists.

Now, the stories make it clear Holmes knows more than bartitsu, so I'm fine with a bit of liberty (honestly I'm not even sure the pretty great Holmes v Moriarty from the Russian series is any kind of fighting style) and the bareknuckle boxing really isn't even that much liberty. Holmes was a boxer and he did get into scuffles with criminals every now and again. Just pointing out bartitsu =/= judo; it just includes elements of it.

And believe you me I can keep this up all night. I honestly have nothing better to do until the fourth.

We're all duly warned...and shall wait until after that date. With my new job, starting Monday, I have off every other 7 days.

[zencat]

I'm laid up with a cold (one last kick in the from 2009) so I'm in bed watching the Granada series. MAN, I love this series and Brett!

Haha, exactly what I did when I was homebound for a week with a cold (hopefully you don't have that, though, that was a very nasty one and at one point even the doctor thought it may have been bronchitis). Have to say when it comes to Granada, Burke > Hardwicke for me. Brett is great though.

I also think I prefer Burke, but I have no problems with Hardwicke. (BTW, I saw Hardwicke in the London Underground once.)

One thing that disappoints me is how bad the transfers are of the Granada series. I have the MPI Box Sets -- Adventures, Return, and so forth. The prints are nasty and damaged and even the music is wobbly at points. A new resorted set is definitely in order. Are the UK versions better, I wonder?

Still have my cold. Terrible, terrible cold. Might even keep me seeing Moonraker tomorrow in Hollywood. I'll just have to crack open the Return set.

[Tybre]

I'm laid up with a cold (one last kick in the from 2009) so I'm in bed watching the Granada series. MAN, I love this series and Brett!

Haha, exactly what I did when I was homebound for a week with a cold (hopefully you don't have that, though, that was a very nasty one and at one point even the doctor thought it may have been bronchitis). Have to say when it comes to Granada, Burke > Hardwicke for me. Brett is great though.

Are the UK versions better, I wonder?

I guess so? I watch them all on Youtube, and they're all good quality. One user's copies have slightly grainier imagery (i.e. this upload of The Norwood Builder), but it's still very good quality. And really the grainier imagery is more the result of compression of the file to make it fit onto Youtube. At least I think they're good quality (certainly better than a lot of things I've found online). Here's what I was watching last night:



Not exactly stellar, but if you take into account the fact that it's Youtube, which certainly doesn't allow for the best quality, especially on older uploads like that, it's pretty good. If the DVDs are that quality I can live with that.

[zencat]

Ha, I was watching The Norwood Builder last night as well. In fact, I need to finish it. My Theraflu kicked in right when Holmes smoked out Oldacre and I passed out.

Quality of the YouTube looks (and sounds) better than my DVDs. Think I might start up a discussion of the Granada series DVD quality on a Holmes forum I frequent. There is relatively new set containing the entire series (features and all) in one box. Might be worth getting if the transfers are better.

EDIT: Thread HERE. Already getting some good answers.

[Tybre]

Those links remind me, I've been putting off joining Holmesian for ever. Been lurking for ages, just being a lazy schlub about joining. Might get round to it tonight, actually. Certainly seems like a nice place.

[zencat]

Oh, thanks for the link. Didn't know about that forum.

The World of Sherlock Holmes forum I post in is just a section of a larger Classic Horror Movie forum. It's an excellent forum, especially the Universal Monsters area. Not sure why they have a Holmes section, but they do, so two birds.

[Tybre]

Oh, thanks for the link. Didn't know about that forum.

The World of Sherlock Holmes forum I post in is just a section of a larger Classic Horror Movie forum. It's an excellent forum, especially the Universal Monsters area. Not sure why they have a Holmes section, but they do, so two birds.

If by Universal Monsters you mean Universal Studios (didn't check the forums before typing this), the first two Rathbone films were produced by Twentieth Century Fox, who subsequently dropped the series. Universal picked it up and produced the duration of his films, including (and I think beginning with, though I have to go back and look at dates) the Sherlock Holmes vs the Nazis films. So that could be why. Or maybe there's just a lot of Holmes fans on there.

[zencat]

True. There is a lot of Holmes-Horror crossover with the Universal series (using some of the same sets). Also, Hammer made a version of The Hound (which is sort of considered a horror story), so there's that.

[stromberg]

True. There is a lot of Holmes-Horror crossover with the Universal series (using some of the same sets). Also, Hammer made a version of The Hound (which is sort of considered a horror story), so there's that.

Coincidentally, I finally had my German "Holmes Handbook" (contains parts of the Hardwick 'Companion' but also a lot of original content. This book has been out of print for quite a while, copies of it didn't go for under 60 bucks on Ebay for the past few years. They finally made a reprint of this - even with an updated movie section.

The Hammer 'Hound' you mention is the one with Peter Cushing as Holmes and Christopher Lee as Henry Baskerville, 1959. That one is still often on TV over here. Not really 'horror', but maybe it was considered to be at the time. (Lee did play Holmes in a horrible German production of 'The Speckled Band' from 1962, and Mycroft in 'The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes' - quite unique ).

Apart from the Rathbone/Bruce movies, Universal also produced a TV version of 'Hound', with Stewart Granger as Holmes- not good.

[zencat]

Yes, the Peter Cushing Hound. It's actually my favorite version.

I meant the Doyle story itself was sort of a horror tale in its day. I believe the story is Doyle was inspired to write Hound as a definitive "supernatural mystery." It was later he made it into Holmes story.

[zencat]

One thing that disappoints me is how bad the transfers are of the Granada series. I have the MPI Box Sets -- Adventures, Return, and so forth. The prints are nasty and damaged and even the music is wobbly at points. A new resorted set is definitely in order. Are the UK versions better, I wonder?

I watch them all on Youtube, and they're all good quality. One user's copies have slightly grainier imagery (i.e. this upload of The Norwood Builder), but it's still very good quality. And really the grainier imagery is more the result of compression of the file to make it fit onto Youtube. At least I think they're good quality (certainly better than a lot of things I've found online).

Here's what a Sherlockian over at the World of Sherlock board had to say about the DVD transfers. He's motivated me to put my old sets up and eBay and I'm going to get the big green box. Been wanting to do that anyway as it will also save me shelf space.

Yes, MPI fixed the most glaring issues for the big boxed set by requesting improved transfers from Granada. The quality of those first few standalone releases was shockingly bad. Even the old Simon and Schuster vhs releases, that predated the MPI vhs releases, were far cleaner and of a higher quality than those initial DVDs. Floating digital image elements, warbling sound, all sorts of problems. Quite frankly, I think MPI did a job altogether on their Granada Sherlock Holmes releases. Poor quality, poor packaging, inappropriate menu images, etc...so I resisted buying the big box set for some time since I hated giving them more money for the double-dip. In the end though, I'm a Holmes collector and had to have the improved set even if it rankled to do so, although it still took a Deep Discount sale to force my decision. The packaging, menu images, etc...still suck for the boxed set, but at least the image quality issues had been addressed and that was the most crucial factor.

[Tybre]

Learn something new every day:

Sir Arthur's daughter, the late Dame Jean Conan Doyle, told me that the author wrote the later books in the series to "take his mind off sex", which was why he resisted romantic themes. He had fallen in love with her mother, Jean Leckie, as his first wife, Louise, was dying of TB. He behaved impeccably, and it was only a year after she died that he allowed himself to marry Miss Leckie. And think about sex again.

[zencat]

Broke down and picked up the Granada 'Young Sherlock' mini-series from the 80s. I saw it for the first time not too long ago and really liked it. DVD is a very nicely packaged 3-disc set. Got it for $7.75 on Amazon. Couldn't pass that up.

[Zorin Industries]

I really liked SHERLOCK HOLMES as imagined by Ms Ritchie. It's a gloriously out of tune music-hall piano of a film. The plot does borrow far too much from YOUNG SHERLOCK HOLMES for my liking (I could be wrong....Zencat?....but the biggest, newest HOLMES feature should not feel too similiar narratively to the last one everyone remembered, eg. YOUNG SHERLOCK HOLMES and its theatrical / TEMPLE OF DOOM 'masonry' antics cloaked by chemistry and industrial advancements), but it is a fun romp of a film with enough Ritchie moments to put a stamp on proceedings rather than the kiss of death. Rachel McAdams was obviously keeping the mall audiences interested (shame she didn't do the same for the story), Law is unexpectedly centre-stage and Downey Jr grew on me (despite his CHAPLIN performance off-cuts). Overall, I thought the branding of the film and its world was where HOLMES shone the most. It feels like a slightly over-imagined Victorian picturebook with the edges fraying. Much recommended.

[marktmurphy]

Just remembered one thing I really liked: all of the studio and distributors logos being shown as cobbles in the opening titles. Lovely!