Sherlock Holmes: The Movie

Today I finally got to see the long anticipated (at least for me) Guy Ritchie release of Sherlock Holmes. As many know Sherlock Holmes is a classic series of stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The film starred Robert Downey Jr. as Sherlock Holmes and Jude Law as his trusty associate / babysitter Dr. Watson.

Lord Blackwood is back from the grave and it’s up to Holmes and Watson to figure out why and how. Blackwood and his secret organization will do anything to make sure Sherlock Holmes and the good Doctor fail.

First off RDJ and Jude Law were top notch in this movie. In retrospect I cannot think of anyone who I’d rather have seen as Sherlock Holmes and Jude Law was a brilliant Dr. Watson. While the characters were not 100% true to the books, they were still very enjoyable and delivered many laughs. Several critics were unhappy with the inaccuracy of the characters, but they failed to realize that Guy Ritchie never claimed this was an accurate page for page depiction of the books.

The story was solid, but at times it was a bit slow. It would slow way down and then some great action would happen and it would slow down again. I typically like Guy Ritchie but I could not make it through his last movie, RockNRolla so naturally I was glad that I enjoyed this one. Really my main beef was how slow the movie got at times and I felt it was a little long.

Overall, I give Sherlock Holmes 4 out of 5. It got knocked down because of the slow parts. I’m glad that the story ended and left it open for a sequel. Especially considering Holmes arch nemesis Professor Moriarity had a part in the film. I cannot wait to see where the next one takes this great acting duo.