Guy Ritchie has made a "Sherlock Holmes" film where he's played by Robert Downey as a 19th-century James Bond/ bareknuckle-boxing superhero with washboard abs

Civilization continues to die rapidly.

http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2009/01/batman_ironman.php

This is too ridiculous to make me angry.

In fact, it looks like it might be awesome in a Road House kind of way.

yeah gotta say im pretty psyched for this

kelly reilly is in this so 10/10 so far.

this sounds good except for the guy ritchie aspect

the only way this could sound any better wuz if Apatow wuz directing--hopefully a Seth Rogen cameo? one can hope

otm

this sounds good except for the guy ritchie aspect

Cosign. What's to hate otherwise?

nice try; use better worms, "knuckle-dragging popcorn-munchers"!

dunno if this is challops or what but i think ritchie is the only guy who could actually pull this off by making it so retarded and british it ends up being pretty funny and entertaining

Good grief, from that link:

This is surely evidence of a degraded culture -- the animalization of rarified values and dashing cerebral derring-do, which were once admired or at least found intriguing by average moviegoers. You *know* that if everyone had my taste in films Silver, Ritchie and Warner Bros. wouldn't dare make something like this.

This vs. that Ron Rosenbaum complaint about Billy Joel the other day -- in both cases while I agree that both subjects under discussion are travesties, how the writers go about it do them no favors.

dunno if this is challops or what but i think ritchie is the only guy who could actually pull this off by making it so retarded and british it ends up being pretty funny and entertaining

― max, Monday, January 26, 2009 4:38 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

not so much challops as ddumm.

i am probably the only guy besides captainlorax and deeznuts on ilx who sort of liked snatch, huh

that ron rosenbaum piece on billy joel is such nonsense...

the hughes brothers would do a good job of this (im a 'from hell' defender n/cb).

that's 'no comic books' obviously.

i am probably the only guy besides captainlorax and deeznuts on ilx who sort of liked snatch, huh

unsurprising coming from a yankees fan

I've never seen a Ritchie movie, no plans to change that.

snatch is fun

It's been a while since I read the Holmes books but I think Sherlock knew how to use his fists.

snatch is fun

So is the movie!

holmes did jujitsu--he sonned moriarity under the falls remember

Ron Rosenbaum's Billy Joel vs "You're Only Human (Second Wind)"

If this has as much to do with actual Sherlock Holmes as the Lawnmower Man movie did with the book, I'll consider it a success. I'll also consider it a success if I see it drunk or it has boobies.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/01/25/arts/25lyal600.jpg

Raging Holmes

Holmes for Hire

Sherlock, Stock, and...etc., etc.

no denying he's looking ripped

but for holmes apatowed you all know there's supposed to be a sacha baron cohen and will ferrell version of this coming out about the same time?

guys we already went over this in the "who would win in a fight?" thread

perhaps this downey movie will be a brooding and violent reflection on how hunter and hunted... are not so different after all

which one is this, dante's peak or volcano?

No coke, says the NY Times article.

i was about to say 'wtf? the flacks would never be like "yeah, RDJ is back on the powder!"', but now i see yr point.

My mom is a big Sherlock Holmes fan, and this kind of makes me sad because it mongrelizes it into a flashy hollywood junk. Just like Watchmen or Lovecraft, these things were not intended for the movie medium, the were made for Graphic novels or to be serialized in magazines. Why do people think that making a movie of something is elevating it into its ultimate incarnation?

the train has kind of sailed on complaining about sherlock holmes being made into films.

because that's where the money is?

xp

$$$$$$$$$

xp

this looks good, 'van helsing' good!

Any time I come across Van Helsing on cable I just have to watch.

the purists always have jeremy brett to comfort them. for non-purists, this could be fun.

(any seven-percent solution fans here? been years since i saw it, but i remember it fondly. there's some swashbuckling in that, too.)

Why do people think that making a movie of something is elevating it into its ultimate incarnation?

Who exactly believes this, as opposed to "bringing it to an audience that might not otherwise encounter it in its original format?"

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v134/tracerhand/steampunkband.jpg

if rdj needs a sequel, i recommend:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51FB22PZTAL._SL500_AA240_.jpg

"bringing it to an audience that might not otherwise encounter it in its original format?"

but the thing that's being brought is no longer "it"

jesus christ.

good example

Why do people think that making a movie of something is elevating it into its ultimate incarnation?

http://filipspagnoli.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/plato.jpg

films were being made of sherlock holmes before conan doyle stopped writing the books, conceivably "bringing it to an audience that might not otherwise encounter it in its original format".

All this "What philistine dares turn Sherlock Holmes into escapist populist entertainment!" nonsense is probably the most ridiculous thing ever posted on ilx.

Made by the Guy Ritchie of his day, no doubt:

All this "What philistine dares turn Sherlock Holmes into escapist populist entertainment!" nonsense is probably the most ridiculous thing ever posted on ilx.

― Dear Tacos, how are you? I am fine. The weather is nice. I miss yo (Oilyrags), Monday, January 26, 2009 5:00 PM (14 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

QFT

anyone seen the Billy Wilder film? I'm curious.

Oilyrags pretty otm

it's not inconceivable that Holmes (a master of disguise!) would go undercover as a boxer in the seedy back alleys and squared cirlces of London's dark underbelly!

circles!

If anything the promo photo just makes me think of the crowd of similarly hatted/bearded guys looking down on Anthony Hopkins in the operating theatre in Coppola's Dracula. Which I'd be willing to bet this most resembles in the end.

All this "What philistine dares turn Sherlock Holmes into escapist populist entertainment!" nonsense is probably the most ridiculous thing ever posted on ilx.

― Dear Tacos, how are you? I am fine. The weather is nice. I miss yo (Oilyrags), Monday, January 26, 2009 5:00 PM (14 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

This kind of can't be repeated enough.

Plus, I'm sure one of the stories mention previous boxing experience. The Speckled Band maybe? Or one of the ones where like that where he can show off he is strong but uses his brains first, like a propah gentleman.

But yeah, Holmes is about as populist as fiction got at the time without being a penny dreadful or whatever, and people complaining about the 400th movie adaptation - well, it's a bit late don't you think to start?

so what you're saying is, the game is afoot?

Oilyrags' post is probably the most ridiculous thing ever posted on ilx.

sweet comeback

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherlock_Holmes#Use_of_weapons_and_martial_arts

Holmes is also reckoned a formidable fist-fighter, though his prowess is only reported second-hand. In The Sign of the Four, Holmes introduces himself to the prize-fighter McMurdo as "the amateur who fought three rounds with you at Alison's rooms on the night of your benefit four years back." McMurdo responds by saying, "Ah, you're one that has wasted your gifts, you have! You might have aimed high, if you had joined the fancy." In The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist, Holmes gets the better of Woodley with a straight left; in "The Adventure of the Empty House," Holmes remarks how a criminal named Matthews had knocked out Holmes's left canine tooth at Charing Cross Station.

the game is afoot and he will kick you with his foot!

"how dare they make an action adventure movie out of books that contain action, adventure, and cocaine?"

Really the only problem with this movie is creepy Jude Law.

I don't know, making him a hanger-on dogsbody of a Watson seems well-deserved.

It should have been Terrence Howard.

"Elementary, my dear homoncolous."

Actually have ANY of the Sherlock Holmes movies included cocaine use?

Dan makes point with bold.

Fine, they can refer to his boxing prowess in the dialogue, then.

You know very well that the point is that it's going to be a Dolby *boom* "thrill ride."

"how dare they make a Robert Downey movie without cocaine?"

I think Scarface had cocaine in it--that was about Sherlock Holmes, yes?

Why do people think that making a movie of something is elevating it into its ultimate incarnation?

If by people you mean movie producers, it's probably cause it's what they do for a living.

cocaine:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven-Per-Cent_Solution

Actually have ANY of the Sherlock Holmes movies included cocaine use?

Well, 7% Percent Solution is specifically about his addiction, even though that's a pastiche by Nicholas Meyer. The Jeremy Brett episodes featured it a few times, and the William Gillette stage play IIRC features a brief mention of it.

(Actually I'm surprised this hasn't been mentioned yet -- as the legendary exchange goes, Gillette asked Doyle in a telegram if he could marry off Holmes at the end of his stage adaptation, to which Doyle responded "You may marry him or murder him or do what you like with him." If Doyle didn't care, nobody else should either.)

guy ritchie is the ed norton of directing - a guy whos always playing smart and cool prevented from pulling it off by virtue of being stupid and lame

Fine, they can refer to his boxing prowess in the dialogue, then.

Yes, if there's one thing I want to see in a movie, it's watching people sit in a room and talk about something more exciting elsewhere; after all, it's not like the medium lends itself to showing rather than telling.

Hell, they shouldn't even show Holmes doing any detective work; the entire movie should be him performing a post-mortem on the case with Holmes over Brandy in the sitting room.

http://kothelegend.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/brandy.jpg

Yes, if there's one thing I want to see in a movie, it's watching people sit in a room and talk about something more exciting elsewhere

Can't wait for ILX Thread Clusterfuck: The Movie.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/st/gallery/images/340/tngdata07.jpg

http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/memoryalpha/en/images/thumb/6/65/Sherlock_Holmes.jpg/292px-Sherlock_Holmes.jpg

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51GTJJW0NKL.jpg

http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/All-Consuming_Fire

btw this book was kind of awesome

if there's one thing I want to see in a movie, it's watching people sit in a room and talk about something more exciting elsewhere

DEF. Iranian cinema rules.

i think morbs would prefer every movie to just be the first scene of "tinker, tailor, soldier, spy" on a loop

Jean-Paul Sartre's Goldfinger.

Wim Wender's Bad Boys

that sounds pretty good tbh

yah Tracer, that's why I like John Woo & Jackie Chan (before they started to suck)

Guy Maddin has made a "Sherlock Holmes" film where he's played by a deaf-mute as a 19th-century James Bond/ bareknuckle-boxing superhero with washboard abs

Michael Haneke's "Bride Wars"

would screen def

Dan, my hatred for Haneke is well chronicled

Michael Bay's "Jane Eyre"

Luis Buñuel's "Paul Blart: Mall Cop"

(haha I am now ignoring the thread topic and just doing unlikely/ludicrous film/director pairings)

(also anyone with sense hates Haneke)

xp: awesome

Here's the excellent Jermey Brett as Holmes engaging in some Queensbury Rules:

That's some fancy footwork!

Samuel Beckett's Casino

abbas kiarostami has made a sherlock holmes film where hes played by some ethnic turkmen dude as a suicidal farmer

haneke rulez f u guys

haha, you know what this Holmes travesty sounds like? Ahnuld as Hamlet in Last Action Hero.... "To be or not to be...Not to be." (Elsinore explodes)

Tony Scott's Dude, Where's My Fuckin' Car?

Penny Marshall's Friday the 13th

Jacques Rivette's Transporter 4

Michael Bay's Time Regained

Ahnuld as Hamlet in Last Action Hero.... "To be or not to be...Not to be." (Elsinore explodes)

Ahnuld's greatest scene.

hayao miyazaki has made a sherlock holmes film where hes played by an animated cat-being as a 19th century james bond

Hayao Miyazaki's Scenes From a Marriage

Vittorio De Sica's "Underworld: Rise of the Lycans"

"To be or not to be...Not to be." (Elsinore explodes)

lollllllll

John Boorman's Exorcist II: The Heretic.

Jane Campion's Legend of the Overfiend

John Boorman's Exorcist II: The Heretic.

Dude, stay real here.

Steven Speilberg's "The Night Porter"

Tarantino's The Conversati... wait, never mind.

Uwe Boll's Terms of Endearment

John Huston's Annie

Sofia Coppola's Ocean's 11

William Wyler's Twilight

M. Night Shyamalan's Pink Flamingoes

Carl Theodor Dreyer's Resident Evil: Extinction

Timur Bekmambetov's "Marry Poppins"

Preston Sturges' Natural Born Killers

Anthony Minghella's Andy Warhol's Frankenstein

Stanley Kubrick's Top Secret!

(I want to see all these films.)

Ingmar Bergman's Dracula: Dead and Loving It

McG's Nostromo

guys can you imagine if these movies were real... they'd be crazy!!!

King Vidor's Apocalypse Now

Ridley Scott's Pineapple Express

Pasolini's Top Gun

Robert Altman's Mr and Mrs Smith

Martin Scorcese's Casino

Béla Tarr's Crank 2: High Voltage

John Carpenter's The Care Bears Movie

Clive Barker's Because Of Winn-Dixie

Eli Roth's It's a Wonderful Life

Rob Zombie's Mourning Becomes Electra

John Hughes' Cube

bresson's 'nikita'

Paul W.S. Anderson's Sunrise

Bruce LaBruce's The Bishop's Wife

Straub & Huillet's Saw VI

ilx's fascinating thread

ILX's Custos Thread

booya

mine was good but yeah otm

well no, this is actually fun

Terrence Malick's Dirty Dancing

Gus Van Sant presents Bad Boys III.

mmmm I'd watch that

Coppola's Dracula

Lars von Trier's Die Hard

(pronounced "dee hart")

James Ivory's The Pelican Brief.

John Hughes' Cube

i would pay lots of money to see this.

John Cassavetes' Road House

Cassavetes' The Last Waltz

lol xpost

Werner Herzog's Bad Lieutenant

David Mamet's Requiem for a Dream.

Cassavetes' The Last Waltz

lol xpost

lol seconded

Bryan Singer's My Own Private Idaho

This thread has taken a turn for the awesome. Nice work!

D.W. Griffiths' The Color Purple

Michael Bay's Darjeeling Limited

Jim Jarmusch has made a Sherlock Holmes movie with Forrest Whitaker as The Hound of the Baskervilles

McG's Repulsion

Universal Pictures presents

A Forward Pass Production

A film by Michael Mann

Jamie Foxx

Gong Li

The Brown Bunny

original score by Audioslave

automobiles courtesy of Bentley

costumes by Giorgio Armani

Paramount Pictures Presents

An Egg Production with Studio Canal+

A film by Jodie Foster

Ellen Page

Natalie Portman

Fight Club

Original soundtrack by Sleater-Kinney

okay now we are getting custosy

wong kar-wai has made a "sherlock holmes" where he's played by tony leung chiu-wai as a 21st-century sensual depressive in love with a mysterious woman.

Prospect Magazine has made a "Sherlock Holmes" where he's played by Nick Crowe as the drummer for the rock band Gay Dad

That hurt even me.

Okay, now that I've gone back and read the whole thread, comparing the quality and importance of the Holmes books to fucking Hamlet is our new champ.

good think I can't post about how O____ officially became a war criminal last Friday, huh

jesus shut up

strange, gis for the phrase "getting into character" brought this on the first page

http://assets.gearlive.com/filmcrunch/blogimages/downey_sherlock3.jpg

For real, if posting crazy about O___ will let you be sane on movies, I'm all for it.

Que:

http://media.codedchaos.com/convert/images/funny/no%20u.png

no u

D.W. Griffiths' The Color Purple

― WmC, Monday, 26 January 2009 18:11 (4 hours ago)

lolololololol

fwiw the victorian era was a time of srs flagrant violence, also the beginnings of what we would recognize as mediatized mass culture, + a real martial arts thuggery hobbyism that went hand in hand w global colonialism as well as gentlemanliness. decades and decades of masterpiece theater has obscured all of this but a clapped out and mostly bad 'sacreligious' actioner might get close to something vital, accidentally, i feel

i sound like one of those steempunk crazies but who cares, color me excited for this. i like RDJr.

Jean Pierre Melville's Milo And Otis

Far and Away SE: Just the Fights

http://img2.timeinc.net/people/i/2009/startracks/090202/guy_ritchie.jpg

D.W. Griffiths' The Color Purple

lolololololol

yeah, ppl lol'd at this joke in 1985

is that an actual still from the film

man I hope so, Guy Ritchie as the new Spike Lee/Quentin Tarantino is kind of hilarious to me

sherlock holmes solving the mystery of why there are cars in 1880

"Only the curious incident of the massive energy infrastructure relying on the Middle East."

"But there IS no massive energy infrastructure relying on the Middle East."

"That is the curious incident."

this movie hinges on who will be cast as the Baker Street irregulars - my guess is they will appear in animated form

Watson to be played by Ice Cube

Pontecorvo's "Conquest of the Planet of the Apes"

Seriously hope Statham plays Moriarity. Title should be Sherlock Holmes: Cranked Up.

Watson to be played by Ice Cube

― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, January 27, 2009 10:28 AM (11 hours ago) Bookmark

Elementary, dawg.

At least they've got the hat right after all these years.

My mom is a big Sherlock Holmes fan, and this kind of makes me sad because it mongrelizes it into a flashy Hollywood junk

this is hilarious & slightly idiotic -- what's that, the Holmes stories were something other than trashy serialized parlor junk when they were originally published? oh right, they weren't. i'm as much a mystery fan as the next pulp reader but i've no illusions that the stories of Sherlock Holmes rank among the great accomplishments of English lit or something. not that its mass popularity makes the mystery / detective genre any less valuable, but "high art" it ain't.

(should have read the whole thread first -- Oilyrags 8080, basically)

elmo,

some junk is better than other junk.

btw I've never read a word of Holmes

haha, of course you haven't.

haaaaate mysteries. Who Cares Who Killed Roger Ackroyd? (I think that's an Edmund Wilson joke)

thing is, i really doubt you read much of what wilson read instead: laforgue, pound, etc.

zzzzzzzzzzz free verse

From this week's Newsweek:

The best directors are the ones you can have the heated, f---ed up, gear-grinding moments with. Because that way it's not passive-aggressive, you're not nurturing a resentment. Guy Ritchie was like, "Mate, I gotta tell you it's so toxic, you're such a c--t, everyone feels it." I was like, "Really? And you're like Rain Man, you dumb motherf--ker." And we had it out. Then my wife was there, and she's like, things are getting readdy edgy. But then you let it blow off, and the next day you go, that was yeseterday, and here we are.

er, really edgy

^^^ context?

Downey talking as part of a roundtable of Oscar-nominated actors.

Terrible trailer:

The Robert Downey facial expressions in every one of those scenes is hilarious. If this lives up to the promise of that mediocre trailer, I will lol my way through the thing.

oh that looks really bad

release lol!!

bigger version: http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1810045845/video/13526202

I will laugh all the way through this rental

Not even sure why they decided to call it Sherlock Holmes.

Jude Law as Cranky Watson, Rachel McAdams as underdressed love interest. I hope the Holmes substance abuse problem gets thrown in there, Downey shines when he gets to bring that life experience to the screen.

but it was PROVED months ago on this thread that it's 100% faithful!

in fact, it looks like it might be awesome in a Road House kind of way.

The trailer seems to bear this out.

Jesus Hussein Christ, did anyone ever claim or even imply that "Faithful"="Worthwhile"? I'm not even sure anyone claimed that it was faithful. My claim was only that Sherlock Holmes isn't some extraordinary literary treasure that must be preserved at all costs, but rather a pulpy bunch of escapist bullshit that anybody may as well do what they like with.

yeah wtf that trailer is great. i may even go see a guy ritchie movie.

who is "mark strong" and why does he look exactly like andy garcia?

this looks fun btw

Morbs (and my rescreening of the Granada series) have made me want to see this

A faithful movie version of Sherlock Holmes would be a pretty fucking boring movie, like some Merchant & Ivory b.s. And it's kind of silly to worry about faithfulness when there have been like 8 billion TV and movie versions of Sherlock Holmes already.

It's either going to be fantastic, or Wild Wild West II

im stoked either way. i dont get why people hate wild wild west.

This looks AMAZING.

Not sure Holmes would shake anyone's hand, but I guess the Englishness of this is going to amount to some matte shots of the Thames.

i stand by my van helsing prediction

Looks batshit enough to be enjoyable.

Wtf the trailer is awesome and the movie looks hilarious.

Kneejerk Ilxor hatred of new ideas shockah!

I'm hoping this thread will be the sequel to the "OMG they're making an American Office" thread.

which ideas are new here

matt

There is just a general feeling of newness about the whole project. It's edgy!

sherlock holmes as a comedy seems new.

http://353review.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/without_a_clue.jpg

Tho I guess "Established characters remade as vehicles for Downey Jr. comedies" isn't really a new idea. But it's a great idea!

is that movie any good?

xxp Yeah but was there bareknuckled brawling in that one. I think not!

also, the basil rathbone sherlock holmes films were filled with slapstick bumbling from nigel bruce as watson

My mom is a big Sherlock Holmes fan, and this kind of makes me sad because it mongrelizes it into a flashy hollywood junk.

Makes it Australian-friendly?

I think the idea that all any movie needs is a strung out looking Robert Downey Jr is pretty strange. He's not that great an actor.

"xxp Yeah but was there bareknuckled brawling in that one. I think not!"

Exactly!

Very much looking forward to the gay spats between Law and Downey.

He couldn't save In Dreams, for example.

"also, the basil rathbone sherlock holmes films were filled with slapstick bumbling from nigel bruce as watson"

Holy shit. You have some mad Holmes film knowledge.

"He couldn't save In Dreams, for example."

He could have if it was a comedy.

In Dreams as a comedy would probably be the shit actually.

Yeah spats are great, but as an excuse for this movie not so good.

I thought it was a comedy.

Downey's accent here sounds excitingly shaky

Always excited for a new film from the noteworthy director of Swept Away.

There's no point in trying to make a faithful adaptation of Sherlock Holmes because it will just suck compared to Jeremy Brett's Holmes. It's simply not possible to do a better, more faithful portrayal than that.

So if you're gonna make a Sherlock Holmes movie, it should be novel and bonkers! This will be awesome and I will be seeing it with my dad on Christmas Day.

"So if you're gonna make a Sherlock Holmes movie, it should be novel and bonkers!"

Uh or you could just make another movie, right? That would novel, wouldn't it?

I didn't realize spat had so many meanings:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spat

i novel'd

I like how bare knuckle boxing is standard for a Ritchie movie. It's like Oliver Stone and Native Americans.

Uh or you could just make another movie, right? That would novel, wouldn't it?

No! It's like Robin Hood... you want to see as many permutations of the story as possible. Sherlock Holmes in space, fighting Nazis, solving crimes in an America where the South won the Civil War, etc.

thing is we've had so many of these (even sherlock holmes fighting nazis, i think!) and there hasn't been a really excellent film that captured what made the stories great. i like the jeremy brett series but i think it errs just a little on the side of pbs tastefulness, which isn't a mistake, but i also think it keeps it from being that definitive holmes show or film i would like to see someday.

lol @ "solving crimes in an America where the South won the Civil War"

Sherlock Holmes in space, fighting Nazis, solving crimes in an America where the South won the Civil War, etc.

^^^I love this approach to canonical figures

Sherlock Holmes vs. Ilsa She-Wolf of the SS

fyi:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherlock_Holmes_and_the_Secret_Weapon

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherlock_Holmes_in_Washington

Going to space worked for Leprechaun.

Sherlock Holmes in space, fighting Nazis, solving crimes in an America where the South won the Civil War, etc.

^^^I love this approach to canonical figures

― Tennis Bum (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, May 19, 2009 6:06 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

yeah this is the best!

SHERLOCK HOLMES is on the CONFEDERATE SPACE STATION, staring morosely into a fireplace.

WATSON comes in.

WATSON: Holmes! There are Nazis on the dark side of the moon!

i'd be a lot more amenable to this if it werent guy richie

idk there's always the possibility you could be swept away by this film

I'm all for imaginative use of fictional characters, its just that this seems to combine all the worst bits of Guy Ritchie's god-awful filmography (bare knuckle boxers! cockernee geezers! stupid slapstick!) with a stupid pseudo-Victorian steampunk look, and to top it off Downey Jr and Law mugging and gurning like there's no tomorrow.

Guy Ritchie's Midlife Crisis

eheh, that looks great for a sunday evening pizza/dvd session !

Just saw Sherlock Holmes and the Spider Woman (Rathbone/Bruce era).

*Spoiler afoot*

The gist of it is- a woman unleashes a pygmy into an air duct. The pygmy then lets loose a spider that bites a sleeping man. The spider bite is so painful and mindbending that the man commits suicide. This happens to like 12 guys before holmes solves the mystery. Of course Holmes fakes his own death and disguises himself as an Indian prince. running time is one hour. A+

eheh, that looks great for a sunday evening pizza/dvd session !

or, something good?

http://www.cinematical.com/2009/10/26/exclusive-sherlock-holmes-poster-premiere/

This poster is so campy that it makes me wonder if the movie will have a giant mechanical spider.

why is Jude Law making that face

it's like he's channeling his inner Janice Dickinson

That's the most hilarious part!

poppage face

also why is RDJ dressed like Doctor Who

I really can't tell if this will be amazing or horrible or both

websites that advertise "poster premieres" make me want to puke

Probably both! I am anticipating it now. xp

right now my #1 reason to see this movie is to stare at Rachel McAdams

Jude Law sucking worlds tiniest cock & he loves it.

downey's face looks all slanty and tilted

He looks like Dustin Hoffman.

oh man Rachel McAdams

I really can't tell if this will be amazing or horrible or both

Amazingly horrible, obv.

I like Mark Strong a lot so I suspect he'll steal the film.

He looks like Dustin Hoffman.

http://moviesmedia.ign.com/movies/image/article/839/839966/mr-magoriums-wonder-emporium-uk-review-20071206063605558.jpg

Oh man this better not be a Magorium.

I actually expect/hope Holmes movie will be hell of entertaining.

saw the trailer for this on one of those weird vertical TV screens at a local multiplex -- indeed, it does look amazingly horrible

I bow deeply at your plaudits for calling this correctly

very gracious of you!

GBX Holmes and Dr. Morbius

I bow deeply at your plaudits for calling this correctly

well done everyone for telling Morbz that your tentative opinions of a film you haven't seen might or might not end up corresponding with his definitive opinion of a film he will never see

I believe the short-lived cartoon Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century already destroyed the Holmes legacy. Wasn't the character in the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen as well?

how did I miss this amazing cartoon

This show's method for preserving Professor Moriarty and bringing him back to life should not be confused with the cryogenic method used by the 1987 Michael Pennington/Margaret Colin TV movie/failed pilot, The Return of Sherlock Holmes, or the suspended animation in the 1993 Anthony Higgins/Deborah Farentino Sherlock Holmes Returns TV movie.

xxp not directly, he was alluded to but didn't actually appear -- mycroft actually had a role, though, as did eventually moriarty

I got the new ALA catalog today, and was delighted to find this poster:

http://www.alastore.ala.org/images/Sherlock_200x300.jpg

It is not quite as ridiculous as the movie poster, but it is close!

"Wasn't the character in the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen as well?"
Mycroft ate him.

This is the only big-budget holiday movie I care about.

I love how Jude Law looks like he is posing for the International Male catalog in every promotional picture.

lolz I thought this had already came out, bombed, and then disappeared

It did. This is the ironic revival.

huh?

haha, my editor is raving about this

Oh god my boy wants to go see this will I keep awake thru it y/n?

Some people are saying it rivals Raiders of the Lost Ark! (only heard this secondhand)

Hate Guy Ritchie so much but love Downey Jr. obv so it's a coin-toss for me.

I just read the Madonna's brother bio. Guy comes across like a complete cunt to be honest. (So does Chris, Madonna's brother btw.)

Hate hate hate Guy Ritchie. <3 Basil Rathbone & Nigel Bruce. Will not be seeing this.

Guy and Robert talk to each other.

the groundwork is being laid for a morbs thumbs-up...

well, the kids are playing bar trivia tonight, so I may blow off the screening.

can't believe they didn't go with Schwantz' tagline "No Shit, Sherlock"

THR review makes it sound completely obvious and ridiculous. Couldn't ask for more!

The plot? Wish you hadn't asked. One is not meant to completely understand it, of course; you never do in a Ritchie movie.

Okay wait a second, Guy Richie's movies are known for having plots that are difficult to understand?

Scene 1: Madonna lands on an island
Scene everything else: complaints
End

if you told me a sherlock holmes film was being made with these two as the leads and showed me this promo pic, i'd guess wrong on which one was holmes

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/photos/stylus/118357-sherlock_holmes_341x182.jpg

i look forward to this. looks like silly fun. would watch RDJ ham it up in almost anything.

"Yes, their relationship does have a latent homoerotic undertone."

"If Downey would hand his pipe to Law, they could switch roles from scene to scene."

Kind of wish the film had gone in this direction.

One is not meant to completely understand it

maybe one is not expected to completely understand it i.e. one is not meant to pay especial attention to them i.e. not that the plots in a Ritchie movie are complex but that there isn't any particular importance placed upon them

the movie looks rubbish - the guardian review said a lot of what I'd expected to read about it and not in a mean way really

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/dec/15/sherlock-holmes-film-review if you don't google

the imagery tends to clod (there's an especially over-used crow).

http://www.kaijuhq.org/crow2.gif

Watson's big dilemma – whether to quit his life with Holmes for marriage to lovely Mary (Kelly Reilly, underused) has, at heart, all the depth of a Wham! song.

So she is saying that the movie is FANTASTIC?

Hahahaha good call.

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2009/12/15/1260836425859/Jude-Law-and-Robert-Downe-001.jpg

"Make it...what?"

I don't want your freedom, Guardian reviewer.

"Last Christmas...wait, it IS Christmas."

http://theaterofmine.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/sherlock_holmes_downey1.jpg

Middle aged guns go for it.

if you told me a sherlock holmes film was being made with these two as the leads and showed me this promo pic, i'd guess wrong on which one was holmes

In the Arthur Conan Doyle stories, isn't Watson described as much better looking than Holmes? So I guess by casting Jude Law as Watson they're actually being faithful to the source material, unlike some other Holmes films where he is handsome and Watson kinda chubby and homely.

I never really got why Watson is usually a tubbyguts in film and television adaptations.

Cuz it's funnier that way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siLAqW1vG_Y

i so fucking h8 guy ritchie, but i guess take it as a joel silver production (via die hard) and forget about it.

it really just feels like a goofy buddy action movie, i found it hard to hate but not much there to like either

Jeremy Brett is my fave Holmes, but I'm looking forward to this.

http://i.imgur.com/TS7cC.jpg

^my favourite holmes and watson

http://www.toplessrobot.com/2009/12/sherlock_holmes_and_the_case_of_the_horrible_cutes.php

http://www.toplessrobot.com/166336-milky_super.png

what is wrong with you

hahaha that is coming across a bazillion times meaner than I meant it, sorry

"If Downey would hand his pipe to Law, they could switch roles from scene to scene."

Kind of wish the film had gone in this direction.

― Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), 16 December 2009 20:16

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mj5HTUr2Ki0&feature=PlayList&p=3DB14C9CE8B2DC0C&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=62

Terrence Malick's Dirty Dancing, This is a movie I would watch!

i would watch any movie where the director was comically mismatched with the material!

Last night I watched The New World. I'm not sure why but I was amazed at how beautiful the movies was, all light, water shadows.

watched the private life of sherlock holmes last night on tcm, it was better than i expected, pretty entertaining.

was there all this outrage when "young sherlock holmes" and "without a clue" came out?

or the great mouse detective?

no - the internet had not yet made mass mobilization of pedantic nerd rage possible

Saw it this morning with the family, we all enjoyed it. S1ocki essentially OTM and there were expected Ritchieisms but this was pretty much like Star Trek in being a midrange big budget entertainment with pretty good design that combined comfort zone familiarity with plenty of hyperfan nods. Downey and Law are clearly in it just to have fun, hell everyone is.

If anything it felt like a perfect sequel to Young Sherlock Holmes thanks to the convoluted mysticism villianry, even if this time around the reference points were Dan Brown and National Treasure.

I wonder if Armond White ever writes his headlines? "No Hit, Sherlock."

this was less good than i expected. (and Avatar was better!) instead of it being "dumb with clever bits" it was basically just "dumb with charming punchlines".

and Star Trek was so much better!

This was a fun movie! My expectations were very low, I just wanted it to look pretty and not be so stupid it was painful, and I actually enjoyed it. (i don't have an attachment to the literary Holmes to hold me back, either.) And in my opinion, without the moustache Law would be better looking than Downey, but they really turned the tables with that facial hair.

To my shame, I thought Jude Law was attractive even with the moustache. I will never live this down.

I loved the movie -- like Maria I didn't have high expectations but I was pleasantly surprised.

I've always thought Jude Law looks kinda plasticky and too smooth, so a moustache should probably just make him more attractive.

i thought it was pretty fun too! tho several shamefully overlooked possible moments of depth. ohwell.
i had some srsly swoony moments abt robert downey jr tbh

Whatever that dark navy serge jacket Jude Law wore was the making of his hotness in that film, but Downey could have been wearing burlap sacks and out-hotted JL no probs.

i had some srsly swoony moments abt robert downey jr tbh

Haha you and my sis would have had a fine discussion on this point -- she was going on about his hotness in this. Law not so much.

Nicole's admission about the mustache may well be the last shocking surprise of this decade.

My favorite random glitch in the movie easily had to be all the 'tomorrow at noon' talk, given that about three or four days seemed to pass...

this was my $.02 btw http://www.montrealmirror.com/2009/122409/film2.html

http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Is-Brad-Pitt-In-Sherlock-Holmes-After-All-16324.html

I hope this isn't true. I just can't see him playing a professor, let alone Moriarty.

alert morbs

I don't want to give him the vapors!

you don't think i go see Brad Pitt in everything, do you? That Guy Ritchie thing, Oceans 12 & 13, Babel?

i thought u'd be outraged

guy's gotta make a living to support Angelina's octopuslike embrace of the world's children

So did I! xp

Very glad you added the xp.

http://cdn.videogum.com/img/thumbnails/photos/sherlock_7_11_2.jpg

good fit

this might be a dumb question, but why did rachel mcadams run up on the bridge with the cyanide tube thing? why was she running away with it at all? i couldn't tell if a) she was trying to take it to the bad guy dude, b) she thought she needed to get the cyanide thing somewhere she could destroy it, or c) they needed to figure out a way to have the climactic face-off on a really high bridge. neither a nor b really makes any sense though?

B & C, I reckon. I suppose it might make more sense to destroy the payload of a poison gas device in the open air, particularly if you had no real idea how it worked. Still, regardless, I enjoyed it all enough not to let things like that worry me, and I'm certainly up for the sequel.

Thought the leads worked really well together, and could have easily carried a much less flash-bang narrative. Particularly charmed by what seemed like a lot of silent movie business: ridiculously oversized heavy, mobs in bowler hats punching each other, heroine threatened by mechanized doom and, yes, face-offs on really high structures.

Particularly charmed by what seemed like a lot of silent movie business

Yeah, that's definitely a big plus point for me -- it FELT like a penny-dreadful/early silent movie romp at many points, something that made perfect sense given the source material and its larger context. I also liked the fact that there was no extended 'how the characters met' stuff -- just accept that the partnership is there and get to it.

This was the most I've ever enjoyed a Guy Ritchie flick. God what was the last one I saw, I was just so bored. Anyway, cosign that this was really fun and all that, though (((SPOILER))) Blackwood's falling felt kinda anticlimactic and telegraphed with him just dangling there so long throughout Holmes final big speech and...maybe it's just me, but I felt that scene was building to something huge, and I think I missed that that scene was the huge thing, so, it was just like oops he fell. Whoops. Oh he snagged on that umm. Clunk noise.

I figured he'd get it with his own cyanide by some absurdly tricky maneuver of Holmes' doing and you know

if she was running up on the bridge to get rid of the cyanide, why was holmes chasing her? i am still baffled by this whole thing, and i feel dumb for being confused by a blockbuster action movie. i don't really care about plot holes that much but if they didn't bother providing any explanation at all for why she ran up there it's a pretty irritatingly blatant way for setting up a climax that wasn't even particularly climactic. like if they were going to do something ridiculous and not explain it, she could have run somewhere way more awesome like the tower of london or a dave & buster's

"silent movie biz" sounds like a plus but I am dubious

I can't really see you liking this, but it's probably better than you think

Fucking hell Morbs - I liked it even though I hate Guy Ritchie, bare-knuckle fighting and steampunk. It's just silly, but with RDJ as elegantly wasted underachieving genius.

I thought Adler running away with the cyanide was explained at the end- it was to distract Holmes, Blackwood and company so Moriarty could steal the actually valuable part of the device (the remote control)?

Morbs, those raves from you-know-who are waaaaay overstated, but this was at the very minimum pretty entertaining swill. Occasionally a little more than that.

telephone thing, that almost makes sense - still not sure why holmes chased her or how they knew he would do so.

whatever, i don't want to be annoying about this, it just seemed way more arbitrary than it needed to be. they wouldn't have had to expend much more effort to have it make sense.

"still not sure why holmes chased her" - Holmes is obsessed by her, has a folder full of clippings, keeps a framed photo . .

. . also, in my experience of affairs of the heart involving international femmes fatales, you're just gonna find yourself standing up on that bridge, however stupid as you may feel the morning after.

Saw it this afternoon, enjoyed it lots more than I'd expected to for many of the reasons already mentioned especially the great leads and supporting and the wonderfully dingy look of the whole thing.

On the basis of this I wish that Ritchie had been able to take a crack at directing the (godawful, travesty of an) adaptation of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen - something about his visual snap and way with the characters really put me in mind of the terrific comic books. It also struck me that whilst he gets away with some pretty pedestrian scripting and plot, his handling of setpieces is A++, esp. Holmes's precognitive fight skills, the couple of disguise scenes and most of all the fantastic warehouse explosion slo-mo sequence.

“I hope this is just an example of Mr. Downey's black sense of humour. It would be drastic, but I would withdraw permission for more films to be made if they feel that is a theme they wish to bring out in the future. I am not hostile to homosexuals, but I am to anyone who is not true to the spirit of the books.”

http://www.timeslive.co.za/entertainment/article248714.ece

classy lady

Holmesophobia

Not true to the spirit of the books? O RLY, Andrea Plunkett?

In an instant (Killer Evans) had whisked out a revolver from his breast and had 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's pistol came down on the man's head. I had a vision of (Evans) sprawling upon the floor with blood running down his face while Holmes rummaged him for weapons. 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 ripped up my trousers with his pocket-knife.

I always thought the thing was that Holmes was an idiosyncratic, hermit-like asexual, too far into his own head and the narcissistic beauty of his own pursuits to waste any time on family or the fairer sex. Mycroft was the stable one, who would (eventually) continue the bloodline, right?

His only personal contacts are Watson and the landlady. Even Lestrade he only deals with on a professional basis.

Oh, for goodness sake, Ms. Plunkett! It's not like this reading of the relationship between characters hasn't been around for ever. It's only one of many, and you takes your proverbial choice. Part of the fascination of the stories is that the relationship is so complex, and you only build up a picture of it from glimpses around the edges of the derring-do that is the focus of the narratives.

The only way this farrago could have worked was if Ritchie had filmed Law and RDJ My Dinner with Andre style.

this was a piece of shit.

Saw it on a plane, kind of enjoyed it.

this was awesome

I agree.

I liked it, but it was decidedly silly.

well yeah!

My dad went to see it, and he actually liked it - this is very rare. It should be documented.

Okay so apparently Stephen Fry is playing Mycroft Holmes in the next movie.

Lane Pryce!!!

this was a piece of shit.

― dipset infiltrator (zvookster), Tuesday, April 27, 2010 8:45 PM (5 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Saw it on a plane, kind of enjoyed it.

― i would rather burn than spend eternity with god and rapists (chap), Wednesday, April 28, 2010 3:32 AM (5 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

saw it on a plane and it was a piece of shit, guy ritchie is the worst just the worst

this was surprisingly enjoyable

saw it on a plane, got 20 minutes in and thought "nah fuck this"

parachuted out of plane

onto your mum iirc

It is as cheesy as hell but I found it very enjoyable.

dumb, loved it

Yeah I rather enjoyed it too.

Downey Jr is never less than watchable.

ditto to hoos

it never reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaally engaged me with anything or anyone but it killed an evening nicely enough

The Moffat-version of Sherlock has completely blotted this movie from my memory. Forgot that I even saw it.

i've heard its worth seeing. this is the new bbc modern holmes thing rght?

ya it's good

well ep 1 is amazing, ep 2 is kinda boring, and i havent seen ep 3 yet

otm, in fact ep 2 turned us off watching ep 3.

EP 3 is good enough to make you forget about #2, but it's mainly a lead up to the next season (whenever that happens)

And yes, EP 1 is amazingly great.

during ep 1 i think i said "YESSSS!" several times

Yeah, 1 is amazing work. Incredible, too, how effective Cumberbatch is right from the off. Immediately you find yourself questioning how many obvious facts you fail to notice about people in your own life.

Compare w/the Guy Ritchie film which hinted at that sort of thing but never exploited it.

Plus the dude's name is Cumberbatch. He could be playing anything and you want him to succeed.

People who could be characters in a Harry Potter book:

- Benedict Cumberbatch
- Andrew Clutterbuck
- Rupert Grint

hermione granger

Thought Holmes was pretty decent when I saw it in the cinema, but rewatching most of it on HBO this weekend and I've come to the conclusion that, actually, it's not very good. Or at the very least, never worth watching again.

And yes, the BBC modern version probably has a lot to do with that. And ep 3 is greeeaat.

Re the BBC modern version, eps 1 and 3 written by the same bloke, ep 2 by someone else. As long as they keep that guy away from series 2

Hate that guy now

Re the BBC modern version, eps 1 and 3 written by the same bloke, ep 2 by someone else. As long as they keep that guy away from series 2

the climax of e3 was a bit of a let down. 2 was dreadful. 1 was great. i hate new doctor who btw.

during ep 1 i think i said "YESSSS!" several times

― shirley summistake (s1ocki), Monday, December 6, 2010 2:23 AM (11 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

me too!

Martin Freeman's Watson is a bit of a pissant, though.

that's actually incorrect

just watched eps 1 & 2 recently:

the bbc sherlock series by the dr who 'bloke' and starring tim from the office

I was going to say, do we have to sully the new series by lumping it in with this shitty, shitty movie?

this was ok, thought it'd be a lil more fun than it was but i found my attention wandering a lot... really could've benefitted from snappier dialogue and maybe fewer explosions... kinda wish a movie like this could get made these days without having a bunch of steampunk crap in it but thats a nitpick

speaking of nitpicks - while the set design was nice, the costumes got pretty wacky - mark strong was wearing like a pleather duster at one point with slicked back nazi hair and it was pretty distracting

if i were a little more attached to the holmes character i might complain about his depiction, but RJD was so good that it probably doesnt matter

cool score, hans zimmer kinda killing it lately - rewatched thin red line earlier this year and the music was awesome, maybe hes always been rad and i never noticed?

hope they get someone sick as hell to play moriarty

Lane Pryce!!!

― (¬_¬) (Nicole), Wednesday, September 29, 2010 9:54 AM (2 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

cool score, hans zimmer kinda killing it lately - rewatched thin red line earlier this year and the music was awesome, maybe hes always been rad and i never noticed?

― Princess TamTam, Saturday, December 11, 2010 10:56 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

Sometimes he's super awesome, sometimes he phones it in and picks up the paycheck.

Hated this fucking movie, btw.

this was ok, thought it'd be a lil more fun than it was but i found my attention wandering a lot... really could've benefitted from snappier dialogue and maybe fewer explosions... kinda wish a movie like this could get made these days without having a bunch of steampunk crap in it but thats a nitpick

This is all OTM. I wanted to like this so much more than I actually did; even though I didn't dislike it, too much of it felt off/wrong for me to really enjoy it.

I'm still down for the new one being imperfectly entertainingly ridiculous. In fact I could be happy if this is all Guy Ritchie ever does again for the rest of his career and he leaves all other filmmaking alone.

sherlock holmes stories (and animorphs books) were my comic books as a little kid, and i still know all the bullshit (and self-contradictory) details about everything and could make top ten lists of the stories and etc., and i thought this was pretty good -- the case itself was of course noisy irrelevant gibberish and rachel mcadams (GODDESS) was wasted as the woman, but portraying sherlock holmes as a superhero whose superpower is autism, and emphasizing the bickering-roommates angle, was as good an approach as a hollywood movie's ever gonna take; certainly better than the numbing rathbone/bruce stuff. i even liked the fight scene gimmick, because it has it both ways -- the tactical clarity of slo-mo and the disorienting impressiveness of normal speed -- without resorting to that spastic zach snyder thing.

thanks for reminding me how much this movie fucking blows

The fight scene was my favorite sequence in the movie; after that I just started to feel ground down and distracted.

i seriously can't remember a single thing about it

somebody's head almost got knocked off by a runaway anchor, that part was pretty good

there are a few totally baffling scenes in this (the villains plotting, etc.) in which neither downey nor law appear and in their absence the movie plummets immediately into nothingness, so they may actually be all i like about it (except for the dinner scene w/ watson's fiance -- "i didn't leave him; he died" -- which does a v. good job of bringing in the Movie Emotions the businesslike stories never bothered with without violating the characters) but fortunately they're in most of it.

yeah, actually the further i get from this the crappier it becomes to me. trailer for the sequel looks like another dumb explosionfest

i'm cool w/ it as long as they throw in "you must stop it, mr. holmes; you really must, you know"

otm re wasting both mcadams and the character she was playing

Downey jr is never hard to watch, law often is but was ok here, everything looked great bar cgi, support cast very good, plot was utter shite, actively distracted from the fun, imma say 6.5/10

that's probably exactly where i stand. when law's terrible it's usually (well, "often" -- may be out of my depth here) because his looks have fooled casting directors into thinking he's a leading man; he's much more comfortable/expressive as a bitchy sidekick.

I liked this movie and anticipate the sequel and I think it's the best thing Guy Ritchie's done.

not anywhere near snatch, lock stock

xxp yeah, law's not untalented or uninteresting, but he's very unloveable. When cast along those lines, he wouldn't let you down.

also my mom loved this movie, which blew my mind cuz she's a late-british-empire girl from midcentury singapore and never did get her american citizenship and i thought it was safe to assume that if she was gonna be contemptuous of anything it would be a movie where sherlock holmes joins the UFC, but she was beaming when we got out.

imo his gangster ones are all the same movie

the same very slick and entertaining movie, dunno how that's really a criticism tbh

i've been trying to figure out whether it was law or downey who was a problem for me, and i think it's law. i think if they found a way to make the buddy movie dynamic really ~sing~ i would've forgiven the movie's excesses a lot more. the chemistry between them just wasnt there for me - compare w/downey and kilmer in kiss kiss bang bang, which basically made the movie

u just hot for downey slash

I have better memories of this movie than the 2nd BBC Sherlock ep from last year, at least.

Except the ending was stupid and tacked on in this one.

Curious to see how they use Stephen Fry, too.

plot was utter shite

i think i've seen this twice but i have zero recollection of what the plot is.

all i remember is that the villain wants to take back the american colonies -- monstrous!

evil dude in parliament is doing occult magic in a creepy attempt to take over the government

the magic all turns out to be parlor tricks or have a scientific basis, as deduced by holmes

also there are some fight scenes

rachel mcsmashems appears as a foil in that she's had a past relaish with holmes but is actually getting paid to work against him

This movie was dumb but I'll never understand why anyone prefers the dire new BBC version to it.

Being, as I am, on the very trailing edge of popular culture, I only just watched this on DVD last night. imo, it could boast two excellencies: the production and art design, intended to create a cinematic (and therefore much intensified) version of 1890s London was a treat. Whenever they were reproducing the "real" London, the sets, costumes, props, outdoor scenes and the CGI-tweaks were mostly outstanding. Wherever the occult elements were strongly involved, and a larger dose of imagination was required, the sets and other details were pure schlock.

The other excellency of the movie was Downey, who made a very mediocre script both watchable and entertaining. Jude Law was the only other actor who acquitted himself decently enough and I suspect that was because he was invariably playing opposite Downey, who lifted his game. Subtract Downey from this film and all you'd have left is Guy Ritchie's egregious and unwatchable schlock.

Oh, and to appreciate the movie you must take it as a comedy. Seeing it in any other light would ruin it entirely.

being even more on the trailing edge of culture than above Aimless guy, I am just about to watch this. Here I go

i loathed every long minute of this loud aggravating ugly movie.

Whenever I hear that Stephen Fry is in a movie, I just picture the same scene from Fish Called Wanda.

i enjoyed both of these movies, if you just take them as derivations of indiana jones set it the early 20th century plus lots of trendy digital effects

tried to watch both on hbo but there's just something about guy ritchie movies that turns me into george c scott in hardcore