4 out of 5 stars

BestFlick comes to you now with a review of GuyRitchie’s Sherlock Holmes. There’s something strange writing Guy Ritchie’s name together with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s chief protagonist. We all know Guy Ritchie from his all too chaotic creations such as RocknRolla (2008) and more famously, Snatch (2000). But if you’ve read Sherlock Holmes, you won’t recognize him in Guy Ritchie’s version. Not to say that it is at all that bad. On the contrary, it’s one fun ride.

Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law - odd couple

The first thing one notices from the start of Sherlock Holmes is the juxtaposition of time and place. The production design team led by Sarah Greenwood obviously did a heckuva job re-creating 1890s London on-screen, capturing both the city’s gritty squalor and its beautiful architecture in scenes set in and around the Houses of Parliament, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Somerset House and Brompton Cemetery.

The script is authentic but very modern, you feel. This is very obvious in the relationship between Holmes and Watson. The pair behave like a squabbling married couple, with Holmes looking after Watson’s finances to curb his gambling ways, and Watson working overtime to keep Holmes connected with society to retain some semblance of sanity.

I also rest my case with this following argument: Robert Downey Jr. will be one of the actors that will define my age. This was an inspired choice for Holmes, his accent was perfect, his eccentricities compelling. There’s a touch of the insolent brat when he first appears on-screen, but the Iron Man star is charm and eloquence personified, mixed in with vulnerability and physicality to create what  I feel, one of the best original takes on a classic character to date.

The cast makes Sherlock Holmes a truly fun ride

If you want fun, go out and watch this movie. It’s pretty much a Hollywood film in its totality, and sequel-friendly at that. The detail is amazing, I can’t wait to have this in Blu-ray, to bring around and play on my external Blu-ray drive.

Filed under: Movie Reviews