Don't miss the new Sherlock Holmes flick!
It was excellent- easily twice as good as the marvelous first film in the Robert Downey, Jr./Jude Law collaboration. Stephen Fry is marvelous as Mycroft, Sherlock's smarter brother, and Jared Harris is brilliantly evil as the infamous Professor Moriarity- an opponent in every nuance perfect as the counterpart of Downey's Holmes.
The only trouble with this series is that Downey and Law just aren't Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Holmes and Watson. Rather than the almost autistically brilliant, icily cerebral detective of the canon, Downey's version is always very much in on the joke, a somewhat outrageous and witty character exhibiting a droll sense of humor that is as entertaining as it is unlike the canonical Holmes. The banter between Downey and Law is priceless- this version of the detective and the doctor are very much equals- but somehow they don't quite seem to be... well, Holmes and Watson.
Who, after all, can imagine Basil Rathbone or Jeremy Britt expressing a reluctance to ride a horse by saying, "I'm uncomfortable having something between my legs that has a mind of its own?"
Rather, they're some other Victorian consulting detective and his medico side-kick of the same names who live at an alternate 221b Baker Street with a landlady named Mrs. Hudson. This is a pair of characters who deserve their own identity.
I love this pair! May there be many more movies in this wonderful series!
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