Dr. Watson and the lads from Scotland Yard load
their pistols en route to a raid. Our hero, who has gotten there well
ahead of them thanks to his parkour (climbing/clambering) skills, kicks
the door down, “Dirty Harry” style.
This is not your great grandfather’s
ripped and ready for action. He still has those intense powers of
observation, still has the fiddle (though he doesn’t play it), still
has his little drug habit.
And he still says, “The game’s afoot.”
But Ritchie yanks Holmes out of drawing rooms and hurls him into the muddy streets of 1880s
in pursuit of a villain he thought he’d caught and seen hanged. And
Holmes matches wits with an American con artist named Irene (
is droll and witty, an exchange of equals, not the way that
relationship is traditionally played. This Watson is as two-fisted as
Holmes, an
Their quarry — an English lord with a gift for the black arts (
Strong has great menace and mystery about him (he’d
have made a great Holmes), and McAdams makes a playful foil for our
hero. But it is Downey’s eyes, always processing information, and his
quirky way with a line that sell this.
“Data, data data. I cannot make breakthroughs without data.”
Ritchie delivers PG-13 action (a first for him) and
lots of atmosphere in between brawls and shootouts. But the
script-by-committee unravels in a “Wild Wild West”/”
As much fun as it is to watch Downey as Holmes plan
and narrate his every punch in a fight and deduce his way to solutions,
they may have to take another crack at this “franchise” to really get
it right. This one feels somewhat “elementary.”
2 1/2 stars (out of 4)
Cast:
Director:
Running time: 2 hours 5 minutes
Industry rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, some startling images and a scene of suggestive material
Via McClatchy-Tribune News Service.
