I don't do this very often
So remember it:
I was wrong.
Sherlock Holmes was the most sheer, giddy, joyous fun I have had at a movie since the first Iron Man. (side note: OH HAI RDJ in both films; this is apparently an important quality for films I find great pleasure in nowadays.)
Yes, there are various things I could find fault with if I wanted to put in the effort. But I was expecting a total trainwreck (with pretty clothes and backdrops) that I would carp about with gleeful, vicious schadenfreude, and it was not that at all. And, my biggest mea culpa, I don't think this takes away in any way from Rathbone or Brett or Cushing (and is far better than that dreadful boring thing they tried a few years ago with Rupert Everett); it just makes me want to enjoy those interpretations all the more. Some things from canon were certainly grossly stretched or looked at sideways, but when it came down to it, the whole of the world created held together so well that those things didn't matter so much. (That said, this whole enterprise hinged enormously on the performances and chemistry between RDJ and Jude Law; without them, it would probably have ended up the disaster I expected.)
Someone on my f'list made a comparison to the first Pirates of the Caribbean film, in that it totally should not have worked and yet somehow, in that weird movie alchemy that sometimes happens, it totally did. I think that's a very apt comparison.
On another note, I am a big silly overfashionated geek who wants to take any excuse to dress ridiculously, and so I wore the ivory blouse from this and this skirt along with the jacket and overskirt from this and my hair up. No foundations, because I didn't want to fuss with them, and no hat because I was going to a movie and an appropriate hat would have been inconsiderate. I got a few double takes as we walked around Ballard, and the woman at the ticket office, showing great perspicacity, said, "You look like you're dressed for this film."
We grabbed a quick dinner before the movie at the Old Town Ale House, which was a bit overpriced but pretty good--excellent caesar salad, and house salad of mixed field greens with sweet pecans and a fantastic balsamic vinaigrette; they put red pepper flakes on my portobello ravioli, which kind of overwhelmed the ravioli itself, but the ravioli were well-made and their pesto passed muster. (Too many restaurants seem to think that pesto is just a lot of oil with some mutilated basil thrown into it; theirs was actually cohesive and the right balance of basil and oil.) And K had the hefeweizen and I made a valiant attempt at trying it, but beer still just doesn't really work for me--I end up unable to taste anything but yeast and hops. I could smell other notes, but the flavor wouldn't come out for me.
I had one great day this holiday weekend, one horrible day, and one day that couldn't seem to get going (earlier today I was having an existential crisis because I couldn't decide how to organize things in my new jewelry armoire). Tonight definitely tipped the balance much more towards things being good, and I can go back to "normal" post-holidays life with a decent attitude.
I was wrong.
Sherlock Holmes was the most sheer, giddy, joyous fun I have had at a movie since the first Iron Man. (side note: OH HAI RDJ in both films; this is apparently an important quality for films I find great pleasure in nowadays.)
Yes, there are various things I could find fault with if I wanted to put in the effort. But I was expecting a total trainwreck (with pretty clothes and backdrops) that I would carp about with gleeful, vicious schadenfreude, and it was not that at all. And, my biggest mea culpa, I don't think this takes away in any way from Rathbone or Brett or Cushing (and is far better than that dreadful boring thing they tried a few years ago with Rupert Everett); it just makes me want to enjoy those interpretations all the more. Some things from canon were certainly grossly stretched or looked at sideways, but when it came down to it, the whole of the world created held together so well that those things didn't matter so much. (That said, this whole enterprise hinged enormously on the performances and chemistry between RDJ and Jude Law; without them, it would probably have ended up the disaster I expected.)
Someone on my f'list made a comparison to the first Pirates of the Caribbean film, in that it totally should not have worked and yet somehow, in that weird movie alchemy that sometimes happens, it totally did. I think that's a very apt comparison.
On another note, I am a big silly overfashionated geek who wants to take any excuse to dress ridiculously, and so I wore the ivory blouse from this and this skirt along with the jacket and overskirt from this and my hair up. No foundations, because I didn't want to fuss with them, and no hat because I was going to a movie and an appropriate hat would have been inconsiderate. I got a few double takes as we walked around Ballard, and the woman at the ticket office, showing great perspicacity, said, "You look like you're dressed for this film."
We grabbed a quick dinner before the movie at the Old Town Ale House, which was a bit overpriced but pretty good--excellent caesar salad, and house salad of mixed field greens with sweet pecans and a fantastic balsamic vinaigrette; they put red pepper flakes on my portobello ravioli, which kind of overwhelmed the ravioli itself, but the ravioli were well-made and their pesto passed muster. (Too many restaurants seem to think that pesto is just a lot of oil with some mutilated basil thrown into it; theirs was actually cohesive and the right balance of basil and oil.) And K had the hefeweizen and I made a valiant attempt at trying it, but beer still just doesn't really work for me--I end up unable to taste anything but yeast and hops. I could smell other notes, but the flavor wouldn't come out for me.
I had one great day this holiday weekend, one horrible day, and one day that couldn't seem to get going (earlier today I was having an existential crisis because I couldn't decide how to organize things in my new jewelry armoire). Tonight definitely tipped the balance much more towards things being good, and I can go back to "normal" post-holidays life with a decent attitude.