"Sherlock Holmes" in 30 seconds

[baxil]

Robert Downey Jr.: Hey Watson, check me out. I'm House!
Jude Law: No you're not.
Robert Downey Jr.: I totally am. I'm an irascible slovenly guy that mistreats his closest friends. I even gave myself his five-o'clock-shadow beard and rumpled hair.
Jude Law: Stop that. Hugh Laurie is House. You're Sherlock Holmes.
Robert Downey Jr.: Okay okay

Comments

[lupagreenwolf]

*snerkgiggle*

[kevynjacobs]

Haven't seen it, will wait until home release. In addition to the implausible attempt to turn Holmes into an action hero, I have to nitpick... couldn't they have found a British actor to play a character as undeniably British as Holmes?

[kshandra]

I found nothing overtly objectionable about RDJ's accent; indeed, I don't recall having noticed the presence or absence thereof during the film - and considering the number of times Jude Law has played Americans, I was actually somewhat amused by the symmetry.

[xiphias]

Why is it implausable to turn Holmes into an action hero? He IS one in the books.

[baxil]

Yesbut. Book-Holmes was a good bare-knuckled fighter, fell off Reichenbach Falls and lived, etc., but virtually all of the action in the books was offscreen. And I don't recall book-Holmes (spoiler!) dashing through any explosions or rescuing ladies from meat rendering saws or dodging giant boats being hurtled down a ramp at him.

It's not so much a question of plausibility as it is a question of tone. I had a hard time seeing Sherlock Holmes turned into a penny dreadful.

[kshandra]

kadyg liked it -- or at least wants to see it again from not in the very front corner of the theater.

s/"very front corner"/"third row center" and you have my experience in a nutshell; I was at enough of an awkward angle (I'm very much a center-of-the-house girl) to not be able to take in the entire screen as I would have liked. I was quite pleased to see that RDJ-as-Holmes was not simply RDJ-as-Tony-Stark-with-an-accent; they were two distinct eccentric geniuses.

[kadyg]

We ended up in the last two open side-by-side seats in the whole place: front row faaaaaaaaaar right. I actually think we were sitting slightly behind the speakers.

I'm not usually a seating snob, but that totally sucked.

[baxil]

I almost wish that I had any desire to see the movie again, because one of the things that frustrated me was that I felt like I was missing a lot of the dialogue (I was able to follow the story pretty easily but not many of the lines that got audience laughter). And it was hard to track the combatants during the many, many fight scenes (though some of that was also the gray, faded tone of the movie colors and the dramatic scene lighting). Theater position was a big factor in both of those. If you go back, let me know how much it improves with seating.

[krinndnz]

There was an excellent Adbusters bit a while back with Sherlock Holmes sinking into despair because his skillset had become obsolete because of globalization. I ought to try to find it again.

[baxil]

I'd be curious to see that. I don't know that it's globalization killing the Holmesian skills so much as it is the instant, everpresent access to the world's largest information repository.

[pathia]

Errr, how can you say they're copying House, when House is an *intentional* copying of Holmes?

[balinares]

Well, Holmes should arguably be a lot better than House at being Holmes. :D

[baxil]

There are elements of House that copy Holmes (detective, chemist, eccentric, obsessed with his mysteries, etc). But there are also elements of House that are very much specific to House: he's irascible, downright abusive to his helpers, full of snarky wisecracks, borderline sociopathic (though admittedly in an oddly endearing way) ... it felt to me like the script was trying to do that in an attempt to give Holmes more of a bad-boy image, and for me that really fell flat.

(YMMV. I am not fond of House-the-character, and as such, while I appreciate the good writing and the entertaining mysteries of the show, I can take it or leave it.)

[pathia]

It's more than a slight homage, the character that shot him and ended up in bed right next to him in one of the finale's was named MORIARTY for pete's sake XD