Thursday, January 21, 2010

Elementary my dear Watson and some American sexiness

I don't know how many of you read Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and for those of you who have, I am sure you share my sentiment that his stories are SUPERBLY boring! Even my favourite "Hound of Baskervilles", was a relatively slow moving piece despite it having a large hound, horror and suspense to say nothing of a twist in the end.

I am not averse to slow detective fiction as Agatha's Christie egg-shaped Belgian, Hercule Poirot, is one of my favourite fictional characters. Maybe I have become very brain washed by American TV, Hollywood, wham-bam,thank you maam type of buckaroo movie styles.

So enter a VERY Hollywood Sherlock Holmes. I would not nearly have gone to see it, if it wasn't Iron Man...err....I mean Robert Downey Jr as Sherlock. In true American fashion, this version gave a very much alive, sexy and absolutely witty version of a supposedly very Victorian Sherlock Holmes. I give this 3 thumbs up and a fat toe....if I had 3 thumbs. It was a very enjoyable movie and while Downey Jr can be a very funny man, they did not overdo the wit and humour. They still gave glimpses of Holmes' uncanny eye for the detail and his amazing inhuman powers of observation and deduction.

I was not very impressed with Holmes' love interest and her role was really almost unnecessary. With or without her, the story will continue...well! Also Jude Law was just as interesting and successfully killing the stereotype of Dr. Watson as an elderly, slightly portly, gentleman. Jude was nothing of that of course and he managed to go toe to toe with Robert.

So all in all, a very enjoyable movie while I thought the story was relatively simplistic but then again Avatar was SOOOOOO much more lame in the story department. So do make the time for Sherlock and I can't wait to get my hands on the Hi-Def version. That's another blog for another day....Oh, Happy Belated New Year by the way!