Simon Bradshaw (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
major_clanger) wrote2010-01-26 11:38 pm
major_clanger) wrote2010-01-26 11:38 pm
2010 Films: Sherlock Holmes
I finally made a hole in my diary big enough to get to the cinema again, so checked out Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes. (We were born on the same day, don't you know? No, not Holmes, the other one!)
Overall, it's a brave attempt to wrest a well-worn franchise away from the stereotypes that have haunted its cinema adaptations for the last three-quarters of a century. The SFX efforts made to recreate 1890s London certainly look convincing, and in their own way are as impressive as the rather more dramatic virtual world of Avatar. Mind you, right at the start of the film we're back to finding a suitably old street for a horse-drawn cab to race up - yes, Middle Temple Lane stars again!
The problem is I spent the whole movie with a nagging feeling of I've seen this before and it was only later I realised where. Remember the execrable film version of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen? This is a much better movie - hell, what wouldn't be - but it ends up having an awfully similar ambience.
I was also getting deja vu watching Downey and Law's double act. Who are Holmes and Watson reminding me of...? Yes, of course: House and Wilson. In a delightful irony it looks very much as if two characters explicitly based on Holmes and Watson have now become the inspiration for a new portrayal of them.
Verdict: diverting enough but I could probably have lived with waiting to see it on DVD.
Overall, it's a brave attempt to wrest a well-worn franchise away from the stereotypes that have haunted its cinema adaptations for the last three-quarters of a century. The SFX efforts made to recreate 1890s London certainly look convincing, and in their own way are as impressive as the rather more dramatic virtual world of Avatar. Mind you, right at the start of the film we're back to finding a suitably old street for a horse-drawn cab to race up - yes, Middle Temple Lane stars again!
The problem is I spent the whole movie with a nagging feeling of I've seen this before and it was only later I realised where. Remember the execrable film version of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen? This is a much better movie - hell, what wouldn't be - but it ends up having an awfully similar ambience.
I was also getting deja vu watching Downey and Law's double act. Who are Holmes and Watson reminding me of...? Yes, of course: House and Wilson. In a delightful irony it looks very much as if two characters explicitly based on Holmes and Watson have now become the inspiration for a new portrayal of them.
Verdict: diverting enough but I could probably have lived with waiting to see it on DVD.
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I rather liked the interaction between Downey and Law, much closer to ACD's short stories than many of the adaptations (particularly Nigel Bruce's bumpling sidekick in the 1940s). It's done quite well at the box office, and a sequel is already in the pipeline.
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Now given that House MD's elevator pitch would be 'Sherlock Holmes in a modern hospital puzzling out weird medical cases' (and lots of elements of the show explicitly reference this) it may not be surprising that there's a similarity. But the particular character dynamic between Holmes and Watson has been so nicely adopted in House that it is amusing to see it becoming a trope that gets reflected back to its origin.
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Exactly what I said the night we saw it.
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Watson?
Mycroft????
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I was thinking of (ex) Mr Madonna...
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