SHERLOCK HOLMES is a fun mystery action-adventure.  Robert Downey Jr. brings out the eccentric nature of Sherlock Holmes while Jude Law makes Watson into the gambling doctor who is sometimes fed up with Sherlock’s eccentricities.  The film begins with the capture of Lord Blackwood.   He is due to be hanged.   He is hanged and his body disappears.  Holmes and Watson must find out how Lord Blackwood came back to life and what he has planned for London.   Blackwood deals in black magic and is part of secret masonic order.  His plot could threaten all of England.  To add further complications, Irene Adler is back in town with a case she wants Holmes to take on. Irene is the only woman to have outwitted Holmes (in addition to being the one he loved).  Both cases are linked and Irene is working for a mysterious criminal which we will learn more about in the sequel maybe (he is kept in shadows for this film and we learn who he is by the end of the film- just not who is playing him).

Guy Ritchie brings his usual directorial style to the film.  It is just that SHERLOCK HOLMES is on a bigger budget than all of the films that Ritchie has done combined.  The visual effects create the London of the late 19^th century and it help creates the world that SHERLOCK HOLMES exists in.  Even scenes get played in a different way to show what Sherlock Holmes is doing after the fact.   I love Robert Downey Jr. as Holmes.  He brings the right energy to the character and it gets away from the common deerstalker or Jeremy Brett look.    Downey has Holmes in disguise and show how sometimes he can really annoy Watson (in addition to testing things on their dog).   I hear Holmes did have fighting skills and you see them in this movie.

 I really want to see a sequel because SHERLOCK HOLMES is one of the films I enjoyed the most in 2009.  Definitely SHERLOCK HOLMES is a film to see again and own on DVD (or Blu-ray).  It is extreme fun.

This movie review is (c)12-25-2009 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to lord_pragmagtic@hotmail.com