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Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes film looks as bad feared


plekhanov

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Last year I started a thread on the Sherlock Homes film Guy Ritchie was apparently making. Well a trailer has come out and it looks as bad I feared.

 

Gone is the distinctive Holmes character so many know and love and in his place we have wisecracking, douchebag action hero in what seems to practically be a parody of contemporary action films. Now there is of course nothing wrong with cgi heavy comedy action films, I just don't see why a character called Sherlock Holmes who obviously isn't Doyle's Sherlock Holmes needs to be in one.

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Blimey. I can definitely see what you are saying (having adored the deliciously understated Jeremy Brett as Sherlock)!

 

Will probably watch it just to see how they do it, and as I have a sentimental thing for stuff set in London, but I fear I will end up cringing at some point.

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The prospect of Guy Ritchie getting his hands on Conan Doyle's work filled my with dread from the first minute I heard that he'd been allowed near it. He's a one-note hack of a director whose career should have been halted with Swept Away and incinerated with Revolver.

 

From the trailer, this film looks fairly amusing; but then the film is obviously to Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes as Jason Statham is to Mr Darcy.

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Well, I'm gonna take the flipside of this and say I'm actually looking forward to it. Loved the idea when it was first pitched (spice up Holmes with some action), and the trailer ticked the entertainment factor boxes required for a Christmas time release. Good cast too (from Downey Jr's likeable charms to Mark Strong's 'ard-bloke image).

 

I guess this is gonna be one of those redefinition films that will upset purists - much like the upcoming Robin Hood film, Nottingham, with Russel Crowe will be....and also much like how Casino Royale's redefining of the Bond image created a divide. For me, I'm happy as long as it is entertaining cinema.

 

 

 

Oh, before any asks or casts aspersions....yes, I have read Doyle's books. Loved them.

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... For me, I'm happy as long as it is entertaining cinema.

But it's Sherlock Holmes! Sherlock Holmes!. A 'ard bloke geezer has no more place in a Sherlock Holmes 'adaptation' than Keanu Reeves has in a documentary about astrophysics.

 

I love Jason Statham. I thought Crank was tongue-in-cheek, thoroughly entertaining popcorn nonsense. I don't have a stick up my arse about stupid action films. There are just some things that you don't bugger about with.

 

Hecate. Purist ;) .

 

ETA: I suppose the key to getting some entertainment out of this will be putting the quotation marks around 'adaptation'.

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Hecate. Purist ;) .

 

ETA: I suppose the key to getting some entertainment out of this will be putting the quotation marks around 'adaptation'.

 

You must at least appreciate that they have kept in some reference to Holmes' drug habits (cocaine and morphine...but not opium), and Watson's distaste of this. Also bringing in some fist-fighting and martial arts (a first for an adaptation of Holmes) lends well to the old stories (The Sign Of Four and Adventures of Empty House make reference to his skill in both).

 

I'm more than accepting of some of the oft-referred to 'off page action' from the tales to be seen on screen as part of the story.

 

Every adaptation so far has made changes to the character (the famous deerstalker hat is one which appeared from nowhere aside from a short mention of a travelling hat once. The famous "Elementary Dear Watson" line was said just as often as "Beam me up Scotty" was in Trek, yet is now synonomous with the character.

 

Look at it this way, at least it can't be as bad as Young Sherlock Holmes was :)

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Well, I'm gonna take the flipside of this and say I'm actually looking forward to it. Loved the idea when it was first pitched (spice up Holmes with some action), and the trailer ticked the entertainment factor boxes required for a Christmas time release. Good cast too (from Downey Jr's likeable charms to Mark Strong's 'ard-bloke image).

A great many Holmes stories feature some action the operative word here being some this looks very much like a film that's nearly all action, prat falls, slap stick fights... and hardly any actual detective work & thinking which is what Holmes is actually famous for.

 

As for "Downey Jr's likeable charms" again this is a problem, Doyle's Holmes is anything but a short, wisecracking, sleazebag no matter how likeable.

 

Holmes in this film looks to be a hybrid of Roger Moore's Bond & John Mclain, basically your generic wisecracking action hero, this film may well be a fun action film but it looks like anything but a Sherlock Holmes film.

 

I guess this is gonna be one of those redefinition films that will upset purists - much like the upcoming Robin Hood film, Nottingham, with Russel Crowe will be....and also much like how Casino Royale's redefining of the Bond image created a divide. For me, I'm happy as long as it is entertaining cinema.

 

Oh, before any asks or casts aspersions....yes, I have read Doyle's books. Loved them.

Your attempted comparisons are way off, there has never been a definitive Robin Hood he's always been a mythical figure portrayed in all manner of ways. Casino Royale was a return to Flemming's books & to a lesser extent the early Connery bond films away from the cartoonish parody of himself Bond tends to get every few decades.

 

This in contrast looks to be simply slapping the names of Holmes & Watson into a generic action film with complete disregard for the well defined & loved characters that they already have.

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