Sherlock Holmes (Guy Ritchie, 2009)

[Adam]

The NY Times article about it the other day made me really dread it. I've read all the books & stories, and teh self-proclaimed expert producer basically came up with a different Holmes.

[Polybius]

Jeff, where do you stand on Nick Meyer's The Seven Percent Solution?

Sorry, Polybius, I just now noticed your inquiry. I haven't seen The Seven Percent Solution in several years, but I definitely think it's in the upper tier of the non-canonical Holmes films. Robert Duvall's accent is downright bizarre and the story often feels disjointed, but there is a lot that works well. I remember liking Alan Arkin's Freud better than the more traditional Holmes stuff. Nicol Williamson makes a fine Holmes (he was Wilder's first choice too). I never got around to picking up Image's lame DVD before it went out of print. Here's hoping Uni releases a proper version soon. It's due for reassessment.

No worries, especially since you share my opinion pretty much down the line. I also liked Wilder's take (and I'm not really a big fan of his.)

[Antoine Doinel]

The studio is ordering Ritchie to go back and do some reshoots.

EDIT: WB says it's just pickup shots and inserts that were already scheduled.

[Antoine Doinel]

Here's the teaser poster. I didn't know Criss Angel was in the movie.

[statsman]

I thought "The Zero Effect" was a very interesting update of the basic Holmes story- super-observant sleuth with a speed addiction, hapless sidekick who can see the genius through the tics and idiosyncracies. I wouldn't have minded a sequel.

[jon]

Here's the teaser poster. I didn't know Criss Angel was in the movie.

was holmes also a pimp/snoop dogg?

[Antoine Doinel]

Here's the trailer which makes the film look like a cross between 300 and The Odd Couple.

[Gregory]

Looks like there's room in the vast number of fight sequences for just about every cliche in the book, including wannabe-John Woo slow motion stuff, and a shot to the groin followed by the sideways angle as the head hits the floor. This looks about as stupid as I could have feared, or more.

Edit: Of course it's possible that the varying-speed slow-motion punch was an added effect for the trailer and doesn't appear in the film itself.

[filmnoir1]

This looks really bad. It is a travesty that Britain's worst filmmaker has been entrusted with one its most precious literary creations and in the process created a comic book movie that borders on the idiotic. Too bad, a new Homes film could be done well today.

[statsman]

I mentioned earlier that "The Zero effect" was an updating of the detective with genius powers of observation and deduction, but with some personal foibles (substance abuse, difficulty in relationships). Here's the trailer from it...

[flyonthewall2983]

I gotta stand up and say I found it quite entertaining and funny. But I'm sure I'm not alone when I say it starts a trend of Hollywood doing the same thing to every possible literary classic.

[Antoine Doinel]

Here are the latest ads for Hugo Boss with Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law........oh wait, it's their one sheets.

[Cde.]

Trailer 2 is almost exactly the same as trailer 1.

[Erikht]

So this is going to be “like James Bond in 1891”.

Well, Holmes was a boxer, and as his year of birth is set to 1854, it is not incorrect to make him a bare knuckle boxer. Marquess of Queensberry rules were not published before 1867, and bare knuckle boxing was still usual for many years after that.

[Jeff]

Even if it turns out that the new movie sucks, Holmes aficionados still have cause for celebration. Beginning at 8:00 p.m. Eastern on Christmas Day, TCM will be running a bevy of Holmes films, including all the Basil Rathbone stuff, the Wilder, the Hammer version of Hound of the Baskervilles, and two films that are harder to see: the 1965 Holmes/Jack the Ripper pastiche A Study in Terror (which was supposed to be released on R1 DVD right about now, but has apparently been canceled), and the long-thought-lost early talkie The Sleeping Cardinal (Sherlock Holmes Fatal Hour) from 1931.

[Arrow]

Even if it turns out that the new movie sucks, Holmes aficionados still have cause for celebration. Beginning at 8:00 p.m. Eastern on Christmas Day, TCM will be running a bevy of Holmes films, including all the Basil Rathbone stuff, the Wilder, the Hammer version of Hound of the Baskervilles, and two films that are harder to see: the 1965 Holmes/Jack the Ripper pastiche A Study in Terror (which was supposed to be released on R1 DVD right about now, but has apparently been canceled), and the long-thought-lost early talkie The Sleeping Cardinal (Sherlock Holmes Fatal Hour) from 1931.

I'm not a Holmes aficionado, but I'd be interested in checking a couple out. Any recommendations?

[kaujot]

I can't recall having seen any of Rathbone's films that are bad, so check them all out if you can. Hound is probably the best, if you can only catch one.

And, if you haven't, go to your library and check out any of the "Annotated Sherlock Holmes" books. There are annotated copies of all the novels and all the short stories in different volumes. Fascinating, fascinating stuff. Will absolutely turn you into a Holmes aficionado. It's how I caught the bug. ("The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes" is my favorite story collection, and "Hound of the Baskervilles" is the best novel.)

[Jeff]

I'm not a Holmes aficionado, but I'd be interested in checking a couple out. Any recommendations?

Wilder's The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes is pretty great. It's compromised from his original intentions, but still a hell of a lot of fun, and one of my favorites of his films. If you were only going to watch one Holmes feature, that would certainly be my choice.

The Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce series is perhaps the best known iteration of Holmes on film. The first two films, The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes are generally considered the best of the series. They were made for Fox with higher production values, and take place in the Victorian era of the stories. The other Rathbone/Bruce pictures were made on the cheap by Universal, and are more in line with other detective serials you may have seen. They take place in contemporary (early 40s) England, and as such are full of lots of WWII propaganda. They're all pretty entertaining.

The Hammer version of Hound is worth watching just for Peter Cushing's appropriately mannered and fussy version of Holmes. It benefits from the typical Hammer atmosphere, though it's quite different from the book.

I haven't seen A Study in Terror since I was a kid and I've never seen The Sleeping Cardinal, so I'm looking forward to checking those out on Friday.

[starmanof51]

The Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce series is perhaps the best known iteration of Holmes on film. The first two films, The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes are generally considered the best of the series. They were made for Fox with higher production values, and take place in the Victorian era of the stories. The other Rathbone/Bruce pictures were made on the cheap by Universal, and are more in line with other detective serials you may have seen.

All true enough, but I go back and forth on which is my favorite - Adventures of or The Scarlet Claw, one of the Universal Bs. I more often think it's Scarlet Claw, a tight, atmospheric rewrite of Hound of the Baskervilles that is significantly better than the actual Fox Hound film made with Rathbone just a few years earlier.

And Private Life of Sherlock Holmes is indeed pretty wonderful, and very funny.

[Napoleon]

Second Scarlett Claw as my favourite of the Rathbones, although the majority are good fun. However just as the latest would appear to bare little similarity to Conan Doyles original vision none of the Rathbones are particularly true to Conan Doyle either. Aside from the first couple they were all set in the 40's for a start whilst Holme's addictions are mentioned only fleetingly at the end of Hound.

My Holmes-nut buddy maintains that the most faithful adaption is the Jeremy Brett Granada tv series.

[Jeff]

I don't think I've ever seen Scarlet Claw, and it is apparently not one that TCM is showing.

My Holmes-nut buddy maintains that the most faithful adaption is the Jeremy Brett Granada tv series.

That is definitely the case. The late Jeremy Brett is perfect, and the early episodes of that series are especially great.

[kaujot]

100% agreed.

[Polybius]

I'm already planning my snack menu. This is a great opportunity to see this many at one time. I haven't seen most of the Rathbone-Bruce films since my elementary school days, and some of these I have never seen at all.

[Matt]

I don't think I've ever seen Scarlet Claw, and it is apparently not one that TCM is showing.

It's on at 12:15 AM Eastern tonight.

[Jeff]

Thanks, Matt! I skimmed right over it in the listings.