Sherlock Holmes

I did not know House's great great grandfather was Sherlock Holmes. They have a lot of similarities. Both are very bright, have incredible attention to detail, have pushed everyone away from them, maintain a normal and innocent successful sidekick to speak some rationality to them once in a while. Iron Man's Robert Downey Jr. plays this part with poised reckless abandon.

His clever but gullible mini partner is Dr. John Watson. I think they borrowed his character from Wilson from the same show mentioned above. Jude Law from the terribly boring Artificial Intelligence reigns supreme. Law is a fine actor, interesting how his star is now second fiddle to Downey Jr. This would not be the case about 5 years ago.

The plot is about a psychopath who is basically a chemist and magician all wrapped up one. He enjoys killing people and placing their bodies in symbolic alignment. He practices magic but his only trickery is old fashioned bribery. He is hung but lives. I thought he had a twin like the spectacular movie The Prestige but I was mistaken. He was never actually killed, why did Watson proclaim him dead then? I am not sure; he must have taken something to slow down his heart. He had more chemicals in his home than DuPont has in their laboratories.

Body of Lies's Mark Strong is the devil's right hand man, he is the one and only Lord Blackwood. He wants to control England and reclaim America. He asserts America is weak after the devastating Civil War. He is about 30 years late. America was powerful and rising by the 1890's. America was reeling in the late 1860's, a few years after the Civil War but not three decades later. Blackwood wanted to kill off England's Parliament with poison gas, while some blood sucking politicians took a pill that would protect them from the poison fumes emanating from the floor vents.

Blackwood's ploy is determined by Holmes and Holmes outsmarts him in the end. He is properly hung on the new bridge being built by fine English engineers to span the Thames.

The gorgeous Rachel McAdams stars in this entertaining but skippity skip movie. She is a deviant, a seducer, and a thief. Blackwood trusts her but he chose the wrong woman. McAdam's is Irene Adler who is hustler, and a fine one at that. But is not evil like Blackwood, Blackwood miscalculated her character. Deep down, she likes Holmes despite almost betraying him in the end. This movie moves quickly, there are so many scientific points made and ideas tossed out, it is hard to follow. The action scenes bounce all around; tracking what is actually occurring is difficult. Nevertheless, I cannot recall a wasted scene. Several parts were comical. I think the writer's for House wrote many of the sharp and sarcastic lines for Holmes.

Hancock's villain Eddie Marsan plays the predictable Inspector Lestrade. He is manipulated by Blackwood's man and arrests Holmes. Of course Holmes is about 5 chess moves ahead, as always.

This movie is entertaining. It is worth seeing. It is fantastical though; Blackwood's manipulation is just too over the top to me. His character is Adolf Hitler, about 40 years before the actual worldwide beast comes to power. Blackwood wants to push the start button on World War I about 20 years before it actually ignites. It is purely fiction though, I understand this but outstanding movies are magnificently realistic.

Like Ocean 11 and 13, I wish they added another 5-10 minutes to actually explain one of the many scientific explanations they propose in the dialogue. I think the writer's would be surprised; a lot of us enjoy science.

I allocate this movie three stars.***