Anyone else looking forward to the new Sherlock Holmes movie?

[Flaxbee]

OK, I admit, I'm a little crazy - it's not coming out until this Christmas - but it's got Robert Downey Jr. as Sherlock and Jude Law as Holmes.

I feel like I haven't seen an entertaining movie in ages. Please oh please, don't disappoint me, Sherlock!

[azmouse]

1. This is the first I've heard about it.

Downey and Law are both good actors so it could be interesting.

[Flaxbee]

2. it's supposed to be a more active Sherlock Holmes;

Holmes as a younger man, able to run after villains (but hopefully no Bourne-or-Bond-esque fist fights :D )

[MajorChode]

3. I'm disappointed they picked Robert Downey Jr. as Holmes

I've never really thought much of Robert Downey Jr. as an actor. About the only movie I thought he really did a good job in is Chaplin. I really enjoyed the late Jeremy Brett's portrayal of Holmes and I would like to see a more well suited actor follow along in that tradition. I just don't think Downey can pull it off. Jude Law might, and it would have been much better had they cast him as Holmes instead of Watson.

[jobycom]

4. And Guy Ritchie directs it! It's actually based on a comic book revisioning of the Conan-Doyle hero.

It's not based on the novels.

http://www.filmwad.com/wb-to-re-imagine-sherlock-holmes-by-giving-him-a-sword-1906-p.html

"producer Lionel Wigram... told Variety that Holmes will be losing some of his "Victorian stuffiness," generally acting more adventuresome, "including playing up his skills as a bare-knuckle boxer and expert swordsman.""

[MajorChode]

10. Yes, the whole project is just shit

It will probably play well to those who like comic book recreations, but to those who have actually read the short stories and novels and seen more accurate portrayals, I think it will be very disappointing. I'm not at all optimistic and I'll just as soon watch Jeremy Brett reruns. I'm just thankful the original British TV productions are available on DVD.

[jobycom]

12. We'll see, it could be good in its own way. It won't be the literary Holmes, but

it could have its own merits. I won't compare it to Jeremy Brett, of course. Compare it to "Snatch" instead. When I first heard of this, I thought Jude Law might make a decent classic Sherlock, and Downey could maybe be Moriarty. But I guess Watson is going to be some type of swashbuckling henchman more than a cerebral assistant.

Sounds like you are a bit of a connoisseur of Holmes, so I can understand why you'd be pissed. :) I'd hate to see Guy Ritchie do "The Great Gatsby!"

[MajorChode]

13. Well, at least Downey won't have any problem playing a coke addict

but studying up for those scenes might be a bit problematic.

[jobycom]

14. If they go that route.

You're right, an addict actor taking on the role of an addict... That sounds like a movie in its own right.

[Rabrrrrrr]

16. Oh, goody. Guy Ritchie. That'll be really awesome.

I'm glad to hear he's taking out everything that makes Sherlock Holmes stories good, and is putting in everything that makes Guy Ritchie movies so blasphemously god-awful.

Yeah, that's the way to treat Sherlock Holmes.

Fucking hell. Might as well let the pre-Catholic Joe Eszterhas write it.


Ritchie is such a piece of shit.

One can tell by the movie poster that it's gonna be a pile of shit, and certainly will have absolutely nothing to do with Sherlock Holmes.

Seriously - look at how they have Holmes dressed!

Someone should make Guy Ritchie illegal.

[jobycom]

21. So you won't be buying a ticket, you're saying?

[Rabrrrrrr]

22. Out of respect for Sherlock Holmes, a hero since my childhood, I will not see this movie.

[jobycom]

24. Maybe that's what I have against Rush.

I loved yesterday's Tom Sawyer. :rofl:

[csziggy]

7. Yeah that is as bad miscasting as when Roger Moore played Holmes

I like Roger Moore and enjoyed him as a Maverick cousin, as The Saint and as James Bond. But he was completely miscast as Holmes (Sherlock Holmes in New York - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075208/).

Next to Jeremy Brett, my favorite recent Holmes actor so far was Matt Frewer (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001242/) (The Sign of Four, The Royal Scandal and The Hound of the Baskervilles). He had the right look and added a nice ironic flavor to the role though at times his comedic side almost popped out.

For a young Holmes, it would be hard to beat the performance of Nicholas Rowe in Young Sherlock Homes (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090357/). He was great and Alan Cox was terrific as his Watson.

While the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes movies are classics, IMO they took far too many liberties with the plots and turned the series into just another series of shlock movies. I still enjoy them, but not as much as the Jeremy Brett renditions.

To play a darker Holmes, I think Alan Rickman could be brilliant. And it would be a wonderful career move for him after the Harry Potter movies. Any number of actors could play Watson with Rickman as Holmes.

Another approach to the Sherlock Holmes genre could be to do movie adaptations of Carolyn Nelson Douglas' Irene Adler series (http://www.carolenelsondouglas.com/irene.html). She took the Irene Adler character and gave her a life of her own beyond the Doyle version.

[Vidar]

27. I like Downey as an actor bu he's not tall enough to play Holmes

His height was part of his persona. To me Basil Rathbone is the definitive Holmes, despite the silliness (eg Nazis) in some of those movies.

[JitterbugPerfume]

5. could be interesting!

[Bryan]

6. Sure. I'm not a Holmes purist.

I like Downey, I like Law, I like Guy Ritchie's Cockney geezer gangster movies, I'll give it a look.

[EastTennesseeDem]

8. I love anything Rachel McAdams is in

That woman is just radiant.

[Blue_Tires]

9. could have potential...

I was a big Brett fan though, so the bar is high...

[Flaxbee]

11. Brett was wonderful, and I think if this were a faithful retelling

rather than an adaptation from comics, it would be a disaster. But I like Downey, so it could be worth watching, at least.

A&E's Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle is tops, but I also enjoyed the shorter movie version with Keira Knightly -- each had its own appeal.

[Rabrrrrrr]

15. Sherlock and Holmes are the same person.

Who's playing who?

[Orrex]

17. They're filming the Robert Louis Stevenson version

The one in which Sherlock drinks that potion, and...

[Orrex]

18. I fear that this will stink as bad as Van Helsing or The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

For most of the same reasons.

[Auggie]

20. Me too. Films of intelligence are a rarity.

[underpants]

19. Anything with Downey Jr. in it will be good

well at least until Tropic Thunder :eyes: He was good in that too the movie just fell flat

[Lavender Brown]

23. Jeremy Brett IS Sherlock to me, but I'll see this

:thumbsup:

[MajorChode]

25. Unfortunately not any more

It's too bad a better suited actor and a better suited production team weren't put together with something that's true to the original stories. Something more along the lines of the Lord of the Rings would really have been nice. This could have blossomed into so much more like a series of movies remaking all the novels and perhaps a TV series remaking the short stories. However Hollywood is more concerned with short term gains as always and they will simply bastardize Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's work and blow any chance of that for another couple of decades.

[realisticphish]

26. Dr. Sherlock and Mr. Holmes

Is this a Gollum/Sméagol type thing?

;)