{"id":7145,"date":"2009-12-27T09:40:00","date_gmt":"2009-12-27T01:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/2009\/12\/27\/sherlock-holmes\/"},"modified":"2018-03-14T11:16:11","modified_gmt":"2018-03-14T03:16:11","slug":"sherlock-holmes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/2009\/12\/27\/sherlock-holmes\/","title":{"rendered":"Sherlock Holmes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"blogholmes01\" Sherlock Holmes<\/em> (2009) \u2013 at AMK Hub. Reimaginations of famous characters, superheroes and TV series are really quite in the vogue these days. We\u2019ve had new interpretations of Batman<\/em>, Spider-man<\/em>, Superman<\/em>, Battlestar Galactica<\/em>, Star Trek<\/em> \u2013 and even a remake of the old 1980s TV series, The A-Team<\/em>, is in the works.<\/p>\n

Guy Ritchie\u2019s remake of Sherlock Holmes<\/em> has been on my radar since it was announced that Robert Downey Jr. was in the title role. I haven\u2019t seen much of the director\u2019s output, but I really like Downey Jr.\u2019s films. His characters have a quirky but still strangely attractive blend of charisma and flippancy. That unique trademark of his repeats in this remake: so, despite traces of grey in his hair, the minute he opens his near motor-mouth and twitches his facial features, it\u2019s Downey Jr. all right.<\/p>\n

The recreation of London is incredible too, and it\u2019s avoided some of the usual failings found in other reimaginations \u2013 which have occasionally resulted in characters\u2019 world recreations that are either too cartoony, too garish, or too gothic. The London that Holmes works in feels organic and lived in, though there\u2019s still no missing the large amount of CG embellishments in backdrops.<\/p>\n

Downey Jr.\u2019s Holmes is also no longer a fastidious, straight-faced investigating detective. The Holmes we see here retains his superb intellect and skills of deductive reasoning, but he\u2019s now also a superb hand-to-hand combat exponent sporting an amazing bod. He eschews the classical version\u2019s Deerstalker hat (the better because I always thought the character looked ridiculous in it), but there\u2019re numerous other twisty nods to the classical character: including that Holmes still plays his violin\u2026 but now like a banjo.<\/p>\n

Holmes is also supported by a few recognizable faces. Jude Law is Dr. Watson, and the Watson has gone through a rinse too. He\u2019s no longer a bumbling sidekick, but a skilled doctor, ex-military man, and also another skilled 19th century martial arts pugilist LOL. His character plays against Holmes well and as his equal, and it shows in the banter between the two \u2013 they\u2019re like a married bickering couple, like when Holmes grumbles if Watson has left the stove on again right after a fist fight. There\u2019s also the very yummy to look at Rachel McAdams, who doesn\u2019t bother hiding an American accent in this film. And rounding off the faces which I recognized immediately is Mark Strong, who\u2019s showing he\u2019s equally adept at playing both villains and good guys (he\u2019s the antagonist here again though).<\/p>\n

All\u2019s not well in the recreation though. For starters, the story while complex is also a tremendous stretch. Yes Holmes is all intelligent, but his powers of deduction and repeated ability to outsmart everyone in every situation also turns him intellectually infallible and not terrifically interesting from about the film\u2019s midpoint. Apart from the physically dangerous situations he gets himself into, you know he\u2019s still going to solve the mystery because he\u2019ll be able to piece everything together, including ridiculously incongruous little bits of evidence \u2013 but the audience will never be able to on their own because Ritchie reveals little in the course of the film, but Holmes is omniscient. It\u2019s more than a little mildly condescending.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s also the wasted opportunities. In the first half of the film, there\u2019re two terrifically fun-to-watch monologues when Holmes squares off against physically imposing opponents, and strategizes how best to bring them down. If only Chris Nolan\u2019s two Batman<\/em> films had these, like the comic books\u2026! The two monologues suggest that Holmes is without peer in hand-to-hand combat as he\u2019s combining his vast knowledge of the human condition with fighting techniques. But that amazing ability is completely forgotten in the second half of the film, as we watch Holmes start getting surprised and even nearly (physically) pulverized by his enemies.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s also Hans Zimmer\u2019s music. I used to love his music, especially for Gladiator<\/em>, Crimson Tide<\/em>, and The Rock<\/em>. But he sure likes to plagiarize his own work. The music in Holmes sounds like stuff he\u2019s written for Pirates of the Carribean: At World\u2019s End<\/em> \u2013 the catchy oft key banjo (?) strumming in Holmes<\/em> sounds exactly like when Johnny Depp was having his monologues in Davy Jones\u2019 Locker. That was another missed opportunity, but then again I\u2019m just grumbling. If you don\u2019t mind that the music sounds all familiar, it\u2019s still at least a suitable accompaniment to what you\u2019re seeing on the screen.<\/p>\n

So, it\u2019s still a relatively mixed bag. Downey Jr. is in top-form and hasn\u2019t yet outstayed his nearly now similar portrayal of characters, and hopefully won\u2019t in his upcoming repeated role of Tony Stark in Iron Man II<\/em>. Ling liked the show too when we caught it at AMK Hub\u2019s Cathay on Saturday yesterday morning, but also lamented that it was very difficult for her to catch what was going on by way of the spit-fire dialog. She turned to me during the show more than a couple of times and whispered, \u201cDear, what happened?!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"star[10]\"\"star[11]\"\"star[12]\"\"star[13]\"\"blankstar[4]\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sherlock Holmes (2009) \u2013 at AMK Hub. Reimaginations of famous characters, superheroes and TV series are really quite in the vogue these days. We\u2019ve had new interpretations of Batman, Spider-man, Superman, Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek \u2013 and even a remake<\/p>\n

Read More Sherlock Holmes<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment","wpcat-10-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7145\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}