Sherlock Holmes (2009)

Robert Downey Jr is probably my favorite actor working today and I generally enjoy all of his films, if not only for his performance. I also love older Guy Ritchie films (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch), and, though he has continually disappointed me since then, there's always that hope that he will live up to his former glory. I had high hopes for Sherlock Holmes, and for the most part, I was disappointed. There was a lot of potential for Ritchie to make a fantastic reconfiguring of a classic literary figure, but fell short due to a boring, mundane plot.

In this particular adventure, Holmes (Downey) and his faithful partner Dr. Watson (Jude Law) take on Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong), a man who is sentenced to hang for practicing black magic but somehow rises from the dead. He plans to murder key people in a plot to take over England with his dark magic. Yes, it's that ridiculous. Obviously, like an episode of Scooby Doo, his plot was foiled by those meddling detectives.

The great thing about mysteries like Sherlock Holmes, and why they're so appealing, is trying to figure out how the bad guy did it before the hero does. In Sherlock Holmes, I didn't really care how the bad guy did it. I didn't really care about the story at all. There is some witty dialogue and Downey does do a good job, so parts are entertaining. However, the fight scenes go on too long and Watson's silliness could have been a lot sillier. In short, it's boring.

Writing: 6/10
Acting: 8/10
Plot: 3/10
Visuals: 8/10