ROTTEN TOMATOES: Rescuing Sherlock Holmes from the Oversized Spyglass Comments

Rescuing Sherlock Holmes from the Oversized Spyglass

by | November 02, 2009

Summary

We've grown accustomed to thinking of Sherlock Holmes as a stuffy sleuth with a timid sidekick -- but as producer Lionel Wigram tells the Los Angeles Times, that's out of step with Arthur Conan Doyle's books, and Guy Ritchie's "Sherlock Holmes" is here to fix it. Back to Article

(1-12 of 12 posts) | Reply

De4ective Detectiv3 writes:
on Nov 02 2009 04:37 AM

yeah, because nothing says testosterone riddled like sherlock holmes, I due find the whole nuerotic take on the character interesting though...

(Reply to this)

Bigbrother writes:
on Nov 02 2009 07:36 AM

That's a point I'm always trying to make. In his day Holmes was an action hero, it's only due to the BBC that we all think of him as a stuffy professorial sissy nanny.

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Evan_H writes:
on Nov 02 2009 10:15 AM

I was hoping for a good period mystery movie with the stuffy but beloved sleuth. We already have dozens of action hero movies, why does Hollywood feel they need to turn the testosterone to eleven?

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BUCK69 writes:
on Nov 02 2009 10:57 AM

Doyle's Holmes did have a cocaine habit, and Nicolas Meyer's "Seven-Percent Solution" played upon that, giving Holmes a very, troubled past due to the murder/suicide of his parents. The more I see of this, the more I like the idea. I still have reservations, which are based on Ritchie's limits, not the notion itself.

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Bigbrother writes:
on Nov 02 2009 12:27 PM

In reply to this comment (#2557961)
Yeah, Buck. The idea is sound. It's the execution that I'm not entirely sold on from the previews.

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De4ective Detectiv3 writes:
on Nov 02 2009 05:26 PM

The intellectual side of Sherlock Holmes is what resonated w/ people, who cares about his supposed action heroics.

And I thought Holmes had a problem w/ Opium, not Cocaine.

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tfortier writes:
on Nov 02 2009 06:48 PM

Anyway, nothing beat reading all the Sherlock Holmes Canon. It's pure late night delight.

The movie will probably be ok but quite far from the real thing. Im afraid the bad guys will be too cheesy too. wtf, satanic cult... come on. I know the Sherlock Holmes pc games have been mixed with some H. P. Lovecraft occult lore but there is nothing like that in the pragmatic world of Conan Doyle. It can be creepy, strange or maniac but never surnatural.

Jeremy Brett was great in the role though... The best Holmes yet.

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tfortier writes:
on Nov 02 2009 06:50 PM

Ho and by the way, Holmes never had any problems with drugs. He use opium and cocaine when there is no cases but its not a problem.

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Bigbrother writes:
on Nov 03 2009 04:53 AM

In reply to this comment (#2558081)
There were actually frequently elements of the supernatural in Doyles Holmes. Think Hound of the Baskervilles, believe there was even one with a vampire. They're all conclusively proven to be false by the end ala Scooby Doo with Watson as Shaggy, but they're still there. As long as the conclusion doesn't actually manifest Satan I think that bit of it is fairly true to the originals.

Judging by a lot of these comments, I wonder how many people have actually read Conan Doyles works or just watched the old movie incarnations. For me, I've already seen the intellectual element played up to the hilt, I wouldn't mind seeing some of the other elements given their due. Help reconcile for me the book worm and the man who kills himself by hurtling himself from the top of a waterfall while locked in combat with his archnemesis.

P.S. Detectiv3, I think the intellectual side resonates because that's all most of us have ever seen of him. I'm open to a bit of expansion of the character as long as as previously stated it's done well.

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Matanuki writes:
on Nov 03 2009 05:31 AM

In reply to this comment (#2558183)
It's all about balance. I'm excited by this new trend to revisit the original incarnations that have been lost in the translation from book to movie. This is why Casino Royal was so great for me, to see Bond drop the invisible cars and return to his rugged roots.

At first I couldn't care less about Hollywood bringing Holmes back. Not until, that is, I heard who they'd cast in the principle roles. Then I saw the trailer and could tell they were onto something.

Things aren't always what they seem, as you well pointed out Bbro. Let's just hope that rings true for Holmes in a good way.

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BUCK69 writes:
on Nov 03 2009 05:42 AM

In reply to this comment (#2558066)
It was cocaine [and maybe morphine], not opium [See "The Sign of Four"]. I guess that's the difference between the two of us, De4ective Detectiv3, I don't speculate on information that is readily verifiable.

(Reply to this)

frankdozier writes:
on Nov 03 2009 05:40 PM

In reply to this comment (#2558195)
PWNED!

(Reply to this)

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