Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Sherlock Holmes (2009)

11/20/2019

Sherlock Holmes (2009) - Ritchie's unappealing morass

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Robert Downey Jr. is gelled up and stares out as a man who knows he is a super-star on this well-made poster for Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes

Holmes, the highly gifted London detective with the heightened senses, is reluctantly in the process of losing his companion Dr. Watson to a female, all the while he fights the feared Lord Blackwood.

Sherlock Holmes is written by Michael Robert Johnson (Pompeii (2014)), Anthony Peckham (Silo 3 Jane (1995)) and Simon Kinberg (Jumper (2008)), based on a story by Johnson and Lionel Wigram (The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015)), in turn based on the legendary character created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (the first story with Holmes was printed in 1887). The film is directed by Guy Ritchie (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)).
If you favor Ritchie's brand of postmodernist, hot-air-bloated, Quentin Tarantino-cramming style, you'll devour Sherlock Holmes raw. I don't, and I mostly see here a plot that has the refinement and depth of a weak children's movie, which gets blown up and served to fully grown adults.
Robert Downey Jr. (Lucky You (2007)) and Jude Law's (Black Sea (2014)) banter here, deliberately fashioned to bear the likeness of two old lovers quarrelling, can be diverting, - but regrettably the tension remains coy subtext. Rachel McAdams (Wedding Crashers (2005)) is pretty but has little to do in the film.
Holmes is now a champion boxer, and although his fistfights look cool, it is still incredible that Downey Jr. should damage one of literature's most alluring figures like this.
The sound design and mix are excellent, but Sherlock Holmes is too long and is also marred by an enormous faith in CGI, which give large parts of the film an unreal, ghastly look.

Related post:

2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 90 mil. $
Box office: 524 mil. $
= Huge hit (returned 5.82 times its cost)
[Sherlock Holmes premiered 14 December (London, UK) and runs 129 minutes. Shooting took place in England, including London, and in New York from October 2008 - January 2009. The film opened #2, behind Avatar, to a 62.3 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 3 weeks in the Top 5 (#2-#2-#5) and grossed 209 mil. $ (39.9 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 39.7 mil. $ (7.6 %) and Italy with 26.9 mil. $ (5.1 %). The film was nominated for 2 Oscars: Best Score (Hans Zimmer (The Road of Love (2017))), lost to Michael Giacchino for Up, and Art Direction, lost to Avatar. It won a Golden Globe and was nominated for a Grammy, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 3/4 star review, translating to 2 notches higher than this one. The film has additionally made in excess of 44.9 mil. $ on the North-American home video market. Ritchie, Downey Jr., Law and McAdams returned with sequel Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011), with similar success, and Downey and Law are set to return with a fresh director for a 3rd film, set to release in 2021. Ritchie made short Un Rendez-vous (2010) before the Holmes sequel. Downey Jr. returned first in Iron Man 2 (2010); Law in Arena (2010, TV-series documentary) and theatrically in Repo Men (2010); McAdams in Morning Glory (2010), and Mark Strong (Revolver (2005)) in Kick-Ass (2010). Sherlock Holmes is fresh at 69 % with a 6.22/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

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Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

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11/20/2019

Sherlock Holmes (2009) - Ritchie's unappealing morass

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