Holmes and Watson: Thoughts
Everyone else appears to have made a statement on this film so I am going to join them and no I haven't seen it.
I don't care for Will Ferrell so as soon as the idea arose that he was to appear in a comedy Holmes film I was not enthused. Of course, when this film was first announced it was going to star Ferrell as Watson with a certain Sacha Baron Cohen as Holmes.
Now Cohen was a closer physical fit for Holmes (based on the Paget drawings) and he and Ferrell would have been, purely from a physical perspective, more apt. That said, I don't much care for Cohen either so when this film was reported as running into delay after delay I was not concerned and hoped it would quietly fade away as a concept. Alas it did not.
Now don't get me wrong. I have nothing against a comedic Holmes. I very much love Without a Clue.
But this 1988 film seems to be the sole good one. All other attempts at a comedy Holmes that I have heard of have fallen flat. Even comedy gods like Peter Cooke and Dudley Moore crashed and burned with the idea in 1978.
Then again, maybe that's it. Maybe a comedy Holmes film only works when actors more known for serious films are cast. Cast known comics (no matter how legendary) and perhaps it is destined to fail. It's a thought.
I've looked at the trailers for the new film and it appears, at face value, to be a slapstick film based very much on the Robert Downey Jr films. I guess that was inevitable as the whole point was to take the p*ss out of a format people were already familiar with.
There have been numerous stories from across the world of people walking out and/or demanding their money back and the film has recently scooped Razzies. Add to this, comedian Steve Coogan declaring the film to be sh*t now and in 20 years despite having starred himself with Reilly (Watson) in the recent biopic of Laurel and Hardy. That'll be a tense next meeting.
When this film makes it to the likes of Prime or Netflix I'll give it a watch. The condemnation of this film is not universal. There are a few supportive voices. I'll give it a go but I don't expect to be excited by it.
Did you see it, what do you think?
I don't care for Will Ferrell so as soon as the idea arose that he was to appear in a comedy Holmes film I was not enthused. Of course, when this film was first announced it was going to star Ferrell as Watson with a certain Sacha Baron Cohen as Holmes.
Now Cohen was a closer physical fit for Holmes (based on the Paget drawings) and he and Ferrell would have been, purely from a physical perspective, more apt. That said, I don't much care for Cohen either so when this film was reported as running into delay after delay I was not concerned and hoped it would quietly fade away as a concept. Alas it did not.
Now don't get me wrong. I have nothing against a comedic Holmes. I very much love Without a Clue.
But this 1988 film seems to be the sole good one. All other attempts at a comedy Holmes that I have heard of have fallen flat. Even comedy gods like Peter Cooke and Dudley Moore crashed and burned with the idea in 1978.
Then again, maybe that's it. Maybe a comedy Holmes film only works when actors more known for serious films are cast. Cast known comics (no matter how legendary) and perhaps it is destined to fail. It's a thought.
I've looked at the trailers for the new film and it appears, at face value, to be a slapstick film based very much on the Robert Downey Jr films. I guess that was inevitable as the whole point was to take the p*ss out of a format people were already familiar with.
There have been numerous stories from across the world of people walking out and/or demanding their money back and the film has recently scooped Razzies. Add to this, comedian Steve Coogan declaring the film to be sh*t now and in 20 years despite having starred himself with Reilly (Watson) in the recent biopic of Laurel and Hardy. That'll be a tense next meeting.
When this film makes it to the likes of Prime or Netflix I'll give it a watch. The condemnation of this film is not universal. There are a few supportive voices. I'll give it a go but I don't expect to be excited by it.
Did you see it, what do you think?
Written by Alistair Duncan
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I posted this on another site: I saw Holmes and Watson onJan 1. I can't say I saw any evidence that this movie was written by anyone with a familiarity to the Canon. Like 1980's Airplane! is based on the film 1957 film Zero Hour!, Holmes and Watson is based on the Downey/Law movies. However unlike Airplane! which managed to be both specific to one film and universal to a genre, H&W is only specific to SH and SH:GoS and the kind of cartoony understanding of the Parallel Holmes that exists in the fringes of the public conscience. Nothing illustrates this more than putting Queen Victoria and the Titanic in the same era (think President Eisenhower at Woodstock). Not only does the Titanic exist solely for the few lame laughs (and a cameo) that the old-timey reference can generate in a modern movie audience, but oddly puts love interests Rebecca Hall and Lauren Lapkus on the doomed ship to sail back to America. Do they live? Do they die? Does any one in the audience notice or care? While the movie tries to poke fun at male attitudes towards women, both then and now (Dr. Hart proudly tells the Brits that American women make $0.30to a man's $1.00), such cavalier and apparently unintended treatment of female characters in a Hollywood blockbuster "satire" says more about current gender politics than any lame equal pay jokes. Rebecca Hall and Lauren Lapkus are, in fact, the best characters in the movie. Sad that they have so little to do in there limited screen time. Is the idea of Sherlock Holmes excessively hurling his guts into a bucket at the sight of a corpse at the morgue (but not vomiting when a naked dead body falls of a giant birthday cake at Buckingham Palace at Sherlock's own surprise birthday party) your idea of comedy? The four other people at the 11:00 am showing thought so. How about Holmes and Watson killing the Queen then rough-handling the corpse while trying to hide it? This seems more evidence that the filmmakers know nothing about Doyle's duo to me. I did have one genuine laugh: after Watson saves the Titanic, Dr. Hart blows him a kiss, which Watson catches and puts to his lips. Sherlock sees this and blows a kiss to Millicent who raises her shotgun and growls. Otherwise I liked the sets and costumes. The special effects weren't bad. I can imagine some people enjoying this movie. The four other people in the theater with me seemed to. Oh, one other odd thing about the movie: Mrs Lestrade is with the inspector everywhere he goes. While she's not listed in IMDb, she was in the end credits. Is this a first, a Holmes movie with Mrs. Lestrade?
ReplyDeleteI cannot give it a "thumbs up" but I can see some people, even Sherlockians, liking this movie, but personally, I cannot in good conscience put "Holmes and Watson" on the level of "Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother", let alone "Without a Clue".