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Fry Sherlock Holmes

December 14, 2011 by · Comments Off on Fry Sherlock Holmes 

Fry Sherlock Holmes, The best thing the new Sherlock Holmes film has to offer is its terrific cast: Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Noomi Rapace, Jared Harris and Stephen Fry.

Downey, with his bullet brain, was born to play the ingenious supersleuth bopping about London circa 1890. Law is wonderful as the downtrodden Dr. Watson, forever succumbing to Holmes’ erratic whims. Rapace, best known for playing Swedish Goth vengeance chick Lisbeth Salander in the Millennium trilogy, is on board as a gypsy. (Irony note: the new, American version of “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” starring Rooney Mara hits theaters Wednesday.) Harris (Lane Pryce on “Mad Men”) makes a perfectly unctuous nemesis for Holmes as Professor Moriarty, and British comedian Fry adds a light touch as Holmes’ brother, Mycroft.

If only they had a better movie to appear in.

“Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows” is director Guy Ritchie’s second rebooting of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s legendary detective, following “Sherlock Holmes” in 2009. His objective: transform the clue-obsessed brainiac into a more physical character who uses his fists as much as his powers of deduction. The first film offered lots of (too many) super slo-mo moments as Holmes battled bad guys and lots of (way too many) re-creations and pre-creations of the actual fights. The usually winning Rachel McAdams (back for more in “Shadows”) was given the razor-thin role of love interest Irene Adler, a role that never worked.

The second film is astonishingly similar. This time Holmes and Watson are on the trail of Moriarty, whom they pursue from London to Paris to Switzerland, thus making a shambles of Watson’s honeymoon with his bride (Kelly Reilly). The pattern: action scene, witty asides, action scene, witty asides. It follows the classic buddy-action-movie sequence, minus the romantic moments. The problems are: The action tends to drag, the plot becomes pointless, and the production is overlong.

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