City College News

Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes is certainly a step away from his other films. However this change may be necessary to give the audience such a tangible example of the life and times of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's character, Sherlock Holmes. The director has left his stamp on this movie; making it brutal and action-packed, but the real brilliance is in the telling of an age-old tale.

Robert Downey Junior plays Sherlock, and Jude Law plays his assistant, Dr. Watson. The film is a fast paced trip through old-time London, showing an evil plot set out by Lord Blackwood, who is a master in the black arts, and Sherlock Holmes, in true form, is attempting to conquer him by using means of reason and logic.

Rachael McAdams is cast to play Sherlock's lover and criminal, Irene Adler, and the three of them travel through London in old trolley cars chasing villains with mutton chops and cloaks through back streets to find this man, Lord Blackwood, who has supposedly risen from the dead.

The film itself is a great escape, a nice spin on the old magic of action movies, mixed with an informative fantastical perspective on Sherlock Holmes the man. It was enjoyable and quite interesting as a next step for famed director Guy Ritchie.

There is however a certain level of assuming that the audience will be instantly captivated by everything presented. In many ways Robert Downey Jr. seems as though he could be playing any number of characters from London, and at times it can make you lose sight of the mystery and intrigue so prevalent throughout the rest of the film. It does a decent job of showing us historical information well all the while giving audiences a good time, there could merely be more dedication to becoming the roles on the part of the film's primary actors.

Audiences across America are enjoying this masterpiece, and amongst the other films in theaters you could not make a better choice than going to see Sherlock Holmes, it will leave you thinking, and entertained, and smiling.

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