No Shit Sherlock!

Wouldn't you know, I actually have a thing for doctors.

Dr John Watson in particular.


Far from the portly, fumbling shlock of previous incarnations, the latest Sherlock Holmes adaptation has the good doctor re-imagined as a sleek, scholarly army veteran with shades of the pretty boy. All very Jude Law. Supposedly a closer match to the loyal sidekick dreamt up by in Arthur Conan Doyle's detective novels. Since the last time I picked up his novels had to be back in lower secondary, I can only simply nod and agree since I can barely recall the parts that I read.

While his more famous titular counterpart, the crime-solving detective Sherlock Holmes, has evolved into a modern bohemian character, who dresses more like an artist or a poet. Played by Robert Downey Jr with a raffish insouciance, he's more Toulouse-Lautrec in a fedora than the quintessential venerable Victorian gentleman in a deerstalker.

And oh yeah, the newly-violent gym-toned Sherlock throws a helluva lot more punches. After all, what's a Guy Ritchie movie without a coupla ballsy punch-em-ups? Pity we never got his buddy Watson stripped down to his boxers!


Watson : How long are you gonna stare at the watch?
With all that sweaty, testosterone-y masculinity on avid display, is it any surprise that I found Sherlock had far more chemistry with his wingman Watson rather than the prerequisite femme fatale adventuress, Irene Adler. No doubt an intentional homoerotic slant to annoy the traditional purists.

The sad attempts to toss Adler together with Holmes to confirm his heterosexuality only made me hate her more - especially since Watson had less screen time whenever the femme fatale strutted across the screen in her Victorian hoops. Come on, who doesn't want to see Jude Law in a dapper gray suit with a top hat. And his solid, dignified presence provides the perfect counterfoil for the insanely manic posturings of Downey's Holmes.

Holmes? I'd want to tie the manic-depressive freak down and dope him up just to have him shut up. Sexy? Please, I don't go for disheveled raving psychos.
Watson? I'd want to tie him down and do all sorts of wickedly indecent things to his naked body.

Despite having low expectations for the movie, I found myself pleasantly surprised with the movie. So make sure you stay - even till the end for the beautiful end credits with the preceding movie stills freeze-framed to recall the original magazine illustrations.