Normally when Andrea and I have a movie night for just the two of us, we tend to gravitate toward to more classic movies from the early to mid 20th century.
A few weeks back while randomly jumping about Netflix, we can across a movie that piqued her interest so we gave it a go.
This week's Cinema Sunday goes all the way back to 2009. We were pulling ourselves out of the Great Recession and it seemed like life could only get better moving forward.
2009 brought us Sherlock Holmes starring Robert Downey Jr as the intrepid detective.
Uh oh! An American actor playing an icon of British mythology? Well, Downey does affect a British accent that works well enough, subtle but effective. And he has the manic super smart thinking a mile a minute thing down that would come to define his turn as Tony Stark, aka Iron Man.
This movie begins with an ending. In 1890 London, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson have cornered Lord Henry Blackwood just in time to keep his latest victim from suffering the same fatal fate of five other young women in a sort of cultish quasi-supernatural way.
Inspector Lestrade arrests Blackwood.
Later Blackwood is hanged by the neck in payment for his crimes. Watson is on the scene to pronounce this murdering bastard is dead, deader than dead, the deadest of the dead, D-E-A-D.
So ends the last case teaming up Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson. Dr. Watson is engaged to Mary Morstan and moving out of 221B Baker Street.
That is as they say that.
Except it isn't.
There's been a break out from Henry Blackwood's tomb.
And Blackwood has been seen lurking about London.
And Blackwood's enemies are perishing in mysterious, almost supernatural circumstances.
Has Lord Henry Blackwood returned from the dead with mystic powers beyond those of mere mortal men?
Well, he would certainly like you to think so and damned if he ain't making the case for it.
But thankfully Sherlock Holmes is on the case and he ain't having any of this supernatural bull.
This version of Sherlock Holmes tends towards action hero that we may be used to in some other version. This Sherlock is not just about outsmarting people but outfighting them, sometimes as the same time. Whenever Sherlock gets into a fight with someone, the flight plays out twice: once when Sherlock deduces which specific parts of his opponent need to be struck and in what order. The second time is the actual fight and damned if the other guy doesn't go down like the proverbial sack on bricks exactly as Sherlock predicted.
The relationship between Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson sparks with wicked incisive wit, the pair needling each other like an old married couple. Holmes might be the smartest person in the room but Jude Law's Dr. Watson is more than capable of keeping up.
The movie also includes Irene Adler, the only woman who is a match for Holmes. Try as he might, Holmes can't help but be flummoxed by this beautiful, sharp minded woman.
There is a subplot that intersects with the main storyline involving a dark garbed figure who is playing his own long game. Professor Moriarty is waiting in the wings for the sequel.
The "Person Who Was In That Thing" Department
Mark Strong (Lord Blackwood) was Dr. Sivana in Shazam! and Sinestro in Green Lantern.
Rachel McAdams (Irene Adler) was Christine Palmer in Doctor Strange and it's sequel.
Sherlock Holmes casts our favorite consulting detective as an action film star but it doesn't sacrifice the intelligence, wit and eccentricities we've come to associate with the character.
Robert Downey Jr as Sherlock Holmes is a bit weird but more than capable in the role.
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