Inadvands Boring, over-political, tech fuzed mess

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

grantss A very funny, clever and original telling of a Sherlock Holmes story. Rolls along, with fun and great humour. Michael Caine and Ben Kingsley are in fine form as Holmes and Watson. Good support from Jeffrey Jones, Peter Cook, Pat Keen and others.

formationlc I have just finished watching this movie after viewing the entire Sherlock Holmes series with Jeremy Brett. Of course, it was not the first time I watched this parody but then again, after viewing and savoring the remarkable performance of Mr. Brett, it makes this movie even funnier than usual for it puts emphasis on the delirious dialogue and the amazing acting and comical talent of Mr. Caine, extremely well supported by a wonderful cast. How astonishingly funny the man can be, even without saying a single word. This is a superb production with lots of attention given to details and respectful mockery of Sir Doyle's characters. Even Lestrade's portrait by Jeffrey Jones is hilarious. Definitely worth watching.

Scott LeBrun The celebrated legendary fictional sleuth Sherlock Holmes becomes the source of much humour in this wacky comedy written by Gary Murphy & Larry Strawther and directed by Thom Eberhardt ("Night of the Comet"). The premise here is that Sherlock Holmes was an invention of the sly Dr. John Watson (Ben Kingsley), who loved to dabble in crime solving as well as work as a physician, and was forced to create Holmes as a cover so that his reputation in medicine would not be tarnished. He subsequently hired boozy, clueless actor Reginald Kincaid (Michael Caine) to play the role. The trouble for Watson is that nobody will take him seriously and they always want to talk to "Holmes", so Watson has to put up with his bumbling partners' ways as they set out to solve the case of missing plates (for printing money) and a missing employee from their mint. This works merely okay as a mystery, as it mainly mines all of its situations and characters for all of the laughs possible. It never really catches fire - so to speak - but is often engaging enough, and funny enough, to make for pleasant if not uproarious fare. The recreation of Victorian England is effective, and there are some atmospheric moments along the way. The real joy is in seeing Kingsley and Caine showing off their comedy chops; Kingsley basically plays the straight man and does a lot of reacting to Caines' appealing buffoonery. A fine supporting cast is just as enjoyable to watch: Paul Freeman (Belloq from "Raiders of the Lost Ark") as the nefarious Prof. Moriarty, Lysette Anthony as the fetching Leslie Giles, Jeffrey Jones as the intrepid Inspector Lestrade, who's portrayed as not being terribly competent himself, Nigel Davenport as the worried Lord Smithwick, Pat Keen as the angry Mrs. Hudson, and Peter Cook as grumpy Norman Greenhough. The movie does go on for quite a bit, losing a bit of its momentum at times, but the lively performances help to keep it always watchable. Caine is marvelous, whether he's goosing a woman or trying to break down the name Moriarty. (Arty Morty?) Overall, a good if not great comedy. Seven out of 10.

The_Void I'm a big fan of the classic Universal Sherlock Holmes films starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, and so naturally I was a bit weary going into this film knowing that it plays around with the basics of the classic detective stories. Well, I have to give credit to all involved as while this is not what I'd call a brilliant comedy, it's fun and entertaining and at least does justice (in a comedic way) to Arthur Conan Doyle's classic character - although that is largely thanks to excellent central performances from Michael Caine and Ben Kingsley. The idea of the film is that Doctor Watson is the real detective, while Sherlock Holmes is just an actor hired to front the investigations. However, the actor hired likes to drink and frequently annoys the 'crime doctor'! The plot itself is influenced by a few Sherlock Holmes stories but isn't - as far as I know - based on any one in particular. We follow Holmes and Watson on the case of some stolen plates, used for printing five pound notes.The story itself takes some ideas from the classic Universal films in terms of plot - most notably The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and The Spider Woman. However, the plot itself isn't really important; it's not particularly in depth and clearly the point of the film was to focus on the 'tweaked' characters rather than tell a mystery story. And this works quite well! Kingsley and Caine have a good rapport with one another and work well on screen together. Michael Caine is of course the standout and delivers an excellent comic performance. There are plenty of jokes in the film, mostly stemming from Holmes' ineptitude, and some of them are laugh out loud funny - although it has to be said that these are mostly few and far between and the film is generally more likely to raise a smile than a laugh. Still, the important thing is that it's entertaining for the duration, and the film certainly is that. I'd say it falls somewhat short of 'great' but if you're looking for a fun little flick to kill a couple of hours with, then you could do much worse than Without a Clue.