Sherlock Holmes II, Game of Shadows - movie by Guy Ritchie, 2011

Summary: Sherlock Holmes faces his deadliest ennemy, Pr Moriarty, while his companion Dr Watson faces a greater challenge even: getting maried to Mary while Holmes gets in the way. For those who've read the Canon, you know what Reichenbach means - and they will make a stop by it.

Personnal Opinion:

I hadn't been a fan of the first movie, even though I think J. Downey Junior and Jude Law made a cool impersonation of Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson. I thought the story lacked in cleverness and that Delowney was a bit too unshaved for my taste. 

However, I enjoyed this movie. I'm still not quite at ease with action taking over most of it and with  submachine gun fights in an steam punk atmosphere, but if I just see this film as a huge fanfiction rather than as an interpretation of the Canon, then hell does it kick ass. The slow motion scenes are gorgeous, and their use in showing how Holmes analyses fights did not get superfluous.

Pr. Moriarty (Jared Harris) was amazing, quite classic but really cool -his eyes, they're always as cold as a murdering knife... I'm not happy with the depiction of him being a villain being explicitely linked with him being pro world wars - I think that too classic a "he likes world wars so he's nazi-to-be bad" trope. Why does the greatest villain of them all always have to be a pro war opportunist?

The character of Mary, which I didn't like at all in the first movie, was well handled in this one, and it's not easy to make the wife of one of the sexiest characters on screen lovable to a crazed fan - but this movie was up to the challenge. The other main female character -Simza, played by Noomi Rapace (from Millenium) was cool too, and I have to say that I was really happy another one (no spoiler) got to disappear quickly from the movie - I don't like Sherlock Holmes flirting with people, that is just too unprofessional of him. Ah, yes, did I mention that we get to see Stephen Fry as Mycroft -naked?

I'm still not convinced by the story, its outcome is too improbable for my taste, but I've enjoyed the characters's relashionship (sorry Watson - partnership) and would re-watch the film just for that. The Reichenbach fall was a really good moment, and the exact last second of the movie was such a HUGE satisfaction that I'm now going to run naked in the snow. 

Sociological images

This website discusses pictures and images we see everyday without paying enough attention to them and to their cultural meaning, especially in the gender field. Here are for instance some interesting posts:

• “Fotoshop by Adobé” Parodies Beauty Product Ads
• Little Girl Out-Analyzes Her Dad
• Go Where? Sex, Gender, and Toilets

Cabin Pressure - BBC radio 4 program by John Finnermore

Summary: MJN Air is a small, unique plane company managed by Carolyn, stewarded by her dumb but enthousiastic son Arthur, piloted by the unfortunate but very dedicated Martin, co-piloted by the cynic and quite dishonnest Douglas and rided on by passagers blissfully ignorant of that all.

Comment: It's very funny, full of english humour... Still ongoing though, so we're expecting a fourth season in 2012!

Hawking - BBC TV movie by Philip Martin, 2004

Summary: This movie tells the debuts of Stephen Hawkins in physics, as he starts working in Cambridge University and discovers he is getting paralysed. We can see him struggle with his condition as well as with the Big Bang Theory, in a world which hasn't really thought of this possibility yet. 

Comment: I won't judge this movie from the point of view of someone who knows Mr. Hawking but as a mere movie watcher. It is a classic biopic, of quality, as expected from the BBC. The ending feels a bit rushed but Mr. Cumberbatch's performance is astonishing and the story very moving.

Alien - movie by Ridley Scott, 1979

Summary: the crew of a commercial space ship, the Nostromo, is woken up early during its journey to Earth because it received a transmission and is due to investigate any possible intelligent lifeform there is. After landing on a nearby planet, they discover an abandon ship which had apparently turned into some sort of alien nest. A member of the crew gets attacked and somewhat impregnated by an alien creature and is brought back into the commercial ship for medical care. However, the alien turns out to be a very resilient lifeform, which forces the rest of the crew to fight for survival.

Comment: The storyline is basic, but it works out pretty well as the atmosphere is really bleak and the sceneries by H. R. Giger absolutely magnificent. The alien itself, the abandoned vessel, the droid, even the space suits, have a very disturbing organic feel to them and look like wonderful works of art, and the special effects didn't lost their appeal nowadays (even though the "chestburster" puppet looks quite funny). For once the heroes are not total idiots and think before acting, even though I wouldn't go as far as to say they're always very logical in their actions. To conclude, I don't wonder why this movie is considered as a classic.

Hot Fuzz - movie Simon Pegg, 2007

Summary: Nicholas Angel is a brilliant police officer. So brilliant, in fact, that he makes the London police look bad: his superiors decide to send him to the country, in a town with the lower criminality rate of all England, Stanford. On the other hand, the accident rate of Stanford is quite high...

Comment: This is the second movie of the Blood and Ice Cream Trilogy (the third movie, The World's End, is due to air in 2014. It successfuly parodies both horror and action movies. I would recommend it to anyone who's into parodies, fun and a bit of gore. No, wait, sod that -I would recommend it to everybody.

J. Edgar - 2011 movie by Clint Eastwood

Summary: Leonardo Di Caprio relates in this biographic movie the public and private life of J. Edgar Hoover (1895-1972), who created the Bureau of Investigation and then the FBI, and controled it until his own death. He is depicted as a man with strong determination and morals principles (even though some of those principles are nowadays quite not-that-moral anymore), a pronounced taste for organisation and scientific rigour (almost as a real life Sherlock Holmes), a very strong link with his mother, and homosexual tendencies (he is the "Johnny" from Truman Capote's "Johnny and Clyde" expression, Clyde Tolson behing his first man). Through this movie, we take a glimpse into the USA from the prohibition period to Nixon's arrival to the presidency.

Opinion: I don't know if this J. Edgar really resembled the one who did actually exist, but this movie and Di Caprio performance do give his character a real-life taste. There's nothing absolutely stunning about it, but it still makes quite a nice story and a convincing portrayal of a character. The narration is a bit confusing though, and the aging make-up quite disturbing (but again, we haven't seen a totally convincing one yet). I'll say it's worth a watch if you're into biopics, but you might want to inform yourself about J. E. Hoover nontheless.

Picture of the real J. E. Hoover.

The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes - movie 1970

Summary: A woman appears at Mr. Holmes's door, having no idea of her name nor even of her reasons of coming. Apparently, she'd been the victim of attempted murder and nearly drowned... Mr. Holmes decides to take the case. 

This movie adresses directly some of Holmes most controversial habits, such as his addiction to cocaine and his sexuality. It also questions Dr Watson's scriptures by constantly doubting their precision and the fact that Dr Watson had romanticised Holmes' adventures and maybe left his unsuccessful cases aside.

Holmes is depicted just as in the Canon: witty, mischievious, full of life and humour... but still elegant and very british (also not that keen of conventions) in behaviour. Watson is not that endearing unfortunately, being used more as a comic relief than as a valid companion to such a clever man, even though he does speak his mind and is not just an admirative tool of Holmes'. Mycroft's fans will be pleased to notice his presence in the movie and the importance of his part. Of course the overall acting is quite different from our day's, quite theatrical I'll say.

Personal opinion: This is one of the best interpretations of the Canon I've seen so far. I'm quite sure Sherlock's fans would enjoy it immensely. I might even venture to say that the writters of BBC Sherlock have probably inspired themselves from some parts of this movie -or maybe good interpretations of the Canon can't help but look alike, just as siblings somehow look like each others.

Shaun of the Dead - 2004 movie

Shaun of the Dead: 2004 British zombie romantic comedy.

Directed by Edgar Wright,

Starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. You might recognise Martin Freeman as Declan as a bonus.

 

Summary:

Shaun's life is a total disaster: he spends his life playing video games with his friend Ed, forgetting about his mother's birthday (he hates her new husband) and his girlfriend's anniversary (she dumps him). On top of that, he's disrespected at work and exasperating his roomate.

However, a zombie apocalypse arrises just in time to give him... well, even more trouble. He thus decides to go fetch his mum and ex-girlfriend to bring them somewhere safe, namely, his favourite pub. Of course other people tag along -such stepdads, friends and more zombies.

Comment:

I'm not fond of gore and horror movies, but this was fun as hell. I enjoyed it as much as Braindead -probably more as it was a tat less "hollywoodian" and the plot more subtle, or more British, I don't know. I'll recommend it to anyone who likes a good parody and who's not afraid of seing people being teared appart.

Sherlock Holmes - 2009 movie

I wasn't fond of this movie at first. Neither at second, actually. But it's not bad, it's not bad at all; I'm just a bit of a purist. 

Sherlock - Russian series: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson (Приключения Шерлока Холмса и доктора Ватсона) was made by Soviet television and directed by Igor Maslennikov. It starred Vasily Livanov as Sherlock Holmes and Vitaly Solomin as Dr. Watson in lenght features cut into multiple episodes.

More details: here.

Episode list:
1979 - Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson
1980 - The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson.
1981 - The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson: The Hound of the Baskervilles.
1983 - The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson: The Treasures of Agra.
1986 - The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson: The Twentieth Century Approaches.

Global opinion:

If you like the Canon, you'll probably enjoy this adaptation. It's quite classic but nicely handled, and the actors have a kind of warmth to them. This Sherlock is a bit more into action and disguises than others, and Watson is not an admiring idiot of his but a real companion (in a non sexual kind of way, you perv'). You might notice the lack of budget in city sceneries, but that'll give you a glimpse to some russian city; why whine then?

Bonus: russian is a wonderful language, real music to the ears! As for the actual soundtrack, it was writen by Vladimir Dashkevich (thanks for buddy2blogger for having me notice). 

Case of Evil - Sherlock Movie, 2002

I watched it because I thought the hero looked cute. What did I expect? A good Sherlock Holmes? L.O.L.

Let's be clear: I'm not against infractions to the Canon, if they're pertinent and well handled. Those clearly weren't. 

- Sherlock is young: ok, all right, why not? He had to be young someday. 

- He's brilliant, but no-one gets him: fine. A tat emo in this movie, but he's making his debuts as a detective, so maybe.

- He's a ladykiller: err, what? Sherlock, interested in women? Adler aside, he despises them and bodily urges. Did you go for lady killer? That would have been at least probable.

- He got into the investigation business to avenge family: NO. Sherlock Holmes is NOT an avenging family kind of person. In fact, aside from Mycroft, does he even care about family? About people, yes, maybe, a bit. Sometimes. But about persons he's chained to by society? Bah.

- He's against drugs. Sherlock. is. against. drugs.

- He's got morals. I am now officially crying. 

-About Watson: he's a doctor. An (ex)military man? Well, if you believe he's still in shape to run, maybe. But Watson was often disregarded into Sherlock films, so that's not even a surprise. 

-Moriarty... is not clever, just a vile drug dealer. I'm not even proceeding with this list anymore. 

This is NOT a Sherlock movie. An action movie, perhaps, if you count as action a bit of firing at the end. This is the very classic story of the teenage-boy who seeks recognition from his father (who's dead, but conveniently reimplaced by Watson as a father figure), from society (by murdering bad men and banging women), from his loved-one (even though I'm not sure why he loves her, they've only met for one day and she's said like five uninteresting words to him -oops, wait, my mistake, she's pretty).

To conclude: Sherlock is a poor traumatised as a child genius, he sleeps with girls, he fights bad men, people eventually like him and come to think that he is a heroe.  

Bad reason to watch the Canon be raped: Sherlock's pretty. (I did say it was a bad reason).

Good reason to watch this movie: as bad as it is, it suspect it might have taken a role into the recent turn of events concerning the modern interpretation of the Canon. A younger Sherlock, a more action-like movie about his adventures: isn't it what the 2009 Sherlock Holmes and the Sherlock BBC series are pointing at now? Maybe this was the first attempt to renew our interpretation of the Canon. The failed first attempt.

The last word: I won't even bother writing it myself:
"[L]et's just accept the idea that Sherlock Holmes needs to be sexed up and made relevant for a twenty-first century audience. Do writer/producer Piers Ashworth and director Graham Theakston manage to make an entertaining movie out of that? No. In their hands, Sherlock becomes a generic hero tortured by the past and Moriarty becomes a thug without any sort of air of mystery about him." Jay Seaver of eFilmCritic.

You are enough

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