Monday, May 3, 2010

Baker Street irregular indeed


Sherlock Holmes (2009) proves that a Guy Ritchie film (I refer to the brand AND the man) can be made without Jason Statham and non-stop profanity. The result--slambang fun you can enjoy with grandma.

Some of the things in Guy's bag of tricks are getting tired--the alternating ramped up and ramped down shots (continuous variation from slow motion to accelerated speed) have become a tired trope. While Ritchie may have developed the device himself, once a directorial flourish becomes common in television commercials, it is time to lay it aside.

Jude Law is such a delightfully self-effacing actor, that I expect in 30 years from now, he will be a Michael Caine, the kind of older character actor who commands attention and appears in every fourth film made. Why is it, I'm always glad to see him, even in a film I loathe, such as A.I.?

Glad I looked at the "making of" feature on the DVD--there was much less green screen than it appears-- many city exteriors were real city exteriors.

Can't remember a non-comic book movie that was so frankly and openly set up to be the first of a series since Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins in 1985--and that adventure never continued!

No comments:

Post a Comment