Sherlock Holmes (2009) - Oscar ® Nominee!

"Downey has a winning take on Holmes: He's always on.  Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News
"This is very much a Sherlock Holmes movie for the blockbuster era.  Keith Phipps, The Onion A.V. Club
"...Downey brings his brain, his wit, and his gift for intelligent underplaying...  Ty Burr, Boston Globe

Editor's Note Though Guy Ritchie (SNATCH) is best known for directing modern crime films set in England, he turns back the clock more than a century for this mystery inspired by Arthur Conan Doyle's classic characters. SHERLOCK HOLMES is based on a comic book by Lionel Wigram, and stars IRON MAN's Robert Downey Jr. as the titular detective. Jude Law (COLD MOUNTAIN) stars as Watson, while Rachel McAdams (THE NOTEBOOK) plays Holmes's rival Irene Adler.

	Kelly Reilly
	Jude Law
	Rachel McAdams
	Robert Downey Jr.
	Eddie Marsan
	Mark Strong
	Hans Zimmer - Composer
	Dana Goldberg - Executive Producer
	Simon Kinberg - Screenwriter
	Michael Robert Johnson - Story
	Anthony Peckham - Screenwriter
	Lionel Wigram - Story
	Susan Downey - Producer
	Joel Silver - Producer
	Dan Lin - Producer
	Lionel Wigram - Producer
	Michael Robert Johnson - Screenwriter
	Bruce Berman - Executive Producer
	Michael Tadross - Executive Producer
	Guy Ritchie - Director

Box Office
"Downey plays him like a brilliant scoundrel, a brawler and braniac and all-around daredevil." 10/09/2009

Los Angeles Times 7 of 10
There's a mystery at the heart of Sherlock Holmes, and it's not the one the great master of detection has been called on to solve. It's how a film that has so many good things going for it has turned out to be solid but not spectacular...As directed by Guy Ritchie, Downey's take on the dean of 221-B Baker St. is, as the spin on the film has emphasized, considerably more physical than what moviegoers are used to. His Holmes is as much Victorian action hero as master deducer, a buff and muscular lad who likes to indulge in bare-knuckle brawling and fits producer Joel Silver's description of being "like James Bond in 1891."...It's helpful to add in the brisk style of British filmmaker Ritchie, best-remembered for two of his earlier films, Snatch and Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels. A director with onscreen energy to burn, Ritchie initially has fun with this story of Holmes versus master criminal Lord Blackwood, a man who dabbles in the black arts, says gnomic things like "death is only the beginning" and threatens to end civilization as we know it...The plot itself is promising, starting with Lord Blackwood (an excellent Mark Strong) being stopped by Holmes, Watson and Inspector Lestrade (Eddie Marsan) just before he commits a dastardly black-magic deed. Blackwood's apparent ability to cheat death terrifies the metropolis ("London in Terror" headlines obligingly shout), and only Holmes has a chance of figuring out just which game is afoot...Adding yet another uncertain element to the mix is the appearance of the mysterious Irene Adler, celebrated among Sherlockians as the only woman to fascinate the great detective as well as the only adversary to ever best him. Unfortunately, the usually excellent and very contemporary Rachel McAdams is simply miscast here in a part that cries out for the kind of deeper Victorian soulfulness that someone like Rachel Weisz can project...More than any one big thing, it is the accumulation of these kinds of small misadventures that trip up Sherlock Holmes. They so cramp its style that instead of appreciating the good things we've been given, we end up wishing for the film that might have been. It's a mug's game, but currently it's the only one in town. - Kenneth Turan

Chicago Sun-Times 8 of 10
The less I thought about Sherlock Holmes, the more I liked Sherlock Holmes. Yet another classic hero has been fed into the f/x mill, emerging as a modern superman. Guy Ritchie's film is filled with sensational sights, over-the-top characters and a desperate struggle atop Tower Bridge, which is still under construction. It's likely to be enjoyed by today's action fans. But block bookings are not likely from the Baker Street Irregulars...One of the comforts of the Arthur Conan Doyle stories is their almost staid adherence to form. Villains and cases come and go up the staircase at 221B Baker Street, but within that refuge, life stays the same: Holmes all-knowing and calm, Watson fretful and frightened, clues orderly, victims distraught, never a problem not seemingly insoluble. Outside is the fabled Victorian London, a city we all know in our imaginations. I think I became an Anglophile on those winter nights when I sat curled up in my dad's big chair, a single lamp creating shadows in the corners of the room, reading the Modern Library edition of the stories while in the basement I heard the comforting sounds of my parents doing the laundry...In a really very good opening sequence, the two burst in upon the fiendish satanist Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong) in the act of committing a dastardly act. Blackwood is sent to the gallows and sealed in his tomb, only to reappear (to Holmes' undeniable satisfaction) seemingly still alive. This sets off a series of action set pieces in the streets of London, which have never seemed more looming, dark and ominous; I had the impression Jack the Ripper had just darted out of view...There is also interest from two women: Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams), of course, said to be the only woman to ever touch Holmes' heart, and Mary Morstan (Kelly Reilly), Watson's intended, who may be in for more than she knows. The advent of Mary on the scene sends Holmes into fits of petulance; how dare the doctor prefer a woman to his own fascinating company? Watson has always maintained quarters elsewhere, but in this film, the cozy confines of 221B make his other rooms seem more than ever like a beard...The Conan Doyle stories are still read, and probably always will be. Most readers get to at least a few. But among moviegoers on Christmas night (traditionally one of the busiest movie nights of the year), probably not so many. They will be unaware that this Sherlock Holmes is cheerfully revisionist. They will be entertained, and so was I. The great detective, who has survived so much, can certainly shrug off a few special effects. - Roger Ebert