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Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock V Monsters / Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes
USA 2010
produced by David Michael Latt, David Rimawi (executive) for The Asylum
directed by Rachel Lee Goldenberg
starring Ben Syder, Gareth David-Lloyd, Dominic Keating, William Huw, Elizabeth Arends, David Shackleton, Rachael Evelyn, Neil Williams, Dylan Jones, Chris Coxon, Kate Thomas, Iago Patrick McGuire, Richard Sanderson, Thomes Jones, Laith Jawzi, Catriona McDonald, Neill Scullard, Richard Hopkins, Phil Powell, Kevin Turner, Arron Kelly, David Lamb, Andrew Griffiths, Dewi Rhys Williams, Daniel Wood, Ainon Rowlands, James Cooper, Simon Lloyd-Roberts, Caoli Jones, Regina Hellmich, Madeleine Sansome, Dilwyn Parry Jones
screenplay by Paul Bales, based on characters created by Arthur Conan Doyle, music by Chris Ridenhour
Sherlock Holmes
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
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A ship carrying a vast fortune in tax money from the colonies is sunk
by a giant octopus - which of course only the audience knows yet, while
the tragedy leaves Scotland Yard's inspector Lestrade (William Huw)
clueless enough to call upon his detective friend Sherlock Holmes (Ben
Syder) for help. Holmes is quick to link the sinking of the ship to
alledged dinosaur (!) attacks in Limehouse, and when he and Watson (Gareth
David-Lloyd) investigate those, they almost end as dinosaur food
themselves. But Holmes and Watson find a clue that soon enough leads them
to a rubber factory - that's blown up before their very eyes, but not
before they could get the address to where tons upon tons of rubber were
delivered. They break into that place - a large mansion in the countryside
- and are attacked by a robot ... which turns out to be Holmes' brother
Thorpe (Dominic Keating) in his "walking suit". You see, Thorpe
was once a copper and the partner of Lestrade, but had been paralyzed on a
mission, something he has always blamed Lestrade for. But being an
ingenious inventor, he has not only made himself a walking suit, a working
dinosaur and a giant octopus, he has also developed a flying dragon which
he plans to fly to London to lay waste to the city, while his consort
(Elizabeth Arends), who's actually a robot, is to blow up Buckingham
Palace as a walking bomb. But as many villains, he can't resist the
temptation to gloat before the deed, and thus Holmes and Watson do
everything in their power to prevent this, even if it means crashing a
propeller-driven hot air balloon into the flying dragon ... Now
of course, this movie was made as a cash-in on Guy Ritchie's big budget Sherlock
Holmes, quite in line with other mockbusters The Asylum has
become known/notorious for, and of course the inclusion of dinosaurs,
robots, flying dragons, and technology that seems even futuristic nowadays
has about as little to do with Arthur Conan Doyle's source material as Mr.
Ritchie's film did. That all said, this Sherlock Holmes is actually
a lively and decently budgeted spectacle if little more. Sure, the
suspension of disbelief borders breaking point in some instances, the lack
of Holmesian deduction paired with an over-reliance of typical Holmesian
oneliners ("Elementary", "The game's afoot", ...) does
feel odd to say the least, and while their acting's alright, Ben Syder and
Gareth David-Lloyd make a less than memorable Holmes and Watson. But that
all said, the film moves at a steady pace, manages to surprise throughout
(even if it goes over-the-top there at times), and without having the
overblown look of a big budget picture, it looks rather polished. Not a
classic by any means, but a fun ride as long as it lasts at least.
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