Also checked out the studio’s weird attempt at a Christmas movie, the comedy Holmes and Watson. I see why they released this pile of garbage on Christmas day… they were trying to trick the audience into thinking it was a prestige comedy and make some box office before people saw through the lie. This is a TERRIBLE movie.
Holmes and Watson has inspired casting in Will Ferrell as Holmes and John C. Reilly as Watson. It’s a good pairing of comedic actors who could, in theory, turn out a funny send-up of Sherlock Holmes. They have worked together on a number of occasions so it just kind of makes sense they would play this duo. Add in Ralph Fiennes as Moriarty and Hugh Laurie as Mycroft (funny because he played House, famously inspired by Sherlock Holmes) and you should have something interesting.
But it’s not. This is an aggressively unfunny lump of a comedy that should have been good. The satire they are doing here shows promise but somehow they failed on every attempt. I guess it could be funny to have Holmes try on multiple hats, the joke being we all know he needs his deer stalker cap (and a better comedy would know that that hat was invented for the movies). It could be funny to have jokes about selfies using giant cameras or late-night sexting via telegraph. They make a few jokes based on the analytical abilities of Holmes in the Downey movies and the Cumberbatch show… but they just don’t work.
I was so bored with this flick, I realized I was far more fascinated by which Queen of England was in it. This was because this is the third movie in three days I’ve seen that involves the British monarchy (after The Favourite and Mary Queen of Scots). I was so distracted by this, I went out to the bathroom and checked my iphone to confirm this was Queen Victoria.. who reigned from 1876 to 1901. Which reminds me that this movie featured The Titanic in its end sequence… which, yeah, wasn’t a thing until 1911… so, hey, this movie is historically inaccurate!!! *gasp*
I guess my point here is that anything to distract you is better that watching this garbage movie. It’s one of those comedies you can’t believe talented, smart, funny people with millions of dollars could put out and not realize it just didn’t work. Skip this one.
Score: 56