Sherlock Holmes

Brilliant detective Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.) and loyal Dr. Watson (Jude Law) are faced with a peculiar challenge as they capture a serial killer who dabbles in Black Arts. After being hung, the killer comes back to life and the rampage continues. Holmes’s problems grow as an old flame and nemesis (Rachel McAdams) returns, and Watson prepares to hang up his sleuthing hat in favor of marriage.

The ClearPlay Factor

The PG-13 Sherlock Holmes benefits from the ClearPlay treatment by trimming two suggestive scenes with low-key nudity, and a number of grotesque images of death and violence (including a maggot infested corpse). A few crude references and a couple of instances of profanity are also cut. This is not your drawing-room Holmes, and fights still abound. The macabre storyline involving possible supernatural powers may scare little kids.

Give me a clue: Is this Holmes insightful or simply ‘elementary’?…

In this reinterpretation of the familiar series, Holmes and Watson are more like action heroes than prim and proper detectives. Holmes is gleefully flawed, and Downey Jr. and Law play well off each other. The preserved essence of the characters should satisfy staunch Holmesians, and the faithful-if-stylized recreation of 1890 London is an eyeful. Jolly good fun.

Marty Nabhan—ClearPlay Super Sleuth

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, some startling images and a scene of suggestive material.; 128 min; Directed By Guy Ritchie