Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes (2009)

Directed by Guy Ritchie

Story by Lionel Wigram and Michael Robert Johnson

Screenplay by Michael Robert Johnson and Anthony Peckham and Simon Kinberg

Based on the characters created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Stars: Robert Downey Jr, Jude Law, Rachel McAdams, Mark Strong, Eddie Marsan, Robert Maillet, Kelly Reilly, William Houston, Hans Matheson, James Fox and William Hope

It was a struggle trying to find a movie to be covered today. I have seen almost every single movie that was released that year. I thought I would see a movie that I didn't completely see. Sherlock Holmes was the choice. I know that RDJ was a Golden Globe for this "comedy". It was nominated for two Academy Awards. I like the movie, but I think Sherlock Holmes condescends to the viewer.

Sherlock Holmes (Downey Jr) is quite different than that what we have seen before. He is more a brawler with a brain than anything else. Him and his long-suffering assistant, Dr. Watson (Law) solved a case by arresting Lord Blackwood (Strong). Blackwood is subsequently hanged. Holmes is depressed that is was the last case as Watson is moving on with his fiancé Mary (Reilly). It is not until rumors of Lord Blackwood rising from the dead would trigger of Holmes and Watson's greatest cases to date.

Guy Ritchie is known for action oriented movies. It comes to know surprise that he would make Sherlock Holmes a 19th century badass. I guess, the image of the stereotypical Holmes with that hat, the large pipe, injecting himself with morphine and taking a bump of cocaine is ingrained in my mind. I'm not saying that I hated RDJ's portrayal, but I have a bias. I will say that this Sherlock Holmes' powers of deduction makes him more of a condescending jerk than being a brilliant detective. It's like the movie punishes you for not paying attention to every minute detail that happened in the movie.

That being said. I enjoyed the acting in the film Mark Strong was very good as the adversary. Does he not make a great bad guy? I liked Rachel McAdams as Irene Adler, the woman that outsmarted Holmes a couple of times in the past. Everybody else was fine.

My Rating

Less Than Zero

Less Than Zero (1987)

Directed by Marek Kanievska

Screenplay by Harley Peyton

Based on the novel by Bret Easton Ellis

Stars: Andrew McCarthy, Jami Gertz, Robert Downey Jr, James Spader and Michael Bowen

I never do this, but I had a sleepless night where I woke up in the middle of night. I couldn't sleep so I decided to see Less Than Zero. I heard that the movie was mirroring RDJ's life when he was coked out of his mind. It was eerie to watch, but I was caught up in it.

This is a tale of three lifelong friends whose lives go in different directions six months after graduating from high school.The straight-laced one, Clay (McCarthy) returns to Beverly Hills by the urging of his model ex-girlfriend, Blair (Gertz). She wants him to come back to town because their friend, Julian (Downey, Jr.) is in deep trouble. Julian is in the throws of a deep cocaine addiction. He is in a five figure amount of debt from a sleazy drug dealer, Kip (Spader). The main mission is try to get Julian clean before its too late.

Being that it was middle of the night, I thought I was gonna fall asleep to this film. It's a film about rich, spoiled kids that have rich people problems. I misjudged the film. Reading more into the film, I heard the movie deviated from the book considerably. The book has a lot of characters that were melded together into the three main characters. I think this was good thing, because I think the viewer would not have cared about the characters if it was a faithful adaptation.

That was a biggest problem I had when I saw The Rules of Attraction.The characters were unlikable that I didn't care if they lived or died. Random shit happens in that movie that didn't make sense to me unless you read the 1987 novel. Less Than Zero the film was more effective that the drama focused on one character's actions effecting everyone else around them.

My Rating

The Avengers

Marvel's The Avengers (2012)

Directed by Joss Whedon

Written by Joss Whedon

Story by Zak Penn & Joss Whedon

Based on the comic book series by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby

Stars: Robert Downey Jr, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johannsson, Chris Evans, Samuel L. Jackson, Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo, Clark Gregg, Cobie Smulders, Stellan Skarsgård and Tom Hiddleston

Currently #31 of the Top 250 Films of All Time on IMDb (as of this posting.)

Can I just say that I love being a geek? I love being a geek. I have getting into comic books in the past couple of years. I know the lore of the Marvel and DC characters. When I heard that The Avengers was coming. I literally had a nerdgasm. Further, when I heard that Joss Whedon was directing the film, I shouted, "Hallelujah." I will make this claim that Joss Whedon is God to me. There I said it. Being that I was busy with my unpredictable work schedule, I had time to watch the film yesterday. I made me giddy like a schoolgirl.

I wanted to say this upfront, I did not see Captain America before seeing this film. I knew the lore already and I didn't want to be disappointed in the lead up to this movie like I did with Thor or Iron Man 2. Going into the movie I did not want to be spoiled by anything that happened in the movie. I avoided the internet, review shows, anything. I wanted to go into this movie drawing my own conclusion.

Here is the setup, after Loki's (Hiddleston) defeat by the hands of Thor (Hemsworth) he is sent to deep space where he tries to harness the powers of a magical cube called the Tesseract that would lead a race of alien warriors called the Chitauri to destroy the Earth. In order to do that Loki teleports to S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters to take it with the help of controlling Hawkeye (Renner) and Dr. Erik Selvig (Skarsgård) to make his escape. Nick Fury (Jackson) determines that it is an act of intergalactic war. He needs to reinstate the Avengers Initiative which would be Earth's mightiest heroes together for the defending our planet. Black Widow (Johannson) and Agent Coulson (Gregg) search the planet to bring together, the egoistical genius Iron Man (Downey Jr), the demigod Thor, the Hulk (Ruffalo) and the First Avenger Captain America (Evans).

My honest opinion is that this movie is awesome. I would say that it was like the first Iron Man movie where my mouth was open in awe. There were some cool things that happened in this movie that I can't give away, but you'll know them when you see them. The team had there moments to shine and everybody had a purpose to be there. I'm glad that Loki was more evil in this movie than he was in Thor, because he was a whiny idiot that cried about being in Thor's shadow. He became heartless against humanity. The movie is almost two and half hours long. I thought that there were some moments that could have be cut out. Other than that, I had a blast with the movie. The small tease after the credits go me going about what will happen next.

My Rating: