He's killed the dog again

The game was afoot on Wednesday night as Chaz, Kenny and myself drove into town to see Sherlock Holmes, Guy Ritchie's latest movie, in Renfrew Street. After seeing the movie, I've since read a lot of mixed reviews but i have to say, I really liked it. I've always been a bit of a Sherlock Holmes nut anyway having read most of Conan Doyle's stories, watched the movies and the episodes of Jeremy Brett's television series - Brett being the best actor to have personified Holmes to date. With all this in mind the fact that Guy Ritchie had been making a Sherlock Holmes movie filled me with dread. I couldn't help but think that Ritchie would transform the Holmes world into a fast talking, abuse firing, violent city of crack smoking, snake breeding gangsters whose convoluted storylines all have impossibly outrageous crossing points. Thankfully I was pleasantly surprised. Okay the plot is slightly run of the mill but you can forgive that for the great characterisations and Ritchie's visual flairs, especially when it comes to the bare knuckle fight scenes and landscapes of London in the 1890s. The old world London was impressively detailed and great to see the characters roaming through or in some cases running through. At one (niggling) point Holmes runs from Big Ben to the top of Tower Bridge in what seems like three minutes - impressive.
Robert Downey Junior is great as Holmes with just the right amount of ham and eccentricity. Law was sufficeiently reliable as Watson but both were even better when together. If they hadn't got the Holmes - Watson relationship right the whole film would have probably fell flat. Rachel McAdams provides the 'love interest' Irene Adler, Holmes single love interest from the original tales, and Ritchie regular Mark Strong is suitably brooding as the big bad.
Without giving too much away (they didn't die) they have pretty much set up the sequel with heavy, subtle as a brick, hints of a shadowy Professor controlling things from the background. Online rumours suggest this shadowy figure is the notorious Moriarty (surprise) but played by none other than Brad Pitt (Brad Pitt?!). Lets hope he doesn't hit out with any of that pikey irish babble this time round.