Written by: Etan Cohen
Starring: Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, Rebecca Hall
IMDb Link
I'm almost glad this movie exists, because now it's easy to pick the worst movie of the year.
With Ferrell as Holmes and Reilly as Watson, this movie tries and fails to be a send-up of Sherlock Holmes. The movie lifts visual style from the Downey Jr. movies, and generally tries to make fun of the sometimes convoluted nature of mystery stories, but does so with all the finesse, commitment, focus and energy of a depressed sloth. Ideas for jokes and story threads are introduced and dropped without much thought; the comedic juxtaposition of Lestrade as the competent Police Officer whom no-one listens to, while Sherlock prattles away to the only people dumber than he, is essentially forgotten about after the first act, along with Sherlock's considerable sexual attraction to Lestrade (yes, that's a thing they decided to include and then forget about; why they did either of those things is a mystery). Anything that does manage to carry all the way through the mind-numbing story is inconsistent and painfully boring, with Sherlock's intellect always as outlandishly high or low as it needs to be for the plot, Watson's nothing of a self-esteem issue obscured by a deluge of cheap jokes about medicine in that era, and the testing of the relationship between the two so artificial and poorly exerted it's a wonder they even bothered. On top of that, between the sensual autopsy (you read that right), the out-of-place musical number, and the constant anachronistic pop culture references, including a finale involving the Titanic and a cameo from Billy Zane (not a character, just the actor Billy Zane), this movie has all the makings of the likes of Epic Movie or Meet the Spartans. Why this film exists as it does, I have no idea.
The Short Version: This is a career-low for everyone involved.
Rating: 1.5/10
Published December 28th, 2018
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