For Christmas I planned to give my husband a date night out- without the kids.  I knew exactly where I wanted to go for dinner- he can fill you in on that- so I just had to pick a great movie.  My first thought was Avatar because figured Tom would get a thrill out of that technological stuff.  But then I would have to hear him talk about it for days using words I don’t even pretend to understand.  Selfishly, I wanted a movie that I would enjoy also.  We had seen Ironman and Tropic Thunder, so I figured Tom would appreciate Robert Downey Jr. in Sherlock Holmes.  And, I must admit, I had seen screen shots of RD Jr. shirtless in a boxing scene…Avatar who?  Plus a little Rachel McAdams couldn’t hurt Tom’s eyes of the story turned out to be less than stellar.  He seemed gung-ho, so off we went.

Admittedly, I don’t have a lot of Guy Ritchie experience, other than Snatch which I only remember as the movie where Brad Pitt mumbled or something, so I had no idea what kind of thrill ride we were in for!  I do not go to movies to analyze cinematography, editing, or art direction.  I just appreciate a good story that lets me forget where I am for a couple of hours.  Sherlock did just that.  However I can honestly say I have never taken such notice of visual effects and the soundtrack of any other movie.

One would expect cool CGI or whatever in flicks like Avatar, Up in the Air (how DO they make George Clooney look like he never ages?), and Alvin and the Chipmunks:  the Squeaquel, but Sherlock had fantastic effects!  Kudos to Guy- and not just for finally freeing himself of Madonna- I mean the vision he had in his head while putting this together must have been incredible. I think I most enjoyed the moments when Sherlock had his shirt off would think through his next steps and we would see it play out in slow motion, then we got to watch it all happen just as he planned.  It’s a little hard to explain, but it was AWESOME!  Guy could have totally abused this little technique but he restrained himself so that we didn’t get bored of it.

As for the soundtrack, I really can’t explain why I enjoyed to music so much but I loved the simple notes Hans Zimmer used to let us build excitement along with the characters.  I don’t like the creepy music they play in scary movies to clue viewers in that something bad is going to happen; I am not so dense that I need musical foreshadowing to tell me that the dark, abandoned house is bad news.  I did, however, LOVE how the score in Sherlock helped build the fun!

I am, by no means, knowledgeable about the Sherlock Holmes stories but I am sure this is nowhere NEAR what Sir Arthur Conan Doyle envisioned in his anti-hero – not that he is rolling over in his grave or anything.  I think my ignorance allowed me to thoroughly enjoy the movie.  I spent more time reveling in the similarities with Hugh Laurie and his House than I did comparing the characters with what I thought they should be.  It was just good, clean fun from start to finish.  If you can just sit back and let yourself get caught up in the joy of it all you can have a pretty darn good time.  Don’t try to solve the mystery ahead of Sherlock, don’t wonder if he will wear the stupid hat or say, “Elementary, my dear Watson” (he won’t), and DON’T wonder how Irene Adler found a pair of perfectly tailored pants in that day and age.  Just don’t.

What you should do is get a big tub of popcorn and a giant Diet Pepsi, find someone you want to sit next to for an amazingly quick couple of hours, and go enjoy a well done, fast paced, hoot of an action flick.

And did I mention we get to see Sherlock without his shirt on?