When Robert Downey Jr. took on the role of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, I had some concerns about him being the choice to play the part of the legendary character. In part because he did not have the right look, and because many of his roles were for comedies. I thought his portrayal of Holmes might be a parody in the film, that his style of humor would not fit. I decided to watch several Sherlock Holmes pictures with previous actors including Basil Rathbone, Jeremy Brett, John Neville, and Christopher Plummer. I took note that the actors all gave the astute character some quirkiness in the pictures, which Downey Jr. can easily do, so I became much more comfortable with him in the part. When Sherlock Holmes debuted in 2009, I saw it in the theater. Even though the character was slightly altered, this was still Sherlock Holmes at his best!  

Taking place in London, in the year 1890 private detective Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr., Iron Man) and his longtime partner Dr. John Watson(Jude Law, Captain Marvel) are out to stop a ritualistic murder of a woman by Lord Henry Blackwood (Mark Strong, Kick-Ass), who has killed five other women in the exact same way, with rituals and black magic. They successfully capture Lord Blackwood and is subsequently hanged. Soon after the killings start to happen again. It appears that the occult black magic leader Lord Blackwood did not die after all and has risen from his grave with has a devious plan to conquer London with his cult followers. It is up to Holmes, Watson and Inspector Lestrade (Eddie Marsan, Hancock) of Scotland Yard to solve the mystery of the supernatural scheme of Lord Blackwood and put him away once and for all before he commits mass murder.

I thoroughly enjoyed Sherlock Holmes. It is a fast-paced edge of your seat loaded with action film, arguably more action than previous Sherlock Holmes films. Director Guy Ritchie did tweak the character a bit to appeal to contemporary audiences and it worked very well. More violence was added to this Sherlock Holmes film as well as giving the Holmes character adding toughness. While in past Holmes films, the character did get down and dirty fighting with his enemies, but never with such explosiveness or viciousness as is displayed in this movie. He even takes part in a fist fight in front of a crowd which is a first. His attacks are cerebral with his planning each move before he does it, while we, the viewer see his attack plan right in front of our eyes. This Sherlock Holmes has been equipped with a vast amount of combat skills including martial arts, and is clearly a tougher, grittier person in this film. At the same time, the character is still an oddball running several crazy scientific experiments.

Robert Downey Jr. was fantastic as Sherlock Holmes, so good that he won The Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy and both the Empire Award and Saturn Award for Best Actor. I would not call Sherlock Holmes your typical comedy. While there are plenty of humorous moments, this is first and foremost an action film, the blending of comedy worked well, and overall made it fun to watch.   

Jude Law was perfect as Dr. John Watson, and had more depth, and youth added to the part. Both Holmes and Watson are younger in this picture, allowing for them to be more active for all the action scenes, be it fighting, running in chase scenes and other adventurous activity. This Watson is not the same bumbling, fumbling, goofy character as had been in previous films, especially in the Basil Rathbone series. Law and Downey Jr. have great chemistry together with some funny dialog exchanges. Inspector Lestrade, played by Eddie Marsan, was also updated, making him a much more competent, and less of a goofy on the wrong track inspector. The remaining cast members, including Rachel McAdams, Mark Strong, Kelly Reilly, and Hans Matheson are all excellent in their roles, handing in professional performances. Mark Strong makes for a great brutal villain!

Sherlock Holmes was brilliantly shot by cinematographer Philippe Rousselot, who captures some beautiful, breathtaking London scenery and some wonderful Victorian set pieces throughout and succeeds in giving the movie a gloomy feel to it.

The musical scores by Hans Zimmer are also top-notch. They earned him awards from both the Saturn Awards and Broadcast Film Critics Association for Best Score. He was also nominated for an Academy Award.

Sherlock Holmes did earn several accolades; it was nominated for several awards, and did some, mainly from the Saturn Awards.

Sherlock Holmes arrives on 4K UHD courtesy of Warner Brothers Home Entertainment with a 2160p transfer. The video quality in UHD is robust, with a darker look to it, with a nearly black and white appearance in many sequences. The image also at times has a brownish, sepia tone, which was by design. The HDR10 presentation is a slight upgrade from the Blu-ray with a brighter appearance despite the movie being mostly being shot in darker setting. The details to the beautiful scenery are magnanimous with both interior and exterior shots boasting great depth.  Black levels and shadowing are strong and balanced, as the visuals and characters are clear in evening scenes. This is not a colorful or vibrant presentation by any means; there are no cheerful blue skies or green trees to behold. The urban setting is under grey skies throughout. The colors when presented are strong which in most cases were from special effects explosions which were an orange-yellow hue. The colors also stand out on some of the costumes the performers wear and are quite strong. Skin tones look accurate with immaculate details in close-ups. No DNR or other artificial enhancements were detected.  

The 4K UHD disc contains the same English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix as was on the original 1080 Blu-ray release. The audio is robust with action sequences such as explosions coming in the loudest and most aggressive. Dialog and other sounds are also clear and flawless.

 English SDH, French, German SDH, Spanish, Arabic, Cantonese, Czech, Danish, Dutch are among the optional subtitle options for this offering.  

There are no new extras that are on the UHD disc, but the previous content from Blu-ray has been ported over for this release, which are Maximum Movie Mode, Focus Points and Sherlock Holmes Reinvented

Revisiting Sherlock Holmes for this review was a real pleasure as I have been a fan of this film since the beginning and to see it with the strongest audio and video presentation to date was a real pleasure. While no additional bonus content was made for the release, at least the content ported over is still relevant and enjoyable to watch. Easily recommended!

Sherlock Holmes

Director- Guy Ritchie

Cast- Robert Downey, Jr. Jude Law

Country of Origin- US

Distributor – Warner Brothers

Number of Discs – 2

Reviewed by – David Steigman

Date- 11/15/20