Its not elementary, but its not exactly academic either... SHERLOCK!!!

Seriously how freaking good is Sherlock? I am talking about the most recent BBC adaptation starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. Its honestly one of the best TV series I have seen in years, also Guy Ritchie’s movie version is totally freaking awesome as well. If you don’t agree with me, firstly, shut up and secondly I am going to tell you why both the movie and the series are great.

Let’s start with the movie shall we.  Well having not read any of the literature around Sherlock Holmes before seeing the movie I was quite uneducated on the character (I have since read Hound of the Baskervilles, good book, read it, read it now!). However I did have this image of some sort of fusty old Englishman with a pipe and big hat, you know the stereotypical image of him. So I was pleasantly surprised to see the movie and be presented with one truly bad-ass detective. I also expected the movie to be a bit slower and more set around Holmes special abilities as an investigator, that is there, but there are also some really cool fight scenes, explosions and chases, making it a really good action movie. I say movie, I’m really talking about both the films that have been made so far by Guy Ritchie, the second one being my favourite, but each is great on its own merit. The reinvention of Sherlock Holmes was done really well I thought without abandoning the true essence of the character. You still have the amazingly quick investigative brain of Sherlock, and the humorous and loyal friendship of Dr Watson. Speaking of Dr Watson, since when was Jude Law cool? I was never a fan of him before, but then all of a sudden he has taken the character of Watson, who had previously been somewhat of a bumbling sidekick and turned him into a pretty tough foil to Robert Downey Junior’s Sherlock Holmes. Seriously I wanted to dislike Jude Law but I physically couldn’t, and I put that down to good acting and a very genuine chemistry between him and Downey Jr. I even love the music to this movie, I don’t care if it’s not every critic’s cup of tea, I think it rules and I really hope they make a third.

You know what’s cool though? Whilst I have to wait for a potential third movie, I have the TV series to keep me happy. I actually think I might prefer the TV series, that’s not a bad mark against the movie; it’s just that with a TV series there is more freedom to explore the characters and more of an opportunity to explore the various Sherlock Holmes stories. There are so many things I like about this series. Most of all it has to be the acting and the characters. Benedict Cumberbatch really shows what a good actor he is as Sherlock. He really seems to find the balance between the brilliant mind of Sherlock Holmes against the slightly unhinged sociopathic side to his character. Alongside him, Martin Freeman does very well as Watson I feel, he doesn’t quite have the bad-assery of Jude Law’s Watson from the movies, but he more than makes up for that with a darker and more cynical character, who still manages to be the perfect foil to Sherlock. The one stand out character for me though has to be Dr Moriaty played by Andrew Scott. The guy is completely insane and Scott plays insane really well, I also think the fact that he is Irish adds a little something extra to the character, for some reason the accent just makes him seem all the more intimidating, and that’s something considering he isn’t a big guy or a very imposing figure. All of this means that the stories never drag and you never really notice that each episode is 90 minutes long, pretty much TV – movie length.

What you get with the two adaptations of the famous story is the perfect balance between all out Hollywood style action, and well crafted and extremely well written drama. Each has brilliant acting in my opinion and the performances are very appropriate for what each project is trying to do. I really am looking forward to the third film instalment, if there is one and also the third series, which is coming up later this year if I remember correctly either way both are awesome, both deserve plaudits and if anyone fancies hiring me to be a writer or anything that is the tiniest bit involved with either project, then I will literally slap the pope for the opportunity.

Safe House Review (sorry I couldn't think of a pithy title for this one).

I thought I’d actually do something useful with this whole blog business, instead of just explaining why Facebook needs to have some sort of idiot cleansing and a discussion of why turtles are secretly fooling all of us, (more on that later) but nevertheless, seeing as I went to the cinema I thought I would do a little movie review.

Safe House is the movie in question, and looking at the cast, it looks like it could be a winner. The main character is Matthew Weston, played by Ryan ‘I’m allergic to my shirt’ Reynolds, Tobin Frost played by Denzel ‘easily in the top ten of the coolest dudes on the planet’ Washington. The movie itself is a straight up action, and by that I mean plenty of car chases, lots of people getting shot, more than enough fight scenes and TWO! Instances of guys lying on top of each other whilst trying to plunge a sharp object into the others chest, whilst the other desperately battles to push him in the opposite direction. So if you are a fan of movies that get the adrenaline going, then I will say from the off its worth seeing, it certainly made me jump about 3 or 4 times, and I am pretty sure the director did that on purpose because he hates cinema audiences.

The best thing about this film, is also the worst thing about it sadly; the plot. The actual storyline is quite innovative in my opinion, sure it has the old cliché of a guy who has betrayed his country and is now desperately pursued by secret agents, (one  of whom is corrupt naturally), who want to have him silenced. That plotline has been used so often now, I’m beginning to think that all secret agents at some point have to betray their country in order to get that promotion that they have been gunning for, but it always goes to Anderson because he kisses the bosses arse. Anyway, I got a bit lost in whimsy there. The new derivation of this idea is pretty much what the title says. Ryan Reynolds plays a guy whose job it is, is to guard a secret ‘safe house,’ which is essentially a location where suspects are brought for interrogation away from the prying eyes of everyone but those involved in the case. Reynolds character has been house sitting this particular property for 12 months and is keen to actually do something other than sit on his arse all day and hook up with his hot French girlfriend (yes of course he has a hot French girlfriend, its Ryan freaking Reynolds). Naturally Denzel Washington, the aforementioned traitor, has to spoil things when he is brought to the safe house to be interrogated. It literally takes about 10 minutes before dudes with machines guns burst in to kill everyone including Frost; they don’t succeed though thanks to a panicky Weston, who manages to engineer an escape. The rest of the film follows Weston’s attempts to keep his prisoner safe and transport him to another safe house, whilst also trying to avoid those who were supposed to be helping him.

I will say this, the movie is pretty exciting and very fast paced, which sadly leads to its downfall. The problem is the plot is simply too big for the movie, I felt there was a lot more room for character development, even though it’s an action film, there was still wasn’t enough exploration of characters, such as Weston’s girlfriend played by Nora Arnezeder, who quite frankly may as well have not been there, she was clearly there just to make Reynolds character look more human compared to the cold hearted character of Tobin Frost. Also Brendan Gleeson is far too good an actor to have such a reduced role, although as good as he is, his American accent is terrible and he seemed to give up and just go back to Irish half way through. Overall the acting is pretty solid though, Washington rarely lets you down, and Reynolds is a lot better than someone who just spends most of his movies topless.

Overall then my response to this film was a bit meh, the acting was good, I thought the plot was a good idea, but the script was a bit thin and there were too many ‘action’ sequences which seemed to have just been edited in when there was nothing else to move the movie forward. Also I guessed who the bad guy was pretty much straight away, it wasn’t very well disguised at all. I hate giving number ratings, because they are always so arbitrary, but if I had to give it a rating out of 5 I’d go for 2.5/5