A life-long fan of Basil Rathbone's classic portrayal of Sherlock Holmes, I had my reservations about Robert Downey Jr.'s interpretation of the character, particularly with Guy Ritchie directing (let's not forget that the man was responsible for turning Vinnie Jones into a movie star!).

As expected, this 21st century reinvention of Conan Doyle's great detective bears very little resemblance to any previous movie incarnation, Downey Jr. playing the sleuth as a scruffy, smug, loutish, and reckless brawler, while sidekick Watson (Jude Law) is considerably smarter—and handier with his fists—than Nigel Bruce ever was.

Seeing the usually dapper detective and the equally eminent doctor portrayed in such manner is hard to come to terms with, but wasn't a deal-breaker for me—I can appreciate a new spin on an old theme—but the asinine script and unnecessarily flashy direction sadly was. An illogical, plot-hole ridden piece of guff, the film is peppered with juvenile humour and heavily stylised action set-pieces in a desperate effort to try and detract from the many weaknesses and flaws in the narrative, which start with a highly implausible fake execution and become more and more strained as the movie progresses.

As a piece of mindless popcorn nonsense, I guess this fares no worse than many a modern Hollywood blockbuster, but as a case for the finest crime-busting mind the world has ever known, it's far from brilliant.