New Things Coming

Hi everybody. I'm working on something special for the next piece I'll be putting up. I hope you enjoy it and I hope you'll continue visiting. Thanks everyone,
-Neal

Sherlock Holmes First Thoughts

I last night had the privilege of seeing Guy Ritchie's latest, Sherlock Holmes starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law. I was originally mixed in my expectations. I didn't know how Ritchie would handle making a movie about Sherlock Holmes who is not an action hero or an action star by any means. I thought he would possibly ruin a loved icon for many people and completely redefine Sherlock as a detective. I was wrong. After viewing the film I was in shock. Of course it was a Ritchie film with the use of slow motions and messing with the timeline. Ritchie definitely put his own spin on a classic tale. As you may know from the trailers, Professor Moriarty is not the main villain. Instead it is a well off man known as Lord Blackwood. He is a member of a secret society of gentlemen who closely resemble Freemasons except they use magic and rituals more than the masons do. The story eludes to Moriarty though and it was an interesting choice to not show his face or put him in the cast credits (on a second look there is a cast for "Anonymous Man" which may have been for Moriarty). I don't want to give anything away but the ending was funny and hinted toward something we generally don't think too deeply about nowadays. I highly enjoyed this film. After researching Sherlock Holmes for just a short while I was surprised to read that he actually was a fist fighter, swordsman, and martial artist. This greatly made me enjoy the film more because it showed me that Guy Ritchie did do his own research (not that he wouldn't but it was still nice to know). Speaking of the fighting, it was done so well. I thought it would be done like Ritchie's previous film Snatch but instead I was greatly surprised. The fighting even showed how smart Holmes was. He would explain what each strike would do and gave his diagnosis as to recovery times for his opponents. It was funny, exciting, and exhilarating. Overall this film was enjoyable and the only thing I didn't much care for was the extensive use of CGI. I would have been much happier with less CGI and more risk taking with camera trickery, but I'm not a CGI fan. I would highly recommend this film to anyone and everyone I come across. Please see this, enjoy it, and tell others to do the same. I want to start giving all new films I see and review ratings and I'm happy to give this one an 8.5/10.