SHERLOCK HOLMES ☆☆☆

The new Sherlock Holmes is flashy, suave, cool, but also brutal, gritty, tough, and, as he should be, very smart. Director Guy Richie's take, with Robert Downey Jr. as the eccentric case detective and now head basher Sherlock Holmes, and Jude Law as his companion, the aristocratic-type, but brazen Dr. John Watson, is very stylish and very fun; 1800's London looks very dark and dirty, but in a good, Gothic-sort-of-way, with lots of detailed and lavish production design and CG overcast skies to help fill in the gloom. Even with Holmes being a rough boxer and Watson the objective, non-passive and intolerable doctor as Holmes sort-of subconscious, the script retains Doyle's Holmes, the intelligent, detail oriented super sleuth and his loyal partner. Here, in 09's "Sherlock Holmes," Richie, Downey Jr. and Law play off some comedic banter of Holmes and Watson, as well as having them get into lots of dangerous cliffhangers together, but still have the fun whoduit mystery that makes Holmes' puzzle deducing so good to follow along with. Now, the case of "Sherlock Holmes" isn't the mystery of the century, but it keeps your interest, and Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law are so much fun to watch on screen anyway.

The rest of the cast is good: Rachel McAdams as the sexy, clever crime lady Irene Alder, Mark Strong as the mysterious villian, Lord Blackwood (we honestly don't see much of him in this movie, and we should have) and Eddie Marsan (more low key here) as Inspector Lestrade. The script, especially the dialogue, is smart, fast and witty, written by Anthony Peckham (writer of Clint Eastwood's latest, "Invictus"), Michael Robert Johnson and Simon Kinberg. I liked Hans Zimmer's score here, too, again synthetic-sounding and loud, but nicely playing off the motifs with banjos, being the new Holmes instrument of choice.

Again, the story, and the case, could have been more involving, but it moves along briskly, and with Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law, very stylishly so.