Today’s quick review: Holmes & Watson. The world-famous detective Sherlock Holmes (Will Ferrell) and his faithful sidekick John Watson (John C. Reilly) face their greatest challenge yet when Professor Moriarty (Ralph Fiennes), Holmes’ brilliant nemesis, threatens to kill the Queen. With the help of Dr. Grace Hart (Rebecca Hall), Holmes and Watson throw themselves into the case and try to prove Holmes’ bold hypothesis: that Moriarty is innocent.
Holmes & Watson is a detective comedy starring Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly. Holmes & Watson sets out to be a ridiculous spoof of Sherlock Holmes and his many incarnations. Two experienced leads, a fruitful character for parody, and a smattering of entertaining jokes give the movie some potential. But its crude humor, misjudged emphasis, uneven writing, and placeholder plot make Holmes & Watson a comedy that falls well short of the mark.
Holmes & Watson’s best jokes are lost in a sea of weak ones. Relatively little of the film’s humor is about Sherlock Holmes at all. Instead, the film spends its time taking haphazard shots at the Victorian era and indulging in crass humor and slapstick with its two leads. The film has flashes of inspiration where it lives up to its potential, but it tends to get stuck on its weaker jokes, passing up chances for smarter or more relevant humor.
Oddly enough, Holmes & Watson ignores two ready sources of comedy that could have patched up its weaknesses. The background is riddled with absurd sight gags that would be a perfect fit for an Airplane!-style comedy, but the film never embraces them. The film also flirts with the idea of Holmes as a bumbling detective but never does much with it, opting for a superficial plot that doesn’t take full advantage of the characters it’s created.
Holmes & Watson won’t have much to offer most viewers. The handful of jokes where everything clicks are enough to keep it from being a total loss, and they can even make it an entertaining watch for anyone who’s willing to tune out the failed ones. But Holmes & Watson requires too much patience for too little reward to be worth it most of the time, and most viewers would be better off with another detective comedy or Will Ferrell’s better work.
For a more effective, comedy-tinged adaptation of the same source material, try the version of Sherlock Holmes from director Guy Ritchie. For a more masterful comedy about a bumbling detective, try The Pink Panther. For a better use of John C. Reilly, try Stan & Ollie. For an absurd comedy with smarter jokes, try Top Secret!.
3.8 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it a 5.0 for inconsistent comedy and missed potential.