I videotaped this film when it first aired and kept it on tape, now DVD ever since. I think it is outstanding for a TV movie. To have the "real" Holmes brought back in the late 20th Century requires the film to have some humorous scenes and they had plenty of them. I also liked the plot, the drama portion, I mean. It wasn't obvious, yet it was executed with care so as to be logical all the way through. Some shows are ruined by plots too obscure to be followed or too obvious to entertain. This script was exactly between those types.
Holmes was quick to pick up on our modern world, yet totally befuddled by some things--just as anyone would be if actually put in that situation.
Tonight I saw another "Holmes in the modern-world" movie, the Larry Hagman "Return of the World's Greatest Detective," which I somehow never saw before. I gave it a 4 of 10 as it had holes in the plot and really only made me chuckle a couple of times. The film reviewed here towers over that earlier work, and is better than a similar TV movie made not too long after this one. This film moved around, not only to England, but to various places in the U.S. The Hagman film takes place all in Los Angeles. It's almost like they had $300,000 in the total budget and had to pay Hagman $275,000, so their location shooting could go no farther than Mulholland Drive in L.A.
If you like Sherlock Holmes, I highly recommend seeing this movie as soon as you can.
