Sherlock (2002)

Early in his crime-solving career, Sherlock Holmes attempts to prevent Moriarty from cornering the heroin market.

Director:

Graham Theakston

Writers:

Piers Ashworth, Arthur Conan Doyle (characters)

Stars:

James D'Arcy, Roger Morlidge, Gabrielle Anwar

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
James D'Arcy	...	Sherlock Holmes
Roger Morlidge	...	Dr. Watson
Gabrielle Anwar	...	Rebecca Doyle
Vincent D'Onofrio	...	Moriarty
Nicholas Gecks	...	Insp. Lestrade
Peter-Hugo Daly	...	Henry Coot
Richard E. Grant	...	Mycroft
Struan Rodger	...	Ben Harrington
Mihai Bisericanu	...	Sgt. Cox
Sandu Mihai Gruia	...	Dr. Cruickshank (as Mihai Gruia Sandu)
Constantin Barbulescu	...	Captor #1 (as Costi Barbulescu)
Doru Dumitrescu	...	Captor #2
Constantin Vasilescu	...	Goldie Duggan
Corneliu Tigancu	...	Chinese Proprietor
Fritha Goodey	...	Anna

Storyline

The game is afoot. This made for cable movie focuses on the young 20-something Sherlock Holmes. As the movie opens, Sherlock is in pursuit of the evil Moriarty and apparently shoots him to death, but his body cannot be found as he falls in a sewer. Ah, but anyone who knows the Holmes mythos knows that Moriarty is not so easily killed. Nonetheless, Holmes gains notoriety with the press and the police for his apparent killing of the evil Moriarty. This accomplishment brings him into the company of Dr. Watson, an early practitioner of autopsies, for the first time. Together, they start an investigation into the murder of several crimelords and become convinced that Moriarty is alive and behind a plot to organize drug dealing. Given that Moriarty is supposedly dead, Holmes finds it hard to convince Inspector Lestrade. Holmes investigation leads him to a beautiful prostitute, who posed as a rich woman to lure Holmes into the plot.

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Plot Keywords:

character name as title | serial murder | sherlock holmes character | doctor john watson character | professor moriarty character | 

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Taglines:

Forget Everything You Know About Sherlock Holmes

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence, drug content and some sexuality

Details

Official Sites:

Castel Film Studios Castel Film Studios

Country:

USA Romania UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

25 October 2002 (USA)

Also Known As:

Sherlock: Case of Evil

Filming Locations:

Bucharest, Romania

Company Credits

Production Co:

Alliance Cinema, Box TV, Castel Film Romania

Technical Specs

Runtime:

100 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

As Sherlock and Mycroft describe a man on the street during their 'old game', the dialogue is taken practically word for word from Arthur Conan Doyle's short story 'The Greek Interpreter', which introduced Mycroft.

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Goofs

We are shown two newspaper front pages. The date of the first newspaper is Tuesday October 2, 1886. The actual day was Saturday 2nd. The second newspaper was dated Wednesday October 17, 1886. The actual day was Sunday 17th.

User Reviews

Just...bad

I saw this movie recently with the very greatest of hopes.

I have been a Sherlock Holmes fan for as long as I can remember, so when I saw the box for this film on the shelves at my local video store, I yanked it up without even looking at the synopsis on the back. After watching the movie, I might have enjoyed the synopsis more...a LOT more.

The characters were two-dimensional and under-developed at very best: no depth at all was brought to any one of them, but for the struggling Rebecca Doyle, portrayed by Gabrielle Anwar...and in this setting, finding anything to like about her was a struggle. James D'Arcy never even saw the mark in attempting to bring humanity to the legendary Holmes; he just came off weak and vacillating in D'Arcy's hands. Vincent D'Onofrio - of whom I am an incredible fan normally, and who is notoriously known as "the Human Chameleon" for his most uncanny ability to lose himself in a role - just phoned this performance in, when I'd have loved to have seen a far more layered interpretation of this legendary bad guy. Roger Morlidge does a serviceable job of Dr. Watson, but it's just not enough.

The plot was presumptuous of far too much detail relevant to the Holmes legend to introduce such intricacies as the reasoning behind the heroin addiction suffered by he and his brother, without providing much substantive sub-plot to make it plausible...or even make us care.

The fencing battles between Holmes and Moriarty are well-executed, but only consume a cumulative twenty minutes of the film at the very most.

Writer Piers Ashworth didn't think outside the box in his creation of this "new perspective", he just created a new box and hopped right in. Director Graham Theakston didn't seem to even attempt to transcend the poor scripting with crafty, smart, or inspiring visuals.

I just didn't get it.