Posts tagged Anthony Peckham
“Sherlock Holmes” Deconstructing Holmes
Dec 30th
Deconstructing Holmes
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
SHERLOCK HOLMES takes one of the most famous of all fictional characters, the brilliant but eccentric London detective created in the late 1800s by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and turns him into a modern-day action hero.
The setting is still London in the late 1800s, but Robert Downey Jr.
plays Holmes as just as much a martial-arts fighter as a brilliant thinker.
And Jude Law plays Dr. Watson, Sherlock’s partner, colleague, and writer of Sherlock’s famous cases, as just as much an equal in the martial arts as Holmes is.
To steal a line from somebody else, “This is not your great-grandfather’s Sherlock Holmes.”
In fact, Watson himself may be onto something, because a major subplot in this mess of a movie is that Dr. Watson is engaged and preparing to move out of their digs at 221B Baker Street.
The fault, Dear Audience, lies with the writers and the director, Guy Ritchie, known for his rock-’em, sock-’em modern-day British crime-caper comedies, but most famous for being the recently divorced husband of Madonna.
When the movie opens, Holmes is in a foul mood, and Watson says to Mrs.
Hudson, the woman who keeps their rooms as tidy as she is allowed to, “He just needs another case, that’s all.”
The last case that Holmes had and presumably solved was three months ago, but before he acquires a new case, Holmes is invited to dinner in a restaurant with Watson and his fiancee, Mary, who insists that Holmes examine her at the table and tell her what his observations reveal about her.
To say that it doesn’t go well would be the understatement of the 19th century.
Holmes eventually gets a case that involves black magic, a midget, a plot to rule England and to reacquire the United States, and Holmes’s female nemesis, Irene Adler, played by the beautiful Rachel McAdams.
Yes, this movie is more like a James Bond adventure than a story about the Sherlock Holmes we have come to know, love, respect, and admire.
The movie is preposterous, the story is preposterous, the action scenes are preposterous, even the acting is preposterous.
And, unfortunately, the ending has all the earmarks of a sequel in the works.
SHERLOCK HOLMES is a silly deconstruction of the four novels and 56 short stories that we have read and loved.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
Sherlock Holmes – Movie Trailer
Dec 26th
The mysterious action-adventure, “Sherlock Holmes” staged by the renowned filmmaker Guy Ritchie for Warner Bros. Pictures and Village Roadshow Pictures. Robert Downey Jr., the legendary detective borrows its shape, and Jude Law plays Holmes’ reliable Mr Watson, of Sherlock Holmes as a doctor and war veteran actively supported.
“Invictus” Unconquered
Dec 17th
Unconquered
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
INVICTUS tells the story of how Nelson Mandela united the country of South Africa after he became president by getting its citizens, both black and white, to be united in their support of the national rugby team, the Springboks, in the 1995 World Cup.
The Springboks were hated by the nation’s blacks as a symbol of apartheid, but the finals were to be held in South Africa, and if Mandela could succeed, the whole world would be watching the nation come together.
Clint Eastwood directed the film, Morgan Freeman plays Mandela, Matt Damon plays Francois Pienaar, the captain of the Springboks, and all three could easily be nominated for Academy Awards and even win, along with the film for Best Picture.
It is that good.
The film begins in 1990 when Mandela is released from prison after being behind bars for 27 years. Then when Mandela is elected president, he states that it is no time to celebrate petty revenge, but is a time to rebuild the nation with every brick available.
He is shown a newspaper headline that reads, “He can win an election, but can he run a country?” and Mandela tells his staff, “It’s a legitimate question.”
When Mandela realizes that the Rugby World Cup will be held in 1995 in South Africa, he decides to try to use that event and the national team to bring the country together and to overcome old hatred and prejudices.
So, he invites Pienaar, the Springboks captain, to tea and enlists his support, which won’t be easy, because the experts say that the Springboks have no better chance than to reach the quarterfinals.
Sure, it is a cliche to end a film on the Big Game, but in this case it works, and you don’t have to like rugby or even know the rules to be excited by the action. Eastwood includes enough shots of the scoreboard to let the audience know what is going on.
The title means “unconquered,” and it comes from an 1888 poem that Mandela memorized in prison to give him encouragement, and it ends with the famous lines, “I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.”
Mandela gives a copy to Captain Pienaar to use for the team’s inspiration.
INVICTUS and the film’s players are also unconquered.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
