Game is afoot in fun, action-heavy 'Sherlock Holmes'

SHERLOCK HOLMES — ★★★ — Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Rachel McAdams; rated PG-13 (violence, vulgarity, drugs, brief gore, slurs, nude art, mild profanity); in general release

This certainly isn't your grandfather's — or even your father's — "Sherlock Holmes."

In fact, a few audiences are bound to reject this action-heavy re-do of Arthur Conan Doyle's famous and much-filmed detective simply because the title character uses his fists as often as he uses his brain.

Yet it's one of the more fun, big-budgeted, big-studio films to come around of late.

While it might not be a classic on par with such earlier Holmes film adventures as either the 1939 or 1959 versions of "The Hound of the Baskervilles" or the well-regarded British television starring Jeremy Brett, it's very enjoyable.

Of course, a lot of the enjoyment has to do with the casting of Robert Downey Jr. as Doyle's most famous fictional creation.

In this mystery-thriller, Holmes and his most trusted companion, Dr. Watson (Jude Law), are about to go their separate ways. Watson, it seems, is engaged to a former governess, Mary Morstan (Kelly Reilly).

Yet he and Holmes are not through with their supposedly final case. The duo caught supposed wizard Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong) in the act of performing some sort of arcane, ritualistic slaying.

The fiend was hanged for his crimes, but he has apparently, somehow, risen from the grave. And now he's threatening to kill again unless Holmes and Watson can stop him.

So the game is afoot, as Holmes would say. But he finds his attentions divided.

His on-again, off-again girlfriend — professional thief Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams) — has returned and is also seeking something from the murderous Lord Blackwood.

Three screenwriters were credited for this wholly "original" story, which is actually more convoluted and contrived than most of Doyle's stories.

Fortunately, Guy Ritchie's energetic direction and some thrilling action sequences make us forget all about that.

Also, the give-and-take between Downey's sometimes-smug but still charming Holmes and Law's more grounded but only slightly less clever Watson is good stuff.

We certainly wouldn't mind them taking on another big-screen case (which the film seems to imply is a certainty).

"Sherlock Holmes" is rated PG-13 and features violent content and imagery (fisticuffs and brawling, knife play and swordplay, gunplay and shootings, explosive and fiery mayhem and violence against women), some suggestive references and humor (some of it sexual in nature), drug content and references (various poisons, anesthetics and other chemicals), brief gore and blood, derogatory language and slurs, glimpses of nude artwork (statues and paintings) and scattered mild profanity (mostly religiously based). Running time: 128 minutes.

e-mail: jeff@desnews.com