Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s legendary creations Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson have been entertaining countless millions for over a century not only in printed media but also in theatrical presentations, movies, radio, and television. Over the years, many different variations on the canonical arrangement of deductive detective and chronicler/friend have been attempted, some more successful than others. Thom Eberhardt’s Without a Clue has a terrific variant in the central relationship and might have resulted in a slam-bang comedy-drama, but inspiration comes up short after a good start, and the movie falls back on trite slapstick too often to the detriment of its overall effect. It’s a noble attempt at something different, but it just misses making it work.
Studio: MGM
Distributed By: Olive
Video Resolution and Encode: 1080P/AVC
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audio: English 2.0 DTS-HDMA
Subtitles: None
Rating: PG
Run Time: 1 Hr. 47 Min.
Package Includes: Blu-ray
keep caseDisc Type: BD50 (dual layer)
Region: All
Release Date: 03/31/2015
MSRP: $29.95
The Production Rating: 3/5
The original concept for a Watson as detective with Holmes played by an actor who hasn’t a clue about detective work is by Gary Murphy and Larry Strawther, and it’s such an inspired idea. In fact, the film’s first quarter hour is delightful as Kinkaid’s Holmes manages to convince the public and the equally befuddled Inspector Lestrade (Jeffrey Jones) of his genius as an investigator. But then the movie really has nowhere else to go as Holmes’ continual stumbling and bumbling get irritatingly worse and worse (a back flip over a second floor hotel railing, being a tasty morsel for an especially hungry dog, clumsiness with pistols and other props), and the public (except for the very few – Mrs. Hudson (Pat Keen), Baker Street Irregular Wiggins (Matthew Savage), and the evil Professor Moriarty (Paul Freeman) – in on the charade) is made to look as clueless as Holmes not being able to figure out his incompetence. The case of the counterfeit money plates isn’t especially as complex or perplexing as we’d like in a Sherlock Holmes mystery, even if it is a faux Holmes. The screenwriters have tried to inject an element of surprise with one of the characters not being who he or she appears, but it’s rather limp, and the ironic payoff late in the film is likewise not particularly inspired. Director Thom Eberhardt does coax some attractive period detail out of his backlot streets and sets, and the use of wipes to segue between scenes is a nice antique touch, too, but the climax as a fencing Holmes and a returned-from-the-dead Watson manage to foil the villains goes on too long losing comic and dramatic momentum, and everyone near the end appears to be brain dead including the until-that-moment adept Mrs. Hudson.
Oscar-winners Michael Caine and Ben Kingsley perform very well together with Kingsley actually the more appealing of the pair as he copes with the trials of an unprofessional colleague while Caine gets into the spirit of the farce doing a series of slapstick turns as the inept Holmes. Jeffrey Jones, who at this time seemed to be in every other movie being released, is a mediocre Inspector Lestrade while Paul Freeman plays a cookie-cutter evil Professor Moriarty without any shadings or subtleties. Lysette Anthony is Leslie Giles, the damsel in distress whose father, the designer of the Bank of England plates played by John Warner, has been kidnapped by Moriarty and his gang. Nigel Davenport overacts like crazy as Lord Smithwick, the British treasurer, while Matthew Savage as street urchin Wiggins is an appealing tyke as Holmes’ trusty underground agent (who also is not above lifting a few watches and wallets). Until the badly directed denouement in an abandoned theater, Pat Keen makes for a fine Mrs. Hudson.
Video Rating: 4/5 3D Rating: NA
Audio Rating: 4/5
Special Features Rating: 1/5
Overall Rating: 3/5
Reviewed By: Matt Hough
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