Actually, I do know all that, which is why I said *a form of *jujitsu, which bartitsu was, but it seemed like too much bother to explain.
I saw it last night. I liked it, though it was not a great film by any means. My wife thought it was too loud, and too violent (this was payback for Emma, by the way).
I liked that Watson was a useful companion, instead of the idiotic and bumbling Watsons from other movies. Another nod to the canon was Holmes asking Watson to deduce from the evidence of scratches on a watch, and Watson responding that the owner was probably a drunk.
I liked the interchange between Mary, Holmes, and Watson at the dinner, where Mary challenges Holmes to deduce about her, and Watson, knowing that can’t end well, trying to deflect them.
I liked the later interchange between Mary and Holmes at the hospital–“Is that the best you can do?”
I think that any attempt to make a strictly faithful adaptation of the stories would have fallen short of the Jeremy Brett version. What they decided to do was reasonably faithful to the spirit of the stories, and also a lot of fun.
Did anyone else think that the scene with Holmes and Watson, just before or after the irish-gypsy lady reads Watson’s hand that Downey’s accent was off or something?
I saw it this afternoon and enjoyed it. I’ve only read Hound of the Baskervilles and some of the stories, but it didn’t seem like a Holmes story. It was an ejoyable film, though.
My point that was in explaining a misspelling, you also misspelled. No biggie.
Damn you, Gaudere!
The problem was I really do know what it was supposed to me, which meant that I couldn’t see the typo even when I went looking for it.
And wasn’t “professor” often a self-awarded title anyway? Cf. “Professor” Harold Hill and a zillion patent-medicine men.
Well purists and “canon” and Jeremy Brett be damned. I just saw it and it is a ripping yarn. Well worth the price of admission.
Well ok then… I saw this last night and my opinion was “meh”. Went to Rotten Tomatoes today and saw that it had a 70%. That surprised me so I immediately decided to come to the Dope and see what people thought. Of course I fully expected Dopers overall not to like it, and I was wrong. Seems as if most of you did think the movie worked.
I am not a Holmes expert, my favorite telling of Holmes was the Wishbone version. I just thought the movie was slow and predictable. The person I saw it with fell asleep for most of it.
For me, it was definitely a “wish I had waited for the dvd” movie.
Heheheheh. 
We went and saw it tonight. It made movies like National Treasure II look serious and fact-based, but it was fun and we enjoyed it. I kept wanting to pin Mary’s hair out of her face and was a bit taken aback at the hookerish dress of the thief girl (come on, heavy makeup and fuschia satin?). Awfully loud.
Irene Adler, who was “on stage”, and during that period, being “on stage” was considered only about a half step up from a hooker. The dress, make up, etc fit the character.
What was the deal having her dressed in men’s clothing? Was she in disguise, or did she know she’d be sewer crawling and bridge jumping?
I’m not sure that an actress would have worn that kind of outfit and makeup in the middle of the day.
He says something in French upon his first entrance. I don’t recall what it was, but it was definitely French.
Somebody that smart would certainly have read the script before getting dressed. 
In the one Conan Doyle story in which she appeared, “A Scandal in Bohemia,” she wears men’s clothing at the very end, when she walks past Holmes while he’s on his doorstep, wishes him a good night and disappears into the darkness, unrecognized. So as a disguise and for practicality’s sake, it’s not unprecedented.
I thought that Blackwood was Andy Garcia through the whole thing. The voice was wrong, so I thought it might not be him, but if he hadn’t spoken a word I’d have thought it was him.
http://www.offthepost.info/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/mark-strong-dimitar-berbatov-andy-garcia.jpg
Are you forgetting that
she has a sweet sweet ass?
Not only that - but in the restaurant scene, they plainly show Holmes masticating! Horrors!