Movie Review: Holmes & Watson, An Incredibly Dreadful Comedy
When ‘Holmes & Watson’ came out, I couldn’t believe the reviews. Then, through word of mouth, I heard it was truly terrible. Then the story of Netflix turning the movie down came out and I believed it even more. What did we think? Well…
Jeff (19/100): ‘Holmes & Watson’ is, without question, one of the worst comedies of 2018 and is as uninspired as a slapstick comedy gets. Throughout the entire movie, there are barely a handful of worthy laughs across the very few actual written jokes and clichéd physical gags. As much as I love dumb humor, this comedy from Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly and Etan Cohen misses the mark on almost every level.
There were actually points in ‘Holmes & Watson’ where I thought to myself, “is this serious? Are they actually trying to make a real comedy, or is this a social experiment?” While I am still searching for that answer, I still can’t believe the lack of finesse and nuance to the humor in this movie. Slapstick, physical comedies are absurd and dumb, whether it is something like ‘Dumb and Dumber’, ‘Spaceballs’ or the iconic classic ‘Airplane!’, no one is denying that. But ‘Holmes & Watson’ stops below the level of the lowest form of this humor and doesn’t mix in enough well written or thought out jokes to give it proper balance. Are we seriously going to throw in three-to-five-minute scenes of people shooting bees in a 2018 comedy?
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Even dipping into the story, all the movie offers is a very hollowed out Sherlock Holmes plotline and offers nothing creative or unique to the iconic character. The plot and driving force for the characters have little to no depth and is just a vehicle to prop up the lifeless humor.
‘Homes & Watson’ does have a few cameos and one joke about old-timey news kids that made me laugh, but this was a brutal hour and a half for me to get through. Comedy is the most subjective genre, so if you like it, I won’t judge you (but I will give you a reply of “get the fuck out” at first).
KenJac (14/100): Going in with lowered expectations won’t save you from cringing out of your shorts to this movie. The lazy comedy and acting brought all my respect for the Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly down into the sewer and reminded me why that genre doesn’t really work anymore. It’s also a great example of why comedy movies have had such a downturn in the last 5ish years. There are maybe five redeemable lines throughout the entire movie, and literally every other line is an attempt at a joke.
My favorite part was a few WWE cameos, and that’s pretty inside baseball. It’s also just poorly produced, with the voice audio being out of sync with the shot multiple times. I’m not sure what convinced some of the top-tier UK actors cast in this movie to accept their respective roles, but I’m sure they wish they could wipe this shit-stain from their memory. For Will Ferrell, his last three projects (this, ‘Daddy’s Home 2’ and ‘The House’) have all been big-time flops so I can at least respect him chasing the check. For John C. Reilly, he’s coming off 2 prestige projects in ‘Stan & Ollie’ and ‘The Sisters Brothers’, then this dump and also a cash grab in ‘Ralph Breaks the Internet’. I’m not sure if I love or hate that flip-flopping.
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This movie is Officially Not Buttered and there is nothing else to say, really. Subscribe to Lights, Camera, Barstool where we will review it in-depth next week, along with ‘Green Book’, and found out Trillballins’ score. Also, remember to rate all 2018 movies below.
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