Columbia Pictures
In 2006 and 2008, Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly starred in the biggest comedies of that decade, Talladega Nights and Step Brothers. The duo appeared in many smaller projects together and have become an iconic duo over the years. Their newest film, Holmes and Watson, adds a new comedic twist on the popular British detectives, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson. As a result of being bullied as a kid, Holmes (Ferrell) vows to be emotionless and solve crimes. After taking revenge on his bullies, Holmes meets a young John Watson. Together they spend years solving crimes together and Holmes is viewed as a legendary detective. Both Holmes and Watson are set to view the trial of Professor James Moriarty, but Holmes speculates that the man on trial isn’t Moriarty, which sends Holmes and Watson on a chase to find the real Moriarty.
Talladega Nights and Step Brothers are some of my favorite comedies of all time because of the chemistry of both Ferrell and Reilly. The jokes were hilarious, and Adam McKay knew how to bring out the best of the pair. McKay returns as a producer and Etan Cohen, who previously directed Ferrell in Get Hard, writes and directs the film.
I have seen every Will Ferrell movie there is. He is one of my all-time favorite actors and I have fond memories growing up watching him in films such as Anchorman and Old School. This is by far the worst movie I have seen him in and could be viewed as one of the worst films of the year.
Nothing about Holmes and Watson was funny. There were so many odd decisions in the movie that never made sense or didn’t progress. Lauren Lapkus stars in the film as a subject to Dr. Grace Hart played by Rebecca Hall. In her first scene, we learn that she acts like a feral cat, which never amounted to much in the film. Another scene involved Holmes and Watson eating whole onions and crying the whole time. Years ago, I would have found this to be funny, but as an adult, it just came off as awkward. Scenes and characters like this filled the run time of the film and left me wondering what the reason was.
Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly still have great chemistry in the film, despite many jokes not landing. Throughout the film, you can tell it was easy for the pair to act out ridiculous scenes. They had fun with their scenes, especially in the beginning when Holmes received a gift that contained a deadly mosquito, which resulted in the two hitting each other with paddle boards to try and kill it. The only good thing I could say about Holmes and Watson is that both actors have good chemistry and they try to keep the movie lively. It’s not the acting that was bad, it was the dialog written for them.
When I am on social media, I try to ignore politics. It was hard to ignore the fact that there were many scenes insulting Donald Trump’s status as President. Scenes such as Will Ferrell wearing a hat that read ‘Make Britain Great Again’ comes off more smug than funny. It felt as if the film had an agenda trying to insult pop culture and the government of the United States.
The storyline never managed to seem interesting either. Ralph Fiennes played Moriarty and I never felt that he was a threat to Holmes and Watson. Countless times Holmes disregarded the fact that Moriarty was the one behind plenty of murders. It was an odd choice to hire such an esteemed actor to play in a movie where he had very limited screen time.
I was disappointed with Holmes and Watson. I’m someone who truly finds Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly to be perfect together, but this film was a low for both. I heard that Netflix didn’t want to bother with this film and many people have been walking out of the theater during the screening and I can completely understand why.
Holmes and Watson has a run time of 1 hour 30 minutes and is rated PG-13 for crude sexual material, some violence, language and drug references.
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