Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
No place like Holmes..., 3 Feb 2009
I remember vividly seeing this film when it was first released - January 1986 - at a beautiful old cinema which has since been bulldozed and turned into a McDonalds. (Haven't they all..?)
The film was much vaunted at the time, due to the involvement of Amblin Entertainment, Steven Speilberg's own production company. After the massive success of E.T and Indiana Jones, Speilberg's name linked to anything was enough to cause mild hysteria to breakout in cinemas everywhere.
Too much hype is no good for anything. As a result, Young Sherlock Holmes and the Pyramid of Fear - (to give it it's full title) - suffered from a surfeit of dissapointed cinema-goers and fared badly at the box office.
All of which mystifies me, since I absolutely loved it!
YSH boasts a fairly tight and lively script written by future Harry Potter director Chris Columbus. Columbus takes great pains to inform viewers in a caveat at the film's end - that his story is a work of speculation, crafted in admiration for Conan Doyle's great detective. That affection is writ large on the screen.
Filmed on location at Elstree and Hertfordshire and ably directed by Barry Levinson - who went on to direct Rainman amongst other things, the whole thing looks wonderful. With The action taking place during one of those magical, Victorian winters which seem only to exist on celluloid.
In fact, in a nod of weird cinematic prescience to Columbus' directorial destiny - one dining room scene set in the fictional boarding school where Holmes and Watson are students, looks uncannily like Hogwarts...
The special effects in the 'Hallucination' scenes where also pretty amazing for their time. The 'stained glass man' a particular favourite of mine. Anyone who finds old churches spooky cannot fail to be unsettled at the sight of one of the characters from a stained glass panel springing to life!
It's interesting to note in the credits that the 'Glass Man' was animated by Pixar - who have since gone on to produce some of the best animated films of recent years.
The film is noteworthy too, for its entirely British cast. Unusual in a film funded by American money. Thespy Brit stalwarts Freddie Jones, Nigel Stock and - heck! - even the voice of Paddington himself (Michael Hordern) narrating as the older Watson.
Anthony Higgins makes a marvellously dashing foil ('scuse pun) as Holmes' fencing teacher Rathe, and Susan Fleetwood is suitably Boo hiss as Mrs Drib. (Boarding school nurses are always horrible though, aren't they?!So, no surprises there...)
Bruce Broughton's marvellously atmospheric music score (which has STILL not been released on CD) is a neglected gem. Every bit as beautiful as John Williams' Harry Potter theme, Broughton's music complements the period and action perfectly. The only chance you have of hearing part of the film score, would be if you can hunt down a CD called 'Sherlock Holmes - Classics and Themes of 221b Baker Street. One of the tracks - 'The Game is Afoot' is lifted directly from Broughton's score for the YSH soundtrack.
The chemistry between Nicholas Rowe's Holmes and Alan Cox's Watson was very convincingly played. They genuinely seemed to enjoy eachother's company and you could actually believe they would choose eachother as friends.
Rowe gave his teen-age Holmes a warmth and tenderness which saved any cold intellectualising from just seeming like plain arrogance. And Cox's
Watson is of the cuddly and loveable variety, akin to Nigel Bruce but not such a total numpty.
Granted, the script clunks in places. The love story between Elizabeth Waxflatter and Holmes was almost ruined for me by the stupendously soppy Sophie Ward. I was actually quite relieved when she snuffed it!
But, minor niggles aside, this remains one of my favourite films of the 80's. The very last scene (after the credits roll) was obviously intended to set the franchise up for a sequel. Quite why this never happenned is a mystery maybe only Holmes himself could solve.
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23 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An intriguing and entertaining 'what-if' fantasy adventure, 23 Sep 2004
With Steven Spielberg in the producing chair it should come as no real susprise that 1985s YOUNG SHERLOCK HOLMES as a definite Indiana Jones influence to it - most specifically Spielberg's most recent entry (at that time) into the popular frnachise INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM. Nowhere is this more evident than in the ancient hidden temple setting where our young heroes uncover much of the villains evil plot.
For a Sherlockian the movie is a curious anomaly, but incredibly entertaining. We know from the books of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle that Dr. Watson met Sherlock Holmes when both were in adulthood, yet this movie poses the irresistible `what-if' they had met earlier when both were in boarding school.
As one would expect with a movie from Spielberg's Amblin company, this movie is very colorful and filed with dazzling special effects - courtesy of Industrial Light and Magic. The plot essentially takes a back seat to the fun of spotting Holmesian references, watching his already developing deductive intellect solving puzzles and rooting for a bittersweet, blossoming romance between Holmes (played by Nicholas Rowe of LA FEMME MUSKETEER) and Elizabeth (Sophie Ward).
For what it's worth the central plot involves a poisoned darts, hallucinations, DaVinci inventions, a strange Egyptian religious cult and a mysterious secret several distinguished men have kept buried for years. It all makes for some very Spielbergesque style adventure entertainment that director Barry (RAIN MAN) Levinson manages to weave into an enjoyable and intriguing movie.
Sherlockian purists will likely find this premise hard to swallow, but as a diehard fan of the Great Detective, I for one had a great time with this movie.
Unquestionably the chracterization of Watson is influenced more by the Rathbone-Bruce movies of the 1930s and 1940s than Conan Doyles novels with this movie featuring Alan Cox in the part of the future doctor, a role he handles well with warmth and good humor.
Also of note in this movie is some wonderful period costumes and impressive sets.
With doses of mystery, fantasy, intrigue and adventure this movie is easy to recommend, not only for Sherlockians but for those of us who simply enjoy good, solid, fun movies.
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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A wonderful film for the most part, until it moves into young Indiana Jones territory during the last 25 minutes, 19 Jun 2007
"It was a cold, snowy day in early December. Lack of funds had forced my old school to close. I was being sent to a new one in the middle of term. I was accustomed to the opened, relaxed expanse of the country, and now, I was in the heart of London at the height of the Victorian Era. The streets were teeming with every activity imaginable. I was very taken by what I saw. As I stepped from my carriage, the sight of my new school filled me with fear and apprehension, yet, I was swept with a wave of curiosity. However, nothing could prepare me for the extraordinary adventure that lay ahead, or the extraordinary individual who would change my life." That's an old John Watson speaking in a narrative voice-over, and moments later at the Brompton School common we're going to see young Watson, played by Alan Cox at 15, meet Sherlock Holmes, played by Nicholas Rowe at 19. Watson has had his trunk delivered and Holmes is scratching away horribly at a violin. Holmes stops and nearly smashed the thing in frustration. "I should've mastered the damn thing by now," he cries. "How long have you been playing?" Watson asks. "Three days!"
The first three-quarters of the movie is a wonderful Holmsian adventure, full of deduction and growing friendship, as we see young Holmes exercise his slightly arrogant intelligence to put an insufferably superior student named Dudley in his place, assist an eccentric inventor, find tentative Victorian love with the inventor's niece, discover a pattern of assassination in the deaths of four elderly men, deal with a lazy Lestrade and a friendly fencing master, and establish a friendship with his young follower, Watson. The high-point is probably Holmes acceptance of a challenge from Dudley to locate where Dudley has hidden the school's fencing trophy...in no more than 60 minutes. The game is afoot as Holmes examines minute particles of...what?, locates snowy footprints in the school quadrangle, examines the school's kitchen...all with the clock ticking away and with the school's students racing after him, with Watson in the lead. It's clever and exiting. As the older Watson says in recollection when Holmes finds the trophy with seconds to spare, "It was a wonderful, heroic moment for Holmes. But little did he know that his amazing powers and talents would soon be put to a much greater test, a test of terrifying and deadly proportions."
And with that we're off into a case of murderous hallucinations with all sorts of scary special effects, of a deadly Egyptian cult in the heart of London, of young girls used for human sacrifices, of a caldron of revenge...and we realize that we've moved from a young Sherlock Holmes to a young Indiana Jones. From a loving and clever imagining of Holmes and Watson meeting at school and solving a vicious, exotic series of killings, we're up to our necks in the calculated hokum of a boy's own adventure, courtesy of executive producer Steven Spielberg, assisted by George Lucas' special effects studio. We even have an E.T. moment when young Holmes and Watson take off on a pedal-powered flying device to soar over London at night in pursuit of the villain. The first part of the movie is so good that it just about disguises the calculated playing-with-the-audience build-up to the conclusion. Nicholas Rowe, tall and lean, and Alan Cox, round and quizzical, are first-rate as young Holmes and young Watson. They've continued to act but never had better roles. Michael Hordern, who gives us the narrative voice of the older Watson, provides much of the heart of the movie. We can imagine an elderly Watson looking back at this first case with affection and appreciation. At the end of the movie Holmes is leaving Brompton School while Watson will graduate and go on to medical studies. Watson says goodbye to his friend and stands near as Holmes enters the horse-drawn carriage. We hear the older Watson tell us, "As I watched Holmes settle into his seat, a sudden feeling came over me -- that I would most certainly be seeing him again. So ended my first adventure with Mister Sherlock Holmes. As I watched his carriage disappear into the distance, I realized that I had forgotten to thank him. He had taken a weak, frightened boy and made him into a courageous, strong man. My heart soared. I was filled with confidence. I was ready for whatever mystery or danger lay ahead. I was ready to take on the greatest and most exciting adventure of them all, and I knew it was bound to involve Sherlock Holmes."
The DVD transfer looks very good. There are no extras.
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