Brilliance will out

Rico says he just got home from seeing the latest Sherlock Holmes movie titled, appropriately, Sherlock Holmes. Despite the obvious problems of getting Robert Downey, Jr. to disappear into the role of an Englishman (Jude Law, as an Englishman, having it easier playing Dr. Watson), the movie was, in a word, magnificent.
There are inevitable comparisons with earlier movies (back to Basil Rathbone, the best Holmes ever), but it holds up well. The lesser characters were well-cast and well-acted, and the plot, if a trifle confusing, was appropriate to the genre. Lord Blackwood (played by Mark Strong) was a good villain.
But what makes the movie worth the money were the effects, both the stunts (great fight scenes) and the specials: guys going up in flames, people falling out of buildings, and an entire recreation of London of the late 1800s, complete with buildings, along with bridges over and boats on the Thames, and horse-drawn carriages on cobblestone streets. (And magnificent interiors, including the entire Parliament.) Incredible verisimilitude.
Rico says check it out.