Hollywood Product: Robert Downey Jr. summons a fightin' good Sherlock Holmes

GENRE: Victorian thriller

THE PITCH: English hipster director Guy Ritchie's flashy look at the 19th-century super sleuth (Robert Downey Jr.) and his faithful sidekick Dr. Watson (Jude Law) as they take on the fiendish, potentially undead Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong). But will Watson's fiancée (Kelly Reilly) and comely thief Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams) break up Holmes and Watson's bromance?

MONEY SHOTS: À la the director's Snatch, fists connect to faces in exaggerated slow motion. Holmes leaps out a window and ingeniously improvises a disguise to scope out Adler's mysterious employer. Holmes uses a newfangled electronic gizmo to zap a massive French thug. Holmes and Watson narrowly avoid being smushed by a ship launched from dry dock. The final battle takes place on the scaffolding of London Bridge still under construction.

GIMME-MY-MONEY-BACK SHOTS: A fiery, slow-motion explosion, like something out of the National Treasure franchise.

BEST LINE: "Why are you always suspicious?" "Should I answer chronologically or alphabetically?" Holmes replies, hinting at Adler's history of duplicity. (Surprisingly, Ritchie never finds an excuse for someone to say "No shit, Sherlock.")

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(Photo Courtesy Alex Bailey)