One of the biggest bombs of this year has got to be Holmes & Watson. Though fans of Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly were looking forward to the comic duo’s third collaboration – following their great work in Talladega Nights and Step Brothers – the Sherlock Holmes spoof has been trashed by vicious reviews from critics and is earning lots of hate on social media from audiences.
It turns out that Sony knew they had a flop on their hands with Holmes & Watson, too. As you may’ve heard, the studio desperately tried to cut their losses and sell the film to Netflix in the months leading up to release. Unfortunately for them, though, the streaming site wouldn’t bite and so, Sony had no choice but to drop it into theaters and suck up the poor reception.
But it seems that not everyone hates the movie. Though it debuted to an actually kinda impressive 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes – something not many films have managed to do – it’s now up to 9% thanks to a couple of positive reviews that’ve surfaced over the past day or so. Seriously. In fact, at the time of writing, Holmes & Watson has managed to snag 4 good reviews. That’s still nowhere near the 42 negative reviews it has, but it’s a start, right?
Anyways, you can see what the critics who enjoyed Holmes & Watson are saying about it down below, and while none of these folks are showering praise on the pic, at least they’re not tearing it apart like their peers have been.
No brain cells are harmed by Holmes & Watson, just given a few hours to rest and regenerate.
3AW:
It’s not as funny as their previous outings but the flick has enough slapstick, vomiting, poo, comic violence and general flailing about to keep fans mildly entertained.
Though it doesn’t all quite hold together, there are enough inspired moments – and enough strangeness lying just below the film’s surface – that it doesn’t completely fall apart, either.
Holmes and Watson is not for everybody, but if you want to see Ferrell off the leash this is the best opportunity in a long time.
Of course, it’s unlikely that these reviews will do very much to convince audiences that Holmes & Watson is worth checking out, but it’s still interesting to see that amidst all the hate, there are a few people who managed to find some enjoyment in the pic. And with $15 million already grossed at the box office, it would seem that they aren’t the only ones, either.
In any case, it’s clear that Sony won’t be giving Holmes & Watson a sequel or any sort of follow-up and with BBC’s Sherlock on indefinite hiatus and Sherlock Holmes 3 taking its sweet time making it into theaters, it looks like audiences will be starved for content featuring the iconic detective for a while longer.
