Review: Sherlock Holmes Blu-ray

STUDIO: Warner | DIRECTOR: Guy Ritchie | CAST: Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law
RELEASE DATE: 3/30/2010 | PRICE: DVD $28.98, Blu-ray $35.99
BONUSES: Maximum Movie Mode with interviews, picture-in-picture, timelines, storyboards, stills galleries, featurettes
SPECS: PG-13| 128 min. | Action Thriller | 1:85:1 | DTS-HD, Dolby Digital audio | English, French and Spanish subtitles

RATINGS (out of 5 dishes): Movie | Audio | Video | Overall

Sherlock Holmes movie scene with Robert Downey Jr. and Jude LawGuy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes is a winner on Blu-ray. The $208 million-grossing action thriller looks sharp in its high-definition version, with deep blacks. But what will really knock your socks off is the sound. The gun shots, punches and especially clanking chains rocket out of the speakers with crystal clear quality. Our subwoofer’s action even bounced the Blu-ray box off the shelf.

The high-def quality is the cherry on top for this movie, which stars Robert Downey Jr. as the genius Holmes and Jude Law as the more practical but equally strong Dr. Watson. Ritchie does a great job of balancing the comic, action and mystery of the movie, in which Holmes and Watson uncover the method behind the evil Lord Blackwood’s madness.

Warner’s Maximum Movie Mode, which the studio has used on a number of Blu-ray releases, is another great example of interactive picture-in-picture capability. While watching the movie in Maximum Movie Mode, viewers can see timelines with info about the movie characters in their original book form, storyboard comparisons to the scenes on the screen, click out to stills galleries and click out to behind-the-scenes featurettes. Interviews with the actors and filmmakers also play periodically, giving more information about the particular scene. And Ritchie occasionally interupts the movie to detail the making of a scene, such as the choreography behind the fight with the big Frenchman, culminating in the boat launch.

Every bit of the production is delved into in the interviews and numerous featurettes within the Maximum Movie Mode, including characters, design and the reinterpreting of Sherlock Holmes by Ritchie and Downey. And the featurettes are playable separately too.

 

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About S. Clark

Sam Clark is the former Managing Editor/Online Editor of Video Business magazine. With 19 years experience in journalism, 12 in the home entertainment industry, Sam has been hooked on movies on since she saw E.T. then stared into the sky waiting to meet her own friendly alien. Thanks to her husband’s shared love of movies, Sam reviews Blu-ray discs in a true home theater, with a 118-inch screen, projector and cushy recliners with cup holders.