It’s not really elementary

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Movie Review, Sherlock Holmes

(Lo and Behold! The floodgates have opened again…)

I know it’s a bit late in the day, but I have to comment on the creative re-imagination of one of my childhood idols, by one of my more recent ones. Guy Ritchie is nothing, if not iconic. He is one of only a handful of directors, who has a style so distinct, that just watching a 5 minute segment from any of movies is enough to confirm the culprit behind the camera. (with the love-fueled “Swept Away” being the sole exception) Shooting to fame in 1998 with Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels – Ritchie does crime like no one else does. He strips all the glamour and glitz from the seedy underbellies of his native England and portrays the perpetrators of hair-brained criminal plots as real (and really funny) humans. The violence is never a destination in Guy Ritchie’s movies – but much like with Tarantino, it is the journey itself. I love him, and the characters he creates. (the muddy disheveled street fighter that Brad Pitt played in Snatch is my all time favorite Brad Pitt role.)

Now on to Robert Downey Jr. Is he on this way to becoming one of the most dependable yet under-rated actors of our generation? A master of every genre, his presence fills the screen, but not in an overpowering way like Pacino or De Niro. His comic timing is stuff that legends are made of. And almost every character he plays is memorable.

Finally Sherlock Holmes. There never has been a more iconic hero than him.

Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes

Mr. Holmes is who made brains sexy and brawn unnecessary. And for thin scrawny and slightly nerdy kids like me, he was stronger than Superman and battier than Batman. The books are all amazing, but what really stuck in my head as the definitive Sherlock Holmes was Jeremy Brett – playing the puffing detective in the 1984 TV series. Curmudgeonly yet charming in a condescending way, Mr. Brett’s rendition of Sherlock is close to perfect and has never been bettered.

Now put Guy Ritchie, Robert Downey Jr. and Sherlock Holmes together, and you have the equivalent of a cinematic wet-dream. We were bristling with excitement, waiting for the movie to begin. I hadn’t read any reviews or heard anyone’s opinion. I wanted to form my own… wanted to be surprised.

He has a Tatoo?!!!!

And Surprised, I was. My first reaction was “Dude… this isn’t Holmes.” Robert Downey Jr. was excellent, stealing every scene with his eccentric portrayal of a crazy genius – but my reaction was still… “Dude…this isn’t Holmes”. The Holmes I knew was always impeccably dressed, had the manners of a true English gentleman and really negated the use of force with his beautiful mind. I guess Guy Ritchie missed the memo. Because Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes is a brute. And muddy. And a complete mess. And I hated him. The brilliant deductions that he was making, could be made by most in the cast of CSI Miami.

Until, I decided not to spoil the experience for myself, and see this as a Ritchie movie that has Robert Downey Jr. in it. It was a struggle, but soon I was enjoying the rollicking antics of this crazed detective and his companion Dr. Watson (played by Jude Law, who is a definite improvement over David Burke in the TV series). The movie is as violent as any Guy Ritchie movie – and he cleverly uses Holmes’ deductive ability in slow-mo fight sequences. Very stylish and unique. But still not Sherlock Holmes.

Don’t be mistaken… I loved the movie. Robert Downey Jr. is at his best – and there is nary a dull moment. But I refuse to accept Ritchie’s version of Holmes. A sequel is in the works, with Holmes’ arch enemy Prof. Moriarty making a cameo appearance… my sincere advice to Guy Ritchie would be to show a bit more brain and a bit less brawn. If he can.

Meanwhile, Jeremy Brett’s crown lies untouched. If you are looking for the real Holmes – stick to the telly version.

The next big thing – Opera Unite

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Browser, Opera, Opera Unite

Quick, everyone, name one Norwegian product or service that you use and know about.

How many could you think of? Well, I could think of just one – Opera. (Dee… Salmon doesn’t count… ) Opera is a browser. And as far as browsers are concerned – it always has been a couple of steps ahead of the competition. Unfortunately, what they have in technology, they lack in marketing. I have loved Opera, the pages load fast, it never crashes, has native support for torrent files – has everything that one would want from a browser.

Now the salmon munching nerds have gone ahead and changed the game again – with Opera Unite. If you haven’t used Opera yet, there can’t be a better reason than Unite. To describe Unite in very simple words – “It is a “server” embedded into your “client” – i.e. your browser. Ok – if that didn’t sound simple enough, here’s another way to put it. Your browser only receives, downloads and views pages right? Unite allows your Opera browser to actually transmit data (videos, songs, documents etc.) over the internet – as if you were running your own website.

So what does this mean? This means that you can effectively stop using Flickr or Picasa. All you need to do is share your photos using Unite – which will give you a link, which you can send to your friends around the world. All they need to do is go to that link, type in the password (if you have set one) and access your photos directly from your computer – on their browsers. The same thing with music. You can share your music, and anyone from around the world can listen to that music on their browsers!

Opera Unite

The simplicity of the whole thing is refreshing and even the most novice can set the whole thing up in minutes – without having to understand the intricacies of a client-server system…

How do I use it? Simple – I have complete access to my 10000 song collection on my home PC – even from my office. All I do is put in the link to my Opera Unite server into my browser in my office computer – and I can browse through my entire collection and listen to any song I like.

Opera Unite is breath of fresh air in the browser scene, where everyone obsesses with speed… this literally gives the true power of the internet into the hands of the ordinary user. Try Opera Unite with the Opera Browser  here:

http://unite.opera.com/

Enjoy! 😉

Starting Block

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Conan, Haiti, Jay Leno

Sometimes there just isn’t enough reason to write something is there? Blogging, some say, can become a habit. Like digging one’s ear and then ingesting the dug out wax. If that is true – then I somehow missed the memo. It’s been a month since I wrote, but not once were strong electric pulses running haywire in my body, sending signals to my brain – “Blog, you lazy ass, blog!” – thus enveloping me in a catatonic haze and driving my uncontrolled limbs to tackle an unsuspecting keyboard and hammering out a few ineffectual words. Nope… didn’t happen once. So I wonder. How does Lena Chen do it? Or Aamir Khan or Amitabh Bachchan. Or even Ross from PlanetRoss. I salute thee, O serial blogger.

Nevertheless, 2010 began with news of a terrible disaster from across the seas. Millions of people were effected, and the horrific images on screen with the suffering and the real human drama has left even more completely disillusioned and demoralized. As for me, I have started to question if God really exists. The real pain of the people involved, unfolding every minute of the world’s news networks with relentless persistence, has shaken the very foundations of human faith. Yes, Conan O’ Brien definitely deserved a better break. I mean, come on, the guy is really funny. Irritating, but funny. And the best part is, when he is on screen, there is no big jaw to distract from the jokes. Speaking of big jaws, his nemesis Jaw – sorry – Jay Leno – bumped off from his prime late night show time – has made a dramatic comeback to his original spot – showing once and for all who’s the big daddy of late night television. “Will he? Won’t he?” The suspence was palpable. People were transfixed onto their screens and glued to the entertainment section of their newspapers – as this late night duel of the funnies reached a fever pitch with Conan and Jay taking potshots at each other like a modern version of Laurel and Hardy. Even other Late Night show hosts joined the fray with Jimmy Kimmel saying “Listen, Jay, Conan (O’Brien) and I have children. All you have to take care of is cars. We have lives to lead here. You have $800 million. For God’s sake, leave our shows alone!”

As for me; I am stunned by the unfairness of it all. I mean, think about it – NBC thinks Jay is getting old and boring, brings in fresh blood and gives (not entirely deserving) Conan a chance of a lifetime; NBC doesn’t know what to do with Jay and pushes him to a late night spot that isn’t really late night; realizes that people aren’t watching Jay at 10:30 because most people have better things to do at that time than watch Jaws over and over again; realizes in horror that people are not even watching Conan because, well, lets face it – people don’t want to watch Jack’s beanstalk over and over again either; decides to push Jay back to his original spot; Conan protests and threatens to quit and in a classic case of be careful what you wish for, his bluff is called; So now Conan – with children and all – is without a job and people are back to watching Jaws reruns. And all this drama when millions of real people are going through real hell just a few hundred kilometers off the coast of the US.

You wanna waste your time… do it here: https://my.care.org/site/Donation2?5000.donation=form1&df_id=5000  Meanwhile I will post the link to Conan’s 401K funds when I get it.

Happy 2010, the year, which like this blog, has had a sucky start.