purpledragonfish I caught this on television last week and my initial thought was how awful it was and then fascinated at what was Victorian style car crash television. Even the talents of Richard E Grant were kneecapped quite literally with a laughable side story of Mycroft Holmes lurching around in callipers with a pale and wan expression. The best of the worst was Moriarty. An American actor, who, presumably learned his English accent from James Mason films, or to put it more accurately, Eddie Izzard doing James Mason. I wonder upon occasion why producers, directors and financiers do not take one look at the script and realise it is a turkey. Production values aside, a lot was done in terms of costume and set to make this succeed, but it should have been put in a shredder way before the poor, out of work actors were forced to put this rubbish on their CV. No redeeming features whatsoever, but for exactly that reason a compelling watch just to see how bad it could really get.

karlpov I must admit to having enjoyed Young Sherlock Holmes, as unfaithful to Doyle's stories as it may have been. But there are limits.A Case of Evil is simply dreadful. The Holmes played by James D'Arcy is a man completely ruled by his passions, the very opposite of the character portrayed by Doyle, who occasionally showed an appalling indifference to justice, enjoying the solution of a puzzle for its own sake and ignoring the suffering of innocent victims. The movie begins with Holmes apparently killing off Moriarty, and follows with the nation celebrating him for the gallant deed. Huh? According to Doyle, practically no one but Holmes was aware of Moriarty's role as the Napoleon of Crime. Holmes bragging of murdering the man should have gotten him locked up.The whole thing seemed to be an excuse for making Moriarty responsible for the invention of heroin. This involves Sherlock's original grudge against Moriarty to be the addiction of his brother Mycroft, portrayed as a pathetic wimp by the wasted talents of Richard Grant, who made such a grand villain in a recent version of The Hound of the Baskervilles.I must admit that I was spellbound whenever Vincent d'Onofrio's Moriarty was chewing up the scenery. Quite a contrast from his portrayal of Conan creator Robert E. Howard as deluded hick in The Whole Wide World.

philip-1 This made for television movie proves once again that some of the best cinematic entertainments are turning up on the boob tube with little fanfare and sometimes no advance warning. This is definitely something I wouldn't have minded paying for in a theater!Case of Evil is a delicious, chilling, and welcome reinventing of the Sherlock Holmes mythos. It is well directed by Graham Theakston, moves along at a rapid pace, presents a well rounded cast and is fairly well designed for a low budget project. Holmes is a young man in this treatment with a young man's desire to experience the world. James D'Arcy is turning out to be one of the most promising of a new generation of British actors. He is simply superb here. Not content to just rattle off Holmes's lists of deductive prowess, he finds nuances in the character that are often overlooked and brings a very fresh face to a familiar personage.Roger Morlidge is equally interesting as Watson bringing a real sense of insight and medical intellect to a character that is too often a bumbling sidekick. This Watson is a partner to Holmes in every sense of the word.D'Onofrio doesn't disappoint either, creating a truly despicable villain. Richard Grant does a wonderful cameo as Sherlock's incapacitated brother.The rest of the cast is quite good and the screenplay takes us through a darned good yarn. Give this a try. It's already on DVD!

gretchenx This isn't the worst movie I've ever seen (I did watch Solarbabies in my childhood) but....It's really *really* bad - If you waste the money to rent this, try watching it as a satire, a comedy, or British revenge for the collapse of the British Empire.The adaptation is terrible - Mycroft Holmes is never met in the books, he's just referred to as Sherlock's smarter brother. A morphine and cocaine addict, Sherlock didn't get "hooked" by Moriarty, and used the drugs by choice. Sex was totally a taboo subject for the era, and none of those scenes fit either. The STUPID STUPID attempts to impose modern morality in a movie blatently ignoring the MOST BASIC Victorian morals is pathetic.I could go on, but it really is just horrible horrible horrible!!!