Sherlock Holmes: PG-13: intense violence and action scenes, startling images, suggestive material; 2:09; $ $ $ ½ (out of $5)

By John M. Urbancich, Sun News December 24, 2009, 5:00AM

Though purists of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s fiction may find some of it absurd, “Sherlock Holmes” uncovers what it takes to entertain for the holiday masses.

Fun, fantasy and full-blown action become the message of the season in this adventurous take from director Guy Ritchie, who goes for the gusto from his stylish opening to an ending that promises a sequel. (Just remember, Ritchie finished his last film, “RocknRolla,” with a much more blatant pledge of a follow-up that surely won’t happen anytime soon, considering the meager box-office that film produced.)

"Holmes,” however, already has a franchise feel with Robert Downey Jr. (suddenly a star because of “Iron Man”) playing him and an endless list of potential villains to menace the eccentric title character and witty Dr. Watson (Jude Law).

Mark Strong (“The Young Victoria,” also in current release) deftly takes his dark cues here as the dastardly Lord Blackwood, whose black magic bedevils the master sleuths for a while in a complicated plot that even finds the pair literally sparring with a certified giant (Robert Maillet).

Rachel McAdams targets mystery. Apparently love interests always could dot late 19th-century landscapes, too, and future projects would benefit from the return of Rachel McAdams, perhaps the best actress of her generation. She plays Irene Adler, an American who apparently bettered Holmes in an earlier battle of wits and left his heart — and soul — all aflutter to boot.

Also a likely fixture, as long as he might want to be one, is comic Eddie Marsan (“Happy-Go-Lucky”), nicely portraying Inspector Lestrade, a constant nemesis of Holmes at Scotland Yard. Mix some superb art direction with Hans Zimmer’s perfectly catchy score and one can only deduce that another Holmes story really might be on the drawing board. Anyone for Christmas 2011?

Read more by John M. Urbancich at http://jmuvies.blogspot.com/