It's really, really elementary.

What to make of Guy Ritchie’s “Sherlock Holmes”? It’s fast moving and instantly forgettable. It’s a film of no consequence. There are funny scenes as Holmes (Robert Downey Jr) and Watson (Jude Law) bicker and investigate the strange case of Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong), who poses quite a threat to the London establishment. There’s Rachel McAdams as a plot device that operates to help set up the sequel. Oh, and a handful of well filmed action scenes, some of which happen against CGI backdrops a la “The Golden Compass”.

It’s far from a bad movie, but it’s not a particularly memorable one. Ritchie is a fine director and Downey Jr a great actor, but this one is somewhat below par for both. By the way, I find it interesting that my favourite line from the trailer, where McAdams says, “They’ve been flirting like this all day”, which I took to refer to the constant bickering between the detective and the good doctor, is not in the film. Did someone fear a homophobic backlash?