Guy Ritchie has never been particularly interested in making polite British movies about polite British people.
The filmmaker built his career on stylish crime movies full of fast-talking gangsters, elaborate schemes, and sudden bursts of violence. That formula has served him well with projects like The Gentlemen, his Netflix series about an aristocrat who inherits a family estate and discovers a sprawling marijuana empire.
Ritchie has also leaned further into action in recent years. The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare turned a group of British military operatives into a swaggering action crew, while this year’s In the Grey paired Jake Gyllenhaal and Henry Cavill for a globe-trotting heist that spirals into all-out war. It wasn’t a critical hit, but it had plenty of the slick action Ritchie is known for.
Now, one of Ritchie’s older movies is getting another shot at the spotlight on streaming.
Released more than 15 years ago, Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes has climbed back into the conversation as audiences revisit the director’s take on the legendary detective. It’s currently the No. 4 streamed movie on Apple TV worldwide, according the FlixPatrol.
It’s essentially a Guy Ritchie action movie wearing a Sherlock Holmes costume. The timing is also pretty convenient. Ritchie’s Young Sherlock premiered on Prime Video earlier this year, giving the director another opportunity to put his own spin on the character. The series stars Hero Fiennes Tiffin as a young Holmes and has already been renewed for a second season.
What is Sherlock Holmes about?
Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes follows the legendary detective, played by Robert Downey Jr., as he investigates a series of brutal murders in Victorian London with his longtime partner, Dr. John Watson, played by Jude Law. The case leads them to Lord Blackwood, played by Mark Strong, an occult-obsessed criminal who appears to return from the dead after his execution. Holmes, naturally, isn’t buying the supernatural explanation.
This is a more physical take on Holmes than many previous adaptations. Downey Jr.’s detective is still a brilliant deductive thinker, but he’s just as likely to throw a punch or improvise his way out of a fight. Law’s Watson is more than a sidekick, while Rachel McAdams plays Irene Adler, Holmes’ former adversary and romantic interest.
The 2009 movie currently holds a 77% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. It was also a major box-office success, earning roughly $524 million worldwide against a reported $90 million budget.
That success led to Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows in 2011, which introduced Professor Moriarty as Holmes’ latest nemesis. The sequel is also currently available on Apple TV in the U.S., making it easy to keep the Ritchie-Holmes marathon going.
