Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Too much about the plot just didn't add up, the writing was bad, some of the scenes were cringey and awkward,

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Doctor Watson is a sleuth of rare intelligence and perception. In order to safeguard his career and reputation he has invented a character called "Sherlock Holmes". Sadly the Holmes character, played by a drunken (ex-)actor, has captivated the nation's imagination, causing poor doctor Watson to play the second fiddle in his own adventures. Will this increasingly unstable duo rise to the challenge, now that Her Majesty's finances are threatened by a Dastardly Scheme ? Caine and Kingsley, assisted by a fine supporting cast, shine in a well-made, pleasantly classical comedy spoofing the Sherlock Holmes legend. There's nothing there that the viewer hasn't seen or heard before, under one shape or another, but still : this is first-class entertainment, well worth the price of the admission ticket. The production values are high and everything about the locations, sets, costumes,.. screams care and expense. At times the surroundings and costumes seem almost too opulent, but on the other hand : we're talking late Victorian era, when God was in His Heaven, Britannia ruled the waves and every square inch of a respectable home was covered in baubles and knick-knacks.

Searching round for a Comedy film DVD which I could pick up for a friend's upcoming birthday,I suddenly remembered seeing a fun film on the BBC a few years ago,which involved Michael Caine in a Sherlock Holmes movie.Tracking down a wonderful review of the movie from a fellow IMDber,I got ready to find out if Sherlock Holmes is really without a clue.The plot:Preparing to enter medical college,John Watson decides that the school would look down on his amateur detective skills.Being keen to continue his investigations, (and to start selling them as Mystery stories to a magazine for cash) Watson hires a washed up actor called Reginald Kincaid to act as a fellow detective.Feeling that Reginald Kincaid is not a catchy name,Watson decides to re-name him:Sherlock Holmes.9 Years later:Sickened by his creation getting all the credit,despite his only job being to stand in front of the cameras once all the work is done,Dr.John Watson decides that it's finally time he sends Holmes back to the gutter from which he came from.Excited about being able to do his own detective work without a drunk actor taking all of the glory,Watson soon discovers that everyone is unwilling to give him any clues to a current investigation,which leads to Watson taking the decision,that he must once again team up with Sherlock Holmes.View on the film:For the screenplay of the film,writer's Gary Murphy and Larry Strawther brilliantly combined sight-gags with a real sense of adventure which is threaded by a charming wraparound Mystery.Showing the Holmes/Watson relationship to be at the breaking point from the start,the writers use the character's off-the-cuff lines to deliver some cheerful in jokes to Sherlock Holmes past (from the opening being based on the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Holmes story The Red-Headed League,to the movie taking a bite out of The Hound of the Baskervilles.)Smartly taking the mystery side of things serious,Murphy and Stawther reveal Holmes and Watson to slowly start re- building their friendship,as they pick up the clues one by one.Backed by a whimsical score from Henry Mancini,and terrific,fog covered directing from Thom Eberhardt,Michael Caine and Ben Kingsley each give excellent performances,with Kingsley showing a real stiff upper lip relish as Dr.John Watson,whilst Caine shows Holmes to be more keen on grabbing some quick booze,rather than grabbing the baddie.Joining Caine and Kingsley's extremely charismatic double-team,Peter Cook (who edited the UK's satirical investigating journalism magazine Private Eye) gives a fun,tough performance as Watson's magazine owner,whilst a very good Jeffrey Jones shows,that when it comes to Holmes & Watson, Inspector Lestrade will always be without a clue.

That sound you hear is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle spinning in his grave, from mirth more than outrage at the sorry state of his legendary Baker Street detective, depicted here as a bumbling third-rate actor living a role created by the real deductive genius and crime fighter: Dr. John Watson.It's a convenient (if sometimes slightly antagonistic) arrangement, with Watson finding the clues and Holmes getting the credit, and both Michael Caine and Ben Kingsley play the one-joke premise for all its worth, having a lot of fun with their respective characters. Caine is the idiotic, clumsy, lecherous and vain Sherlock Holmes, but Kingsley's Watson is no less temperamental: he has to solve the mysteries and match wits with the fiendish Moriarty while keeping his petulant alter ego under control.The plotting is conventional and Henry Mancini's cartoon music score makes the film sound at times like a mediocre sit-com, but it's a pleasure watching two award-winning talents trample a literary icon with such impeccable comic timing and malicious glee.

Third-rate actor Reginald Kincaid is hired by Dr John Watson to impersonate Watson's fictional detective Sherlock Holmes and thus take some of the spotlight off the author whose place at a Teaching Hospital could be jeopardised by the publicity surrounding his most famous cases. He has tried to discard his creation but the public will not hear of it nor are they interested in his proposed new series "John Watson-Crime Doctor",so he is obliged to endure Kincaid's drunken incompetence and cover up for all his faux pas. Hired to recover printing plates stolen from the Treasury,Watson and his fumbling assistant embark on a dark and dangerous adventure. "Without a clue" is a quite brilliantly witty take on Victorian values and morals and an anachronistic delight at the same time.The music by Henry Mancini is full of Gilbert and Sullivan parodies as well as perfectly in - period melodies.Possibly his most fitting since "The Great Race". Mr Michael Caine is in inspired form as Kincaid/Holmes,gifted with maniacal energy and completely unjustified pride in his thespic abilities.However,just once,in a splendidly choreographed swordfight,his theatrical experience helps win the day as he fences with Rathbonian skill and elegance,"I almost killed 6 men a week - 8 if you count matinees",he quips nonchalantly,backing his opponent into a corner. Mr Ben Kingsley,only slightly more restrained,obviously enjoys this rare foray into comedy. Only the most po - faced of Sherlockians could object to this affectionate and knowledgeable unofficial addition to the canon.