Poster © Warner Bros. Pictures. Shown at reduced size for review and commentary.
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GenreAction, Adventure & Mystery
RatedPG-13
Runtime2 hr 8 mins
ReleasedDecember 25, 2009
StreamingSee Where to Watch
DirectorGuy Ritchie
StarringRobert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Rachel McAdams
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Sherlock Holmes (2009)
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| Sherlock Holmes's Details | |
| Genre | Action, Adventure & Mystery |
| Rated | PG-13 |
| Released | 12/25/2009 (United States); 12/26/2009 (United Kingdom) |
| Streaming | See Where to Watch on this page. |
| Running Time | 2 hr 8 mins |
| Budget | $90M (reported) |
| Box Office | Updated daily from Box Office Mojo. See the numbers below. |
| Based On | Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle |
| Country | United States, United Kingdom, Germany |
| Language | English |
| Sherlock Holmes's Interests | |
| General | Bare-knuckle boxing, disguises, Baker Street clutter, the Thames, fights planned three moves ahead. |
| Music | Hans Zimmer. The main theme is called "Discombobulate," which is accurate. |
| Movies | Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011). Round two, now with Moriarty. |
| Television | Sherlock. Same detective, smartphones instead of horse carriages. |
| Heroes | Gladstone the bulldog. Puts up with Holmes's experiments with real dignity. |
| Sherlock Holmes's Crew | |
| Director | Guy Ritchie |
| Writers | Michael Robert Johnson, Anthony Peckham, Simon Kinberg, Lionel Wigram (story), Michael Robert Johnson (story) |
| Producers | Joel Silver, Lionel Wigram, Susan Downey, Dan Lin |
| Cinematography | Philippe Rousselot |
| Music | Hans Zimmer |
| Edited By | James Herbert |
| Production | Village Roadshow Pictures, Silver Pictures, Wigram Productions, Lin Pictures, Internationale Filmproduktion Blackbird Dritte |
| Distributed By | Warner Bros. Pictures |
Detective. Boxer. Chemist. Total slob. Robert Downey Jr.’s Holmes is all four at once, and the actual mystery is the least interesting thing in the room. Lord Blackwood’s spooky black magic scheme gets set up like a big deal, and you’ll forget the details before the credits. What carries this is Downey and Jude Law bickering like an old married couple who happen to solve crimes. Law’s Watson is the best part, a doctor who keeps trying to move out and keeps getting dragged back for one more fistfight. Guy Ritchie’s slow-motion fight planning is fun the first time and less fun the third. Rachel McAdams gets a lot of outfits and not much to do. Hans Zimmer’s twangy, rattling score is a winner. It made $524 million worldwide on a reported $90 million budget, so the crowd clearly bought in. A 6.6 because the buddy chemistry is real and the case is not. $56 says you plan your whole morning step by step in your head and it falls apart at step two.
What works: Downey and Jude Law have real bickering chemistry, and Law’s Watson gets to be capable instead of the usual tagalong.
What doesn’t: Blackwood’s scheme is forgettable, the slow-motion fight planning wears thin with repeats, and Irene Adler is mostly there to look mysterious.
Who it’s for: Fans of buddy comedies and Downey’s fast-talking era who don’t need the case to stick with them.
Spoilers
Blackwood’s return from the grave and his magic are all tricks built on chemistry and staging, which Holmes explains piece by piece on the unfinished Tower Bridge before Blackwood meets the end he dodged at the start. The last scene reveals Professor Moriarty was pulling strings the whole time.
London, 1890. Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.) and Dr. John Watson (Jude Law) crash a creepy candlelit ritual and put Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong) in a cell, headed for the gallows. Case closed, right? Not quite. Watson is moving out of 221B Baker Street to marry Mary Morstan (Kelly Reilly), and Holmes is not taking it well. Blackwood swears from his cell that he's just getting started, and Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams), the one person who keeps outsmarting Holmes, walks back in with a missing person case. Guy Ritchie directs. One hundred twenty-eight minutes, every punch planned out in slow motion first.
New roommate wanted at 221B. Must tolerate violin practice and experiments on the bulldog.
| Robert Downey Jr. | Sherlock Holmes |
| Jude Law | Dr. John Watson |
| Mark Strong | Lord Henry Blackwood |
| Rachel McAdams | Irene Adler |
| Kelly Reilly | Mary Morstan |
| Eddie Marsan | Inspector Lestrade |
| Hans Matheson | Lord Coward |
| Geraldine James | Mrs. Hudson |
| James Fox | Sir Thomas Rotheram |
| William Hope | American Ambassador John Standish |
| Robert Maillet | Dredger |
| William Houston | Constable Clark |
- (cur | prev) 14:30, 18 October 2026 DataBot +40 Numbers refreshed: IMDb users 7.5 / 10 (712,845 votes) → 7.5 / 10 (712,881 votes).
- (cur | prev) 14:30, 17 October 2026 DataBot +480 Numbers refreshed: Worldwide box office $524M; Domestic box office $209M; Opening weekend $62.3M; Profit / loss (est.) +$127M; Rotten Tomatoes 70%; CinemaScore B; box office chart updated; RT 70% (248 reviews); Metacritic 57 / 100; CinemaScore B; IMDb users 7.5 / 10 (712,845 votes); movie.guru score 5.9.
- (cur | prev) 12:00, 17 October 2026 DataBot +2,000 Profile created from Wikipedia and Box Office Mojo: cast, crew, release dates, budget, official trailer.