Bea Swanson This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Kamila Bell This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

JohnHowardReid Young Sherlock Holmes (1985) is a typical "modern" movie in which special effects are king and the story is constructed to serve the effects, rather than vice versa. The plot, of course, is full of holes, but trifles like that did not worry 1985's picture-goers. Admittedly, the movie is super- spectacular, over-poweringly so at times, and sufficiently well acted to get us involved in the story before the next bout of special effects takes us back to fantasy land. Needless to say, this picture was extremely popular when first released back in 1985.But it now seems to be forgotten by the corduroy set. In fact, I'd completely forgotten it myself until I stumbled across a few paragraphs I wrote for "The Hollywood Reporter".(Available on a 10/10 Paramount DVD).

Blueghost If Indiana Jones met Sherlock Holmes, this is the movie you'd get. There's shades of Spielberg's and Lucas's "Temple of Doom" movie in here, and the film has that Spielberg gloss.There isn't too much sleuthing here so much as old fashioned adventure, but it's a decent Victorian era yarn all the same. You get the sense that Basil Rawthbone would grin if he were alive to see this, as well as mister Doyle--author of all.I seem to recall that this wasn't as big a splash as it might've been when it hit the theatres, but having seen it after all these years I think it holds up.A good action-adventure Sherlock Holmes style. Check it out.

generationofswine The '80s did this thing where they had age regression on a lot of established characters in lit and film...this is one of those and thank God they weren't babies.But otherwise...Movies like this were awesome...huge from the Golden Age of the Silver Screen into the '90s when they started to peter out until, well, until they vanished leaving us with nothing but Super Hero films to fill the void......I have nothing against Super Hero films, but I love adventure films too.I can see where folks would not like it, especially the people that take themselves too seriously. It is stuck in a genera that is at once extremely pulp and kind of serialized. Even if it's not a sequel, you know the story.The Goonies, Nate and Hayes, Jake Speed, Firewalker, Vibes, Big Trouble in Little China, Romancing the Stone...and of course the crown, the king, the Indiana Jones movies.They are all close enough to one another to really fit into the same mold. The characters change, the concepts stay the same and....we love it.Enter the Roguish hero and the damsel in distress in an exotic location to find X marking the MacGuffin, but first they have to work their way through obstacles both natural and man made in the form of a nasty antagonist and a couple of henchmen. Throw in a semi-bumbling sidekick and you have what I like to call "High Adventure." "Young Sherlock Holmes" follows that outline and if you are the kind of individual that is still young enough at heart to love adventure films...you will inevitably like this movie.If you are the kind of man or woman that takes everything extremely seriously and refuses to play at all, not matter what it is. If you are the type that would use the word "compete" instead of "play" or "game" than you are going to hate this movie.

willhaskew This is a non-Walter Conan Doyle story about school-aged John Watson meeting Sherlock Holmes at Brompton Academy. He also meets Professor Rupert T. Waxlfatter, a brilliant retired schoolmaster and Holmes' mentor, who's the author of numerous books on chemistry and physics. But he is considered a little crazy due to his brazen experimentation attempts with a manned bicycle-like flying vehicle along with his inherent eccentricity. Waxflatter lives in an unused tower on school grounds, along with his niece and Holmes' sweetheart, Elizabeth Hardy. Holmes is also close to Professor Rathe, the Brompton fencing master. Several murders are committed in London using a powerful hallucinogenic delivered through a thorn shot by a cloaked assassin with a blowgun. Dudley, a school rival, frames Holmes for cheating on an exam and Waxflatter becomes one of the murder victims. Holmes secretly stays on the school's grounds in Waxflatter's old tower, getting help from Watson and Elizabeth to find Waxflatter's murderers. Their investigation leads to the uncovering of an Egyptian cult and an old grudge against Waxflatter and the other victims from a ruined business deal.This movie had the Spielberg-Amblin Entertainment magic and feeling of an exciting 1980's adventure that seems to have been lost. It featured some cutting edge visual effects created by Lucasfilm and a script by Chris Columbus. Some of the action and violence is a bit intense for a family film but it's nothing you wouldn't see in Indiana Jones.