Sherlock Holmes Hot

The brilliance of SHERLOCK HOLMES the movie, as well as the books, as well as the Hardy Boys, Trixie Belden and Encyclopedia Brown, is that it gets thinking critically and analytically; if you're a parent, that's exciting.

SHERLOCK HOLMES is plenty exciting with murder, intrigue, fighting, gunplay, stuff blowing up, jumping out of windows...you get the picture. Most of it is "movie" violence, meaning it's not too bloody or too realistic -- it feels like good fun. The violence that comes from Watson and Holmes is all in self defense or trying to stop a killer. Some of the images though take a slightly stronger stomach than some grade school kids can take like a dead man with worms crawling on him, a man on fire, and slaughtered pigs.

The story of SHERLOCK HOLMES has Holmes and Watson trying to stop a murderer who seems to get his power from the Devil/black magic. Regardless of the outcome of the mystery, the idea of someone harming others with help from evil spirits may be the kind of movie some kids take home with them and remember at night! Earlier trailers indicated we may see Holmes in a state of undress; that scene is actually funny and you see nothing. Innuendo does pop up occasionally but I believe kids would interpret it another way.

My other concern is how well kids can follow both the mystery and the solutions. I'd wait for DVD for kids who are in the single digits. For those 10 and up, SHERLOCK HOLMES is a smart, fun comedy that makes learning seem appealing.