[wpdevart_youtube]brjkpRBpFnc[/wpdevart_youtube]HOLMES AND WATSON ***
Dir: Etan Cohen (12A, 97 mins)
Another version of Sherlock, the seventh in the last five years. Instead of heavy-duty sleuthing, kinetic camera angles and storylines that disappear up the elementaries, this version is played strictly for stupidity. Will Ferrell and John C Reilly, a winning team in Step Brothers, are back as a suspiciously accented duo of detectives. Ferrell is Holmes, Reilly is Watson and a host of British comedy talent backs them up. Ralph Fiennes, who illustrated his untapped gift for comedy in The Grand Budapest Hotel, is arch-villain Moriarty and there are bags of cameos from the likes of Steve Coogan, Hugh Laurie, Rob Brydon and Pam Ferris as Queen Victoria. Elsewhere, Rebecca Hall is a fellow doctor and Kelly Macdonald is housekeeper Mrs Hudson. Played broadly as a buddy comedy with a nonsensical plot and lots of slapstick, this should be an enjoyably daft bit of silliness if Ferrell and Reilly manage to rekindle their comedic chemistry in the period setting. Get the deerstalker hats out. Opens Dec 26