Movie Review: 'Holmes & Watson' Is Flat, Lazy, And Simply Not Funny

If I wanted to take the easy route here and use just one single gif as my complete review, I would have to go with an old reliable, Mr. Pete Campbell from Mad Men.

And I could leave it at that and feel pretty good about it. After all, Holmes & Watson is one of the laziest movies I’ve seen in a long time, so why not give it a lazy review? But luckily (maybe unluckily in this case?) for you, I can’t take the lazy, easy out.

I’m sure by this point, you’ve seen, if not read, many other reviews tearing this movie down, calling it the worst movie of the year. Well, I’m going to start by actually saying a few kind words about Holmes & Watson. First, it is not the worst movie of the year. That’s a completely unfair take. No, it is the seventh worst movie of the year. It’s not even the worst comedy of the year (sup, Happytime Murders). It’s only the second worst comedy of the year.

And in the spirit of honesty, there are a handful of funny bits scattered throughout. The casual drug use, of all things, is probably the best thing it has going for it. Although that’s not really saying much, as these jokes would be lower tier in either of the other Ferrell/Reilly team-ups, Talladega Nights or Step Brothers. As evidenced by those two (far superior) movies, Ferrell and Reilly do have a definite chemistry when working together. You can sense that chemistry here as well, it’s just that the surrounding material is so dreadful, that you rarely get to see it pay off.

That’s really about all I can say from a positive standpoint. This movie really is brutally bad. It takes the lowest hanging fruit and forces it down your throat, repeatedly. It relies on cheap, unfunny physical comedy. There are tons of modern references in their jokes that fall flat every time. If you’ve seen the trailers, you’ve seen at least one: the terrible “it’s called a self-photograph” joke. That’s only one example. Then there was the barrage of political jokes. And not jokes about the British political landscape during which the movie takes place. No, these were jokes about the present-day United States. Adam McKay was on as a producer, and it seems like he just couldn’t help himself.

But perhaps the biggest sin of all is how the movie completely wasted its extremely talented cast. In addition to Ferrell and Reilly, supporting characters include Hugh Laurie, Rebecca Hall, Ralph Fiennes, Kelly Macdonald, Lauren Lapkus, and Steve Coogan. With this cast alone, it should have been an average-at-worst movie. But the lazy script and constant surface level jokes resulted in one of the more disappointing movies in recent memory. Not even the surprise third-act musical number (yeah, I know) could do anything to salvage this mess.