The prospect of yet another film featuring the comedy team of John C. Reilly and Will Ferrell sounds like it would be a smash success on paper. After all, Step Brothers and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby are considered modern classics by some. Unfortunately, their latest project — the Sherlock Holmes parody Holmes & Watson, which opened on Christmas Day without screening for critics — is not doing very well. It’s doing so bad, in fact, that its Rotten Tomatoes score currently sits not too far above zero.
On Wednesday, The Hollywood Reporter noted that Holmes & Watson‘s Rotten Tomatoes score, based on a whopping 12 reviews at the time, sat squarely at zero. As of this writing, the score has been bumped up to six percent thanks to an additional 19 reviews. Two of these have gone so far as to give the film a “fresh” designation, but the other 29 have wasted no time in labeling the Christmas comedy as “rotten.”
If that’s not bad enough, The Independent is also reporting that British audiences have been especially unhappy with the film’s portrayal of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s literary hero. “Numerous messages posted to Twitter reveal people have been forced to leave the cinema, with some even asking for their money back,” they claim. Amazingly, the movie had previously what some had considered a “British stamp of approval” thanks to the casting of Ralph Fiennes, Hugh Laurie, and other notable actors from the region.
(Via The Hollywood Reporter and The Independent)
