6 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Gnomeo & Juliet recruit detective Sherlock Gnomes to help investigate the mysterious disappearance of other garden gnomes.
Starring: Emily Blunt, Johnny Depp, James McAvoy, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Mary J. BligeFamily | 100% |
Animation | 84% |
Comedy | 68% |
Fantasy | 40% |
Adventure | 39% |
Romance | 1% |
Mystery | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1
German: Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
French: Dolby Digital 5.1
French (Canada): Dolby Digital 5.1
Italian: Dolby Digital 5.1
Dutch: Dolby Digital 5.1
Portuguese: Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish: España y Latinoamérica, Portuguese: Brasil
English, English SDH, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
UV digital copy
DVD copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
The game is afoot! Sherlock Gnomes is the not-so-hotly-anticipated sequel to 2011's Gnomeo and Juliet, a perfectly serviceable, maybe even moderately enjoyable, movie that played with puns and a classic story re-imagined in the world of the beloved garden gnome. This film, like its predecessor, revels in bringing classic characters to uniquely shaped and defined -- miniaturized, molded, and painted -- life. But like real-life garden gnomes, the film is attractive and carefully crafted on the outside but rather hollow inside. Plot set-up is basic and the film prefers to jump from one set piece to another without much consideration for narrative flow. On the flip side, the animation is first-rate and the voice actors soak up the opportunity to have some fun with decidedly enjoyable over-the-top cliché characters.
Sherlock Gnomes' textural qualities are excellent. The gnomes are noticeably complex, and the Blu-ray is more than capable of revealing every component. The digital artists have painstakingly created individual detail on every little point -- the hats, the clothes, the bodies -- and the clarity of individual flaws and textures is first-rate. Cracks, crevices, core details, name it, and the Blu-ray excels in showing it. Colors are rich and robust, vibrant and very well saturated, and capable of revealing complex nuance as well as the aggregate palette without flaw. Black levels are fine. Source and encode flaws are next to nonexistent. This is a very good presentation from Paramount.
Sherlock Gnomes' accompanying DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 lossless soundtrack is enjoyable and well rounded. Music is pleasantly lively, spreading wide across the front and never shy about reaching around into the back. Surround speakers carry plenty of fun discrete effects as well, with well maintained clarity and manicured detail enhancing every opportunity sound takes to spread. London exteriors offer a healthy spring of activity to more fully immerse the listener into the movie's varied locales. Blaring alarms and beeps present with pleasing clarity and stage saturation in chapter three, while heavy downpours and cracking thunder fully cover the stage in the subsequent chapter. The track is never timid, ensuring each scene is accompanied by healthy stage stretch and a solid low end support. Dialogue is clear, well prioritized, and firmly entrenched in the front-center channel.
Sherlock Gnomes contains a handful of featurettes. A DVD copy of the film and a UV/iTunes digital copy code are included with purchase.
If there's another movie in this series in the coming years, it probably won't be some biopic called Gnome Chomsky or a baseball film about Gnomear Garciaparra. But considering that Sherlock Gnomes made $100 million less than its predecessor on a larger budget, maybe audiences are just saying "Gnomeore." Sherlock Gnomes is a serviceable, but superfluous, digitally animated film. It has some fun with classic characters but quickly devolves into a movie that's more a string of scenes and less a compelling narrative-driven adventure. It can be cute, it can be funny, but it's certainly not destined to live on as a classic of its kind. Paramount's Blu-ray does offer excellent video and audio. A handful of decent little extras are included. Worth a rental for the kids.
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