7.1 | / 10 |
Users | 4.2 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
Holmes and Watson meet while at boarding school and set about solving a series of bizarre murders.
Starring: Nicholas Rowe, Alan Cox, Sophie Ward, Anthony Higgins, Susan FleetwoodAdventure | Insignificant |
Family | Insignificant |
Action | Insignificant |
Mystery | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 2.0 (224 kbps)
French: Dolby Digital 2.0 (224 kbps)
German: Dolby Digital 2.0 (224 kbps)
Italian: Dolby Digital 2.0 (224 kbps)
Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0
Spanish: Dolby Digital Mono (224 kbps)
Japanese: Dolby Digital Mono
Spanish: 2.0 Castilian, Mono Latin American
English, English SDH, French, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Danish, Dutch, Finnish
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Digital copy
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 2.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
“A deductive mind never rests,” Holmes tells Watson soon after their meeting in Young Sherlock Holmes, Director Barry Levinson's (The Natural, Rain Man) take on the famous Arthur Conan Doyle detective who has been portrayed through the years in films of various styles and approaches, but never quite like this. Blend something of an origins story with a truly bizarre case that leads the dynamic sleuthing duo to some unexpected finds and places and villains and this might be one of the more unique, but also one of the more satisfying, adaptations in the character's long and storied history on the screen.
Clearly, Paramount has not done any work to bring new life to Young Sherlock Holmes, which has clearly been dropped onto Blu-ray with an old transfer. The image shows various signs of this. For one, the odd splotch and speckle are in evidence. Second, various examples of edge enhancement are evident throughout. Neither of these issues reach the level of "egregious," but the filtering, grain tampering, and murky black levels abound. The picture is very weak, with less than naturally occurring grain, a soft look, and some compression issues in play. The picture lacks razor crisp detail, offering instead flat, uninteresting textures, which is a shame given the opportunities for rich definition in the various old London locales, and some of the more elaborate set pieces that are found in the third act. The film is fairly dim, with flat colors and earthen tones dominating. There's very little life or vibrance to be found, part of which may be attributed to the film's tonally bland style but also the transfer's failure to really grab a hold of any sense of life or brilliance. As noted, black levels are also problematic, appearing murky and overly dense (look at about the 34:40 and 1:10:31 marks). Skin tones are pasty and uninteresting. This remains watchable, but it's also a very depressed and disappointing release from Paramount.
Young Sherlock Holmes' sound design does not lend itself to a Blu-ray audio bonanza, but the presentation here is very respectable within the film's natural audio confines. The track is comfortably spacious and clear, though certainly not fully enveloping or transparently lifelike. The lossless encode does allow for boosted clarity and definition with satisfying width and engagement in both core audio elements and environmental specifics. Dialogue is clear, for one thing, with fine front-center grounding and realistic portrayal of actor vocals and inflections. It is also well prioritized. Music enjoys satisfying front stretch and solid fidelity. including various sounds inside a workshop at the 17-minute mark playing with pleasing front side spacing and engagement, followed by a nicely defined general din in a dining hall a few minutes later. Sounds inside a workshop at the 17-minute mark play with pleasing front side spacing and engagement, followed by a nicely defined general din in a dining hall a few minutes later. All in all, this is a solid track, not one to stretch sound systems but one that delivers the inherent audio characteristics for this film with as much enjoyable engagement and detail as can be mustered.
This Blu-ray release of Young Sherlock Holmes contains no supplemental content. It does ship in exclusive SteelBook packaging which is attractive. The glossy front panel depicts classic artwork within a red border box top center and middle. Predominant within it is Holmes peering through a magnifying glass with his teenage face enlarged in it. Other characters and odds and ends from the film are present as well. The film's title appears bottom center in red. The rear panel features another collage, this one much lighter with various character portraits scattered about, as well as locations and objects from the film. Prominent is a floating head image of Holmes, top, and a full body portrait of the title character standing on a chandelier, center, holding a torch. The spine is black with the film's title in red, center, and red Paramount and Blu-ray logos at the top and bottom, respectively. Inside, the digital copy code is tucked underneath the left-hand-side tabs. The lone Blu-ray disc is situated on the right on a central hub. The inner print is a two-panel spread that features the text "the game is afoot!" at the top with both panels featuring a bronze/sepia tinted character and location collage.
Young Sherlock Holmes finds a way to be faithful to the core of Sir Arthur Conan Doyl's famed sleuth while also reinventing his history with faithful ambition. The result is a fun little film that may be lacking in narrative creativity but that does do a splendid job of entertaining its audiences with the time, place, and purpose for which the character was created. Paramount's Blu-ray is lazy. The video is poor and no extras are included. Good audio and exclusive SteelBook packaging add some value, but the presentation misses where fans care the most.
1976
2009
2001
2014
2018
1990
2019
1938
Warner Archive Collection
1932
2013
2017
50th Anniversary Edition
1979
2012
2011
2009
2007
2019
1933
Prelude to Murder / Sherlock Holmes
1946
Sherlock Holmes
1946