What happens when a ritzy, small-time film director takes on a Hollywood blockbuster, especially when the main character is one of the most beloved of classical fiction? You get Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes, which is one part Ritchie’s normal, herky jerky filmmaking, one part studio pandering, and one part Robert Downey Jr., but minus all the character development.

Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes takes Sherlock Holmes and yanks him from his normal, stuffy fare and transplants him into a would-be action flick—I say would be because I’m not quite sure the film has as much action as the trailer would lead you to believe. Oh, sure there are explosions and fights, but it’s not quite as in-your-face as action-starved frat boys might be rooting for. That’s not to say that Sherlock Holmes isn’t fun, because it is, but it feels so disjointed, as if the studio said, “Hey, Ritchie, can you tone down some of your Ritchie-ness?” And then Ritchie proclaimed, “I will cram the most Ritchie-ness I can into each scene.”

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Here's a hint for director/writer Nancy Myers: If you're going to make a movie about love, affairs, middle age, and family, go ahead and try and make at least one of your characters relatable, you know, so we have someone to root for and care about. Oh, and while you're at it, go ahead and develop some dimensions for your characters too!

The latest schlockfest from Myers is this Christmas's release of It's Complicated, which follows around wildly successful baker, Jane, (Meryl Streep) as she prances around her wildly successful bakery, upscale New York hotels, and her Pottery Barn porn house. Jane has been divorced for ten years, and one fateful night falls drunkenly into her ex-husband's, Jake (Alec Baldwin), arms for a one night shag-a-thon. Jake, who is now unhappily remarried, couldn't be more happy and in love with his ex-wife, and Jane couldn't be more guilt stricken. Couple this with the fact that Jane is potentially falling for the architect (Steve Martin) who is redesigning her (already huge) kitchen for more space, and you've got yourself a recipe for complication--and by complication, I mean stereotypical characters and predictable story.

Clint Eastwood will always be more than a Gorillaz song to me.  Any man who has with Lee Marvin, been mayor of a California hamlet, flown a spy plane with his Russian thoughts, and done more than one movie with a monkey has nothing to hide from anyone.  As he works on the third act of his career, this time as a director, he seems to certainly be working on his id out in the open.  With the Flags of Our Fathers\Letters from Iwo Jima double feature, his last lukewarm effort that was Gran Torino, and his latest, Invictus, Eastwood seems to be boldly exploring the cultural shifts among racial and generational lines that are occurring at internet speeds.

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