Sherlock Gnomes (2018)

When an animated movie gets a sequel, I can typically understand why they usually get them. Sometimes they are made because the creators have brilliant new ideas to bring to the table while other times they are made because the first movie was a big hit at the box office and the creators see lots of money in their eyes and feel they can make more with a sequel. In most cases it's typically the latter, but in the case of "Sherlock Gnomes" it's neither. In fact, I absolutely have no idea why this movie exists. "Gnomeo and Juliet" wasn't a big critical hit nor was it a big box office hit, so why did the heads of Paramount Animation think that giving a mostly forgotten film from eight years ago a sequel would be a smart idea? I really don't know. What I do know though is that this film is bad. Really bad.A little while after the first film, the bickering neighbors Montague and Capulet settle their differences and move together to London where they set up their garden gnomes in a new garden. The leaders of the gnomes, Gnomeo (James McAvoy) and Juliet (Emily Blunt) are trying to make their garden more comfortable and beautiful for their friends and family. However, disaster strikes when all the gnomes in the garden are kidnapped by a pie mascot doll named Moriarty (Jamie Demetriou) and it's up to them Sherlock Gnomes (Johnny Depp) and his assistant Dr. Watson (Chiwetel Ejiofor) to find them. That's all there is to it with this plot. It's absolutely nothing new.The story is incredibly boring and dull due to how predictable it is. It goes through every twist and turn imaginable and even led to one of the dumbest plot twists that I've seen in an animated movie in a while. None of the jokes work as well. Although most of the bottom of the barrel jokes seen in the trailer were thankfully not seen in this movie, it's still incredibly unfunny with most being jokes about the characters being garden gnomes. It even opens up with three gnomes arguing over what story to tell using garden gnome puns like "Game of Gnomes" and "Spider-Man: Gnomecoming". I'm not making this up. The animation is totally wasted on this movie. The films computer animation incredibly dull and lifeless and barely has any shiny features to it yet the very few hand drawn portions are incredibly well done though it did make me mad that it went into this movie. Why of all movies coming out nowadays was a hand drawn animated scene put into "Sherlock Gnomes"? I mean, seriously! However, the film could have been saved if the characters were interesting and likable, but they're not. Gnomeo and Juliet are dry and tiresome, Sherlock Gnomes is incredibly annoying as is Moriarty. I guess Dr. Watson has a little likability in him, but not much."Sherlock Gnomes" is incredibly pointless and pretty boring for an animated movie sequel. It's story is predictable and lousy, it's animation is totally wasted and the characters are all dry and tiresome. I really don't know why this movie was made and I really don't suggest you should watch this movie. Besides, most of the cast of this movie (some of which are Oscar winners or nominees) have been in better animated movies, the director of this movie also made "Kung Fu Panda", and there's a much better animated parody of Sherlock Holmes known as "The Great Mouse Detective" which was made by Walt Disney Animation Studios and those are much better animated movies to watch than this mess. Check them out instead. It's rather elementary, my dear readers.

Sherlock Gnomes is a sequel to the film Gnomeo and Juliet which was released back in 2011. The first film was just ok, however the sequel sucks. The first problem with this film is just boring it is. I probably haven't felt this emotionless when watching a film in a long time. The other reason why this is a bad movie is how the film wanted you to think Moriaty is dead at the beginning but I knew he really wasn't so the end wasn't really a surprise when he did return. For me the only good things from this film was a good message regarding how you should treat people in your life, a surprise twist 'villain' because the surprise villain isn't really a villain along with good animation. Overall this film may have some good qualities but the rest is so dull and forgettable that the film leaves you emotionless Final Rating: 3/10

After awhile I was pretty burned out on the friendship stuff, the theme was revisited so much I started to wonder if it was being used as filler.The scene in the toy store with the cats and stuff was good and funny, that 'set piece' was the one redeeming feature for the movie, there wasn't enough of that kind of thing. I wonder if anyone did a cut of that scene and put it on utube, if so go to Utube and watch the one thing from the movie that was enjoyable and do something else with that time saved.I could be wrong, but I think whoever came up with the toy cat stuff was hired as an outside consultant in relation to the writers and producers of this soap operatic gnome movie

(Sigh) . . . Lacking, would be my one word review of "Sherlock Gnomes". Though the animation itself is nice, the basic story and lacklustre script will probably leave most of the children in the audience bored, let alone the adults. The vocal performances are a mixed bag. With Gnomeo and Juliet effectively sidelined for a lot of the film, their performers (James McAvoy and Emily Blunt) probably give the flattest turns, but this does allow for Johnny Depp and, particularly, Jamie Demetriou to shine as Holmes and Moriaty respectively. There is a song crowbarred in around the middle of the picture from Mary j Blige's Irene Adler, which is as inexplicable as it is awful. In fact, music in general it a bit of a problem for the film - with a few bars of various Elton John hits piped into certain scenes, but it's like hearing a panpipe version in a lift, recognisable but not entertaining. There is, as I say, some nice animation but there aren't nearly enough gags that land, and certainly not enough that would appeal to any of the older kids / adults in the audience.