The Sign of Four (2001)

There is no other word to describe this debacle than absolutely shocking! And yet another remake/adaptation for the why bother bin? It seems to me that remakes are getting worse all the time.Sherlock Holmes is like Shakespeare - done well it's brilliant, done badly it's as bad as it gets and this one really is as bad as it gets.It's also one of those - do the Americans really believe the British all either talk either like the Queen or Dick Van Dyke?Anyone with any appreciation of film at all would be well-advised to stay well clear of this turkey, it's a real stinker.Ignore this advice at your peril and don't say I didn't tell you so.

I only caught the last 40 minutes or so of it on TV thank goodness. The accents are appalling, the acting wooden and artistic license has meant that the plot deviates from the original book in too many ways. I doubt very strongly that there was a dialogue coach - but if there was then he was taking money under false pretences.Matt Frewer was an awful choice for Holmes - it's almost as though he plays the part for laughs. The best actor who has played the part was Jeremy Brett - he was a manic-depressive and so fitted the part quite well.So far as I'm concerned this insult to a good story should never have been released and quietly burnt!

Matt Frewer has played Sherlock Holmes in four TV movies: The Hound of the Baskevilles, The Sign of Four, The Royal Scandal, and The Whitechapel Vampire. I purchased a DVD set of all four of Frewer's Holmes films to share with friends and family. We planned to watch only one movie per evening, but we ended up watching all four in one weekend. It was just too much fun! Matt Frewer's performance as Sherlock Holmes is extremely humorous and Kenneth Welsh is the perfect straight-man for Frewer's highly eccentric Holmes. These are fun adventures for the entire family. Frewer and Welsh should make more movies as Holmes and Watson. They are a blast!

Sherlock Holmes is idling in his London flat once again in this masterful new adventure based on the classic part of the Canon "The Sign of Four." This time with Matt Frewer as the languid and yet surprisingly agile Sherlock Holmes, the film is well-placed, excellently-filmed, and any true Sherlockian will enjoy it. A few liberties have been taken from the original script, but are lost in the excellent dialogue and London fog as they follow the notorious murderer, Jonathan Small, and his strange and unearthly savage to uncover a twisting tale of deception, secrets, lies, betrayal, and murder.Overall, the film's a lot of fun. It gives a new angle to Sherlock Holmes - a comical one, while never overdoing Holmes' brilliance. A friend had never been "interested" in Holmes before now - she liked Frewer's serious and yet proud adaptation. The costuming is standard fare - that of the older version, with Ian Richardson as Holmes, was better done as far as the heroine's wardrobe - and it has enough excitement to keep you entertained, while adding a touch of romance and strain between Watson and Holmes; the result being Holmes' famed speech on the "dangers of women."An excellent second installment in the series of four by Hallmark Entertainment. I hope the rest of the miniseries is as eventful and imaginative as this one.