The Truth is Out - I am a Purist.

I like to think I am open minded, willing to try new things, explore my options.

When my husband comes home with a new brand of "chicken" nuggets made purely from textured vegetable protein, I let him cook it up for the children and I even took a tentative bite.  Not bad. For fake meat. 

When my dad pours me a glass of wine made by my grandfather and tells me I'm gonna love it, I take a sip.  A small one.  And try to hide my shudder.  My grandfather's wine tastes like crap.  Always has.  I know this but still I'm willing to hope that this time might be different.  That the fermented fruit will have somehow magically have been transformed into an elegant chardonnay instead of ... well extremely volatile fermented fruit.

When a hairdresser tells me she thinks a particular style will look fabulous on me. I trust her.  I let her cut my hair which ends up so short that the only possible way I can style it is to spend half an hour curling it reminiscent of long ago days in high school.  I had to FIND my curling iron.  The hair cut made me look 10 years more mature.  The hairdresser was an older lady.  I should have known what was hip to her was a blue rinse. 

When my husband told me that potatoe chips in sandwiches were delicious.  I tried it even though I thought he was crazy.  Turns out he was right.  It's delicious.  Before you laugh.. try it.  You will be surprised.

However, when it comes to books being converted to movies it is a completely different ball game.  This is where the geek in me really comes out.  I love good dialogue.  You can always tell when you're reading a quality written book from those formula generated books made to please the masses.  When a movie is made from a favourite book, I want to hear every gritty word.  We even turn on the subtitles so we can read what we may miss hearing. I am addicted to subtitles.

I actually refused to watch the Pride and Prejudice with Kiera Knightly because I could tell from the previews that they had completely changed the storyline to fit the movie.  I did not want that version to replace the Jennifer Ehl and Colin Firth  six hour version that plays in my head.   Remember, I like long movies.

When they came out with Lestat, I could have cried.  They completely missed all the best parts of Anne Rice's vampire story, trying to combine two books into one, two hour film.  Queen of the Dammed was an even bigger disappointment.  Where was Maharet and Mekare?  Where was the history and the complex characters?  The makers of the LOTR trilogy challenged movie making by going against the norm in making a film per book.  If they had chosen to do Anne Rice's books after LOTR, I bet they would have done the same thing and it would have been amazing. 

Now they are messing with Sherlock Holmes.  Somehow or other I got hooked on the Adventure with Sherlock Holmes TV series from 1988 to 1994.  The one with Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes.  I so enjoyed the t.v. series that eventually I read all the books and surprisingly these adaptations are astonishingly close to the books.  Apparently Jeremy Brett fought with the big whigs every week to make sure that it stayed on track.  He did the role so well, that for me no other man plays Sherlock Holmes so well.

Okay I am a complete geek.  I think I've already established that. ;)

Still, when I heard that Robert Downey jr. was going to play Sherlock Holmes in a new film, I was excited.  Even my husband was excited for me because he knew I liked Sherlock Holmes.  Apparently my geekness had extended to new heights because my mother bought me the complete encyclopedia of Sherlock Holmes.  Okay that was a bit much.  It's two volumes equal the size of a small country.  How do you read books that big?  I think she was stuck for gift ideas. 

I think Robert Downey jr is an extremely talented actor and that he would make a good Sherlock Holmes. 

However... have you seen the preview?



Okay. While this pushes all the buttons as far as suspense and action goes, Sherlock was never sexy. He was not some kind of thrill seeker, jumping out of a window into the thames, vampire hunting, hygiene lacking sort of hero. His vices did not extend to those of the opposite sex but to tobacco, cocaine and the violin.  He was a methodical thinker and emotionally void man.  He rebuked Dr. Watson numerious times for sensationalizing his cases. So I have the distinct feeling that this movie is not going to be your typical Sherlock Holmes type of film. 

Will I be going to see it?  You betcha.

Zeemaid