Not your BBC's Sherlock Holmes

Ok, first off. Who names their kid Sherlock?

My hubby and I rented and finally saw the new Sherlock Holmes with Jude Law and Robert Downey Jr. It was not the gumshoe magnifying glass-toting, tweed-wearing, upper-crust British-speaking Sherlock Holmes. NOO!! This is a souped-up American, muscle-bound, boxing Sherlock Holmes movie on speed! There's fighting, black magic, possessions, tumbling boatswain as a ship looses from its rigging and nearly flattened our heroes.

Is it possible that Americans do British better than the Brits do?

Take the A&E version of Pride and Prejudice. Everyone thinks it's the BBC version. Yes, the version with Colin Firth. Made, not by BBC, but by A&E, an AMERICAN company. The BBC version is a nap in a box. Hollywood specializes in making movies that have carnal appeal: plots, action, actresses all zing the senses and make us cry for more.

So, I hope I'm not offending any of my good friends in the Island Nation. I feel this way about nearly all foreign films. I watched a movie in French class Ponette about a girl whose mother dies in a car crash, and the movie follows her around *yawn* as she deals with her grief. No plot, no driving action and we wonder why the world loves Hollywood movies.

Now, that said, it was not as boring as a Russian movie I saw once where a man was growing a tree out of his shoulder. That was so boring, I didn't finish watching it.

Of course, there are some foreign films I like. The Korean-made-for-TV Jewel in the Palace at crunchyroll.com has it all, suspense, treachery, love, hate, loyalty, treason. Ah, all the great elements of a good story. So, check it out.