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11 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :-
very entertaining, 16 May 2005
Author: film-guy from United States

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!

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13 out of 15 people found the following comment useful :-
Humorous., 21 July 2003
8/10
Author: doire from stockholm, sweden

A lightweight adaptation, but humorous and engaging. Watson appears to enjoy anyone getting "one up" on Holmes, an enjoyment viewed with cynicism by an irrate Matt Frewer. The last half hour was engaging and illuminating. A worthy effort.

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13 out of 16 people found the following comment useful :-
Excellent film for and Sherlock Holmes lover, 20 July 2004
Author: Kateina_King from Vancouver Canada

The Sign of the Four was wonderfully filmed and excellently acted. Matthew Frewer has a new, fresh take on Holmes that is different from Jermey Bret's serious almost depressed character of Holmes. Frewer's Holmes knows he's smart and has a bit of fun with it. He makes jokes about other characters without them even knowing about it and he has a fun sense of "Yes I know I'm brilliant .... I'm Sherlock Holmes" to his acting.

The character of Holmes is kept true to the original stories and the film has you intrigued with this Holmes character until the credits role. wonderful I would recommend the series to any one who enjoys Sherlock Holmes. Superb.

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12 out of 15 people found the following comment useful :-
"My name is Mr. Sherlock Holmes...", 24 April 2001
Author: Katharine_Fanatic from United States

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.

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9 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
highly entertaining fun for the kids, 8 November 2005
10/10
Author: lotsafun from Angel City

The four Sherlock Holmes movies by Hallmark are just good fun versions for kids. Don't even try to take 'em seriously folks. Don't expect them to be artistic masterpieces based on literary classics. These TV movies were made for a family audience and there's plenty of comedy for kids in these things. Frewer's Holmes must be seen to be believed! He's a hoot! He's the most eccentric Holmes EVER! Kids will love this guy! Kenneth Welsh is much more traditional in his role and he makes a very fine Watson. These Frewer Holmes flicks are sure to entertain the kids and will hopefully encourage them to read more about The Master Detective. They certainly wont get bored watching any of these with the ultra-intense and comedic Frewer on the screen.

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5 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Lighthearted Modern Take On a Classic, 29 August 2006
10/10
Author: StnrWrknHvc from United States

I bought the four movie mini series from my local DVD store. I didn't watch it for about 5 months. It sat on my table collecting dust. I threw out my back and had nothing to do but watch movies. When I popped this in i expected an okay movie. I was treated to a very humorous take on the classic character. When I read Sherlock I always had the vision of him prancing around baker street very restless. Doyle even refers to him as feline at several points. In my opinion there hasn't been a more fun version of Holmes done yet, though I haven't seen them all. Serious fans don't seem to enjoy it because of the humor brought to the film, yet in his stories Holmes always seems to be on top of things and has a very slight dry sense of humor which they magnified in this movie. All together a enjoyable film. In response to the person who thinks watson is too old, remember that watson had time to go to med school, finish it up and go to a war, come back and live in a bottle for a while before he met holmes who was still at school if i remember correctly.

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2 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
An absolute shocker, completely hammy..., 28 November 2007
1/10
Author: the_wombles from Australia

Watched this film today while off work sick, and even in these circumstances where you normally wouldn't expect much, this film was a stinker. Every line of dialogue is delivered in a hammy, "Gor blimey guv'nor" attempt at an English accent. The actors are Canadian, and I think one or two attempted Welsh or Scottish accents, but they are all uniformly stilted and abysmal. The female lead's accent in particular is atrocious, she sounds more Russian than anything.

The villains are caricatures, the plot is poorly explained, pyrotechnics during a gunfight are as convincing as using a cap gun, and every possible cliché has been lovingly adopted by the producers. In its defence, the costumes and sets are quite good and authentic.

Matt Frewer (of Max Headroom fame) plays Holmes, and is annoyingly smug and twee in his portrayal of the famous detective. He over-enunciates every line, and hams it up at every opportunity.

The use of mock-Indian music during every flashback is ridiculous and contrived.

Overall, this is an abysmal film. It is like English pantomime, with ridiculous villains and over-the-top attempts at acting. Best avoided.

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11 out of 22 people found the following comment useful :-
Conan Doyle will be spinning in his grave, 10 October 2004
Author: Gordy Wright from Lisburn, Northern Ireland

This was the worst Holmes film I have ever seen, and I see there are more of the same to come.

The Main players, with the exception of Thaddeus Sholto were badly miscast, Frewer, who I quite like, and who was excellent as the Trash Cam Man in The Stand, borough a silly zany quality to Holmes that just shouldn't be there.

Watson, who is about the same age as Holmes, appeared old enough to be his father.

THe accents were somewhere between poor and awful, especially inspector Athenly Jones, he seemed to be a cross between English/Scottish/Welsh/Irish Jewish and Red Indian, it was awful.

In all, a wasted Exercise, and down there with 'The evil beneath Loch Ness' in the really crappy film stakes.

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0 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
A real shocker, 19 March 2009
1/10
Author: gtbarker

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.

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0 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Trash - plain and simple, 19 May 2008
1/10
Author: royl666-1 from United Kingdom

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!

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