Talk about multiculturalism: I spent-this morning watching an American actor try his hand at Sherlock Holmes in an packed auditorium of mainly local Chinese people on the eve of a Westernized Christian holiday.I got to the theater 5 minutes after the starting time on the ticket and the commercials had just started. I say commercials because today the only actual preview was for the Louis Koo/Sandra Ng New Year Comedy All's Well That Ends Well Too 2010 -- everything else was just commercials for food and beauty products.
I especially liked the scallop cheddar cheese concoctions on offer at your local HK Pizza Hut!
Sherlock Holmes is not a perfect film but it moves so fast that you hardly have time to notice the loose and hard-to-follow "plot" -- or what there is of one. Robert Downey Jr. brings a lot of enthusiasm to the role and it's hard to imagine that only a few years ago, I did not enjoy his work as an actor.
After a nice bit in Wonder Boys, a friend forced me to watch him in Home for the Holidays and I was starting to soften on the guy.
Then came his perfect take on Tony Stark in Iron Man and now his Sherlock Holmes -- a guy who swaggers through London like a weird mix of Gauguin, Mr. Spock, and a young John Barrymore!
Nice production design -- an effective use of CGI as well -- helped make the film a bit more enjoyable than it probably should have been as it's a good 15 minutes too long in my opinion.
I also did some shopping!
I finally got a copy of a wonderful compilation championed by duriandave recently, as well as the 2-DVD set of Yonfan's Prince of Tears and some music related things.
I already have the Karen Mok via download but the price was reasonable and I liked the packaging and the additional DVD.
Why don't we have these peanut butter-and-chocolate-cream Oreos in America!?!
Christmas Eve Buffet tonight and then some exploring with a friend tomorrow.