Earlier in this decade we film goers were given a very contrasting glimpse into another pair of best friends, men who leaped from a series of 19 books written by the late Patrick O'Brien onto the silver screen. In the 2003 film "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World”; which was directed by Peter Weir, starring Russell Crowe as Jack Aubrey, with Paul Bettany as Stephen Maturin and released by 20th Century Fox, Miramax Films and Universal Studios. That film was adapted from three of the novels in that Aubrey–Maturin series by Patrick O’Brien. The books are about the adventures of two men who clearly bond while serving on all manner of wooden ships as they patrol the high seas in the wars between the English and the French for the Admiralty and the crown. In this very salty book series Captain Jack Aubrey, from his maverick way of creatively following orders from the Admiralty is portrayed as the larger than life adventurer, beloved by his crew and not just because his exploits on the high seas are making them well off, but because of his strong open heart and quickness of mind when under battle. The reader finds Aubrey, real enough to be seen as a fun and pun loving man's man. On the other hand his traveling companion, the ships doctor, Stephen Maturin is one of the earliest of nerds and a real land lubber also, who is actually a brilliant surgeon who chose to come aboard to see the world in an attempt to explore his studies as a naturalist like Darwin. His lack of athletic prowess, his gawky looks, and his ignorance of stylish dress or his lack of attention to how he eats all easily covers up his talents as fine surgeon and as a multi-lingual spy for the English. In the books he is the true bumbling doctor who is as such an ongoing source of humor. Despite his untidy dress and lack of prowess around anything afloat; after just a few operations and miraculous recoveries of the crew members from formidable battle injuries he becomes the well cared for pet of the crew and a topic about which they brag when ashore. Fumbling as Dr. Maturin is, his strength is also clearly exhibited in the many novels of the series. I found it very sad as well as a true opportunity missed that the film goer was deprived from getting a clear glimpse into the fun personality and real quality of brotherly love that these two men so easily shared in the book series.
So after the disappointment in the 2003 film rendering of Aubrey and Maturin I found it doubly refreshing to meet such an athletically capable and intellectually well matched pair as Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock and Watson.

Taking characters from real classics and taking them so far from their known characterizations is wrong in my book. Different takes on certain things or getting another slant on a story is one thing but having Holmes going into the public fight ring is just silly, and did Richie's character ever take a real bath, or shave. Come on... Jude Law is a super acter, but the role of Dr. Watson wasn't right. When I finally got over my fit... and just watched as if they were totally different characters. It was a fun movie, but too much Guy Richie gratuitous violence and repeated seems of the action, etc., ect.... We aren't all teenagers who are easily won with silly stunts. As the old adage goes.. "If it ain't on the page, it ain't on the stage."