The Hound of the Baskervilles (2000)

Sadly Over-hyped

Good movie but grossly overrated

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Not a travesty, this version of Conan-Doyle's most famous and most filmed novella opens in accordance with the printed version, with Matt Frewer as the world's first and only consulting detective, pacing around the room and dramatically throwing off hypotheses about the nature of the recent visitor who has left his walking stick behind. At that, the film limits the number of conclusions drawn by Holmes. (Eg., the breed of DOG that carried the walking stick for its master.) All of this is attended by Kenneth Welsh as the skeptical Dr. Watson. I hate saying this because I wish all filmic preparations of the canon well. But if there is something tic-y and overripe about Frewer's portrayal of Holmes, there is something impassive and vacant about Welsh's Dr. Watson. He's barely there. Ever.The movie follows the narrative fairly closely at first, even introducing us to Miss Laura Lyons, typist, whose role is given some importance. She's almost always deleted. The story leaves Conan-Doyle behind at the climax. He may still be struggling in one of those bottomless bogs in the Great Grimpin Mire for all we know. I won't describe it except to say that the hound isn't too terrifying.The departures from the original narrative do some damage to the film as a whole. Too bad. Grenada TV's version, from the series with Jeremy Britt, is frankly better.

OK Matt Frewer is no Jeremy Brett, but l feel there has been a lot of poor remarks about his portrayal of Holmes, l could not fault his accent he dressed well, and you must remember the actors like Charlton Heston and Edward Woodward have played Holmes and no one chastised them.The story is the same we all know it well, but the photography was stunning, the music added to the overall action, l have to mention the actor who played Watson, superb, a bit like Nigel Bruce from the 40's but not as bumbling, l have been a life long Holmes fan, raised on Basil Rathbone's Holmes, but not until Jeremy Brett has anyone come near the character as Conan Doyle wrote him, but l think Matt Frewer has done a good job and l would recommend anyone to see this film and make their own mind up 7 out of 10

I have seen all of the reviews of this program. First let me say that the original story was NOT a single unit, but was rather run in serial form like a study in scarlet and the sign of four. Any attempts to compare a single flowing movie to an original in serial form is like comparing apples to oranges. This film couldn't possibly be made as presented in serial form.Next, the character of Holmes is, in the opinion of this dedicated Sherlockian, spot on. Of course Mr. Frewer portrayed him as a bombastic clown, a bull in a china shop, and somewhat clownish. Go back and read the stories! Holmes comes across in the canon as a bull in a china shop. Of all the classic screen portrayals of Holmes, none really got that aspect of Holmes until Frewer's interpretation. Christopher plummer comes close (murder by decree, in a couple of scenes) and Peter Cushing (the chess game at the beginning of the Hammer "hound") and on occasion, Jeremy Brett.I truly believe that as written, Holmes had a condition that is now known as Asperger's syndrome. (Google this for more information.) I believe this because I have been diagnosed with it. Where Watson sees a bucolic country scene, Holmes sees a perfect opportunity for murder.(Aspergians quite often see the same things as other people, but in a different light...) He focuses to the extreme completely oblivious to to those around him. He bounds over furniture, rudely interrupts people, has very little social skills, but also has one of the keenest minds in literature. (All of these traits are seen in Asperger's people.) No wonder Lestrade hates him! Frewer brings out all of these components of Holmes in high degree here! So for those of you who misunderstand Frewer's character here, Bravo! You are only normal. I hope Mr. Frewer takes your misunderstandings as a compliment. That means he did his job as an actor! Kudos to him for understanding an often overlooked aspect of Holmes' personality! As to content, the original tale in serialized form captialized on suspense, and timing. I am not quite sure this story would truly worked if published as a whole. (I got the most out of it by buying it in strand magazine facsimile, and closing it when seeing the title page of the next installment and then reading again later, and so on...). The events as described by Conan Doyle are all there, and the age of Henry is unknown anyway, so he could reasonably be played by any person of undetermined age. The fellow here does a fine job in my opinion, as does Watson, who seems a bit older than Holmes, but does a masterful job keeping Holmes' impulsiveness in check.

Before I bought the DVD of this version of the "Hound of the Baskervilles" with Matt Frewer playing Holmes, I read the other user comments listed on the IMDB and I have to agree that the script was not very good and in fact, I found it to be somewhat poor in many respects. I also must mention that Jason London's performance as Sir Henry Baskerville was in my opinion dismal. He played the role as if the casting company went out in the street and asked the first guy they came across to please step in and take the role. I would think that Joe Namath could have done better but on the other hand maybe that is what London was trying to do. Maybe London was trying to put into the role such realism as a simple man pulled into a situation as an inheritor to a vast English estate that he played the role with a deadpan delivery of his lines. I wonder. On the other hand I was delighted with Matt Frewer's Sherlock Holmes. His physical appearance fit the role well and his particular charactaristics in stage presentation I think added an interesting twist to the Holmes character. As a Sherlockian, I like to see the differences that various actors give to the character. I would have liked to seen more of Frewer's Holmes in this film but the dismal script distorted and shortened the story so that the Holmes character is only seen in the first quarter of the film and then near the end of the film. In agreement with most of the other comments made on this version, If you are a film buff and a Sherlockian as I am, than this DVD is worth adding to your collection. If you are simply a fan of mystery films perhaps it is better for you to wait for this version to be rerun on TV or if you find it in your video rental store, the film is certainly worth the rental fee. Trailrider