Young Sherlock Holmes

How did Arthur Conan Doyle's master detective Sherlock Holmes begin his career? Director Barry Levinson and screenwriter Chris Columbus offer their take on it in Young Sherlock Holmes, an entertaining mixture of Sherlock Holmes and Indiana Jones, crime puzzle and effects-laden action adventure. It is not particularly realistic, and the ending in particular goes completely over the top, but it is funny, exciting and a little bit creepy.

Sherlock Holmes and Alan Watson meet for the first time at the boarding school where they are to share a room. While the teenage Watson is a somewhat clumsy, greedy and not particularly adventurous fatty, Sherlock Holmes already possesses one of his famous character traits: the superior and self-confident attitude. Watson quickly becomes Sherlock Holmes's faithful companion in solving various puzzles and mysteries. When a series of inexplicable deaths suddenly occurs close to the boys, Holmes and Watson are of course on the spot.