Sherlock Holmes

An entertaining night, a captivated audience, loveable characters, was I at the panto this cold winters night...

...o no i wasn't....

i was at Guy Ritchie's new film-Sherlock Holmes starring Robert Downey Jnr and Jude Law-which was very much a clash between the cluedoesc story line of the Da Vinci code or national treasure (thats a good thing in my eyes by the way), the action of Indiana Jones and the slickness of the Bourne series.

What resinated with me during this film was its search for answers-a quest we all like to go on and Sherlock Holmes did not disappoint.

With such references as being raised from the dead, the reading of Revelation 1:18 (the villian comparing himself with Jesus) and a constant battle between a faith response or fear response, it felt very much like a deep search for answers.

Along with the classic story line of the bad guy plotting for world domination (again, another way he tries to compare with Jesus me thinks), it really made me ponder about being around at the time when Jesus came back from the dead and the faith or fear response many people would have had-was it magic, just a trick.... or something more. Sherlock Holmes looks at his search for answers logically and tries to figure it out-something we should all do really if a man claims to have come back from the dead-so fair play to the old chap!

The costumes were timeless, the landscape scenes were epic, the slow motion clips were awesome, the camaraderie and humorous narrative between Holmes (Downey Jnr) and Watson (Law) all the while the music bringing you into its era made for great viewing.

As for the end... what the search for answers came to (whether taken from a biblical point of view or from this film alone), well....

that's elementary, my dear Watson!

Law Abiding Citizen

Everyone likes to think they know the difference between good and bad.

Everyone likes to think they have a good sense of justice.

That's what makes this movie so appealing-plus it has a great story line and great cast but for me, it was Gerard Butler who made the movie.

Watching the film with a Secular worldview, you see what the world likes to think-everyone has a good vibe of what good and bad is and if they ran the world, it would be all good and no problems-or even worse, we would end up like the singer Lemar with his song 'if there's any justice in the world, i would be your man, you would be my girl' (i think there's more pressing issues)

Watching the film with a Christian worldview, we all like to think we have a personally sound view of right and wrong and that we are in the right and are effectively 'law abiding citizens', but looking at the world and watching this film we see that deep down there is something fundamentally wrong with us.

The bible tells us its sin, I just wonder what people who don't have a relationship with Jesus make of this weird worldview, because in the film you are on the main characters side-even though he effectively is doing what we would classify as wrong, but yet you feel on his side at times-it doesnt make sense.

Thank God for the bible and telling us what is fundamentally wrong with us-a deeper issue than doing right and wrong or even right versus wrong but sin, and how justice for this messed up world is really achieved-at the cross-with Jesus (human-to be our substitute, and God to sort it out) taking the punishment we deserve for our sin-and not in our own redemptive plans or revenge.

In the end, it makes you question justice and right and wrong, great film, great cast, great questions brought out from it-go and watch it!