While some say that “bad press” is “good press,” that doesn’t seem to be the case for Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly’s new movie, Holmes& Watson. The fact that it wasn’t screened ahead of time for critics is never a good sign for a movie’s release, but the film’s problems don’t end there.
Sure, Holmes & Watson faced some stiff competition going against the likes of Aquaman and Mary Poppins Returns, but the movie didn’t even make the top ten.
Reilly’s other movie, the animated Ralph Breaks the Internet came in eighth place and even the badly panned Welcome to Marwen came in ninth place according to Comscore. You would think that a movie headlined by the former Stepbrothers team would have fared better.
So just how bad is Holmes & Watson? Well, for starters, Rotten Tomatoes’ “tomatoreader” gives the film a 6 percent “rotten” rating among critics (which is actually up from 0 percent just two days ago) and only 25 percent of audience members liked it.
You could say that the movie is a winner among losers since it beat out Second Act (42 percent) and Welcome to Warwen (27 percent) in terms of the worst scoring movie over the holiday weekend. There is also a good chance that the film is the lowest rated of every Sherlock Holmes movie ever made.
The Etan Cohen comedy that parodies Sir Conan Doyle’s heroes is said to have a “strange amount of anachronistic Donald Trump-related humor” said Frank Scheck, movie critic for The Hollywood Reporter.
He also pointed out, “Numerous talented British thespians are wasted in supporting roles in this Christmas turkey that, not surprisingly, wasn’t screened in advance for critics.”
Cohen is known for directing Men in Black 3 (2012) and Tropic Thunder (2008).
Noel Murray from the Los Angeles Times said of the movie that it is “like a cross between a raunchy ‘80’s comedy and a Daffy Duck cartoon.”
Perhaps Newsday’s Rafer Guzman says it all when he says that the film is “an unexpected low point from two great actors.”