Without a Clue (1988)

Without a Clue (1988)

6/10

Starring

Michael Caine

Ben Kingsley

Directed by Thorn Eberhardt

As far as Sherlock Holmes goes, he is notably the greatest detective that ever is and ever will be in the fantasy world. His ability of deductive reasoning and the ability to put things together with mere grains of clues has attracted many creations of heroes to share in such ability for example Bruce Wayne/Batman.

Without a Clue is a British comedy that decide to take this whole premise and toss it in the trash. The movie is funny and the idea is more than welcoming as we see a Sherlock Holmes who has no idea what he is supposed to do and is just a figment of another’s imagination.

The movie explores another realm of this great detective. In this realm, Sherlock Holmes is a washout out of work actor hired by Dr. Watson to be the front man while he (Dr. Watson) focuses on solving the cases.

This Sherlock has no idea what to do and he is a drunk. He is always out of money for he gambles and loves women. Watson on the other hand is a gentleman a master of deductive reasoning and does not want the fame.

It was Watson’s love for investigation that led him to employ his skills into helping people and making money on the side from solving their cases and from writing books on the cases he solves. The only twist is, he makes himself the supporting character in his books and writings and even in the eye of the world allowing the actor he hired do the work of keeping the public entertained.

In this movie, we two very good veteran actors in Ben Kingsley playing Dr. Watson and Michael Caine playing Sherlock Holmes, making the best of every screen time they got. Both were an awesome pair, but the power they showed in the movie can be seen when we had to see Watson coach Holmes on what to say when in public, with Holmes struggling to get his lines right.

What the movie is also about is a case which Professor Moriarty has stolen the plates of the five pound notes in other to start printing his own.

Somewhere else we see Watson tired of working with the actor playing Holmes and fired him, with an attempt to try and take the focus off Holmes and put it on himself. The plan did not work as people refused to take him serious, which led to him getting the actor to play Holmes again for this last case.

Things got out of hand really fast, with the disappearance of Watson and Holmes left alone to try and figure out what was going on and how to find Watson.

With no clue on to where to start Holmes with a little help from Watson’s friends who are in on the secret on who the real detective is, have to find Watson and save the British economy from Moriarty.

It is a nice classic, one I enjoyed seeing again.