Will Ferrell And John C Reilly’s ‘Holmes & Watson’ Is Currently Zero Percent Fresh On Rotten Tomatoes
Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous Sherlock Holmes character has been adapted to film many times over the years, often with great success. However, according to the critics on review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes, the latest adaptation Holmes & Watson starring Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly may not be worth spending your holiday vacation time on.
As ComicBook.com noted, Holmes & Watson is currently sitting at a rare 0 percent fresh on according to the review aggregator, with 15 critic reviews accounted for. In their reviews, those critics didn’t just mildly dislike the film. Drilling a little deeper into the ratings, the comedy received an average critic rating of 2.2 out of 10.
Entertainment Weekly called Holmes & Watson a “brain-dead caper” where “you’ll be treated to an hour and a half of different versions of the same gag: what if [insert modern thing] somehow existed in Victorian times?”
The AV Club goes as far as saying it “might be the worst feature-length film ever made,” describing the performances by writing, “Struggling with objectively awful English accents, the two actors spend their time on screen dragging out terrible jokes, as though trapped in the improv-exercise equivalent of eternal damnation.”
Holmes & Watson hasn’t done much better with audiences, sitting at just 17 percent fresh and a 1.5 out of 5 rating after 851 user ratings.
The bad reviews continue a critical skid for Will Ferrell, whose most recent films Daddy’s Home 2, The House, and Zoolander 2 were unable to enter the 25 percent fresh territory. It is worth noting that some of Ferrell’s classic comedies have been similarly savaged by critics on release, only to gain cult status over time. For example, Step Brothers was declared ‘Certified Rotten’ with just 55 percent, and Semi-Pro received 23 percent. Depending on your level of nostalgia, you may be shocked to learn that A Night At The Roxbury garnered a dismal 11 percent rating.
A critical panning also hasn’t stopped some of Ferrell’s movies from making tons of money. An earlier Inquisitr article noted that Daddy’s Home managed to become one of the comedian’s biggest box office hits despite a 31 percent RT score. And despite Daddy’s Home 2 scoring at 20 percent fresh, the sequel still pulled in over $100 million at the box office.
Ferrell’s best ratings are for The Lego Movie (96 percent) and Elf (83 percent). Interestingly enough, Inquisitr reports Ferrell was actually worried in 2003 that Elf might ruin his film career. If these early ratings are to be believed, returning to that Christmas classic may be a better use for your time than visiting the theater for ‘Holmes & Watson.’
