In the new movie Sherlock Holmes we have a Holmes like no other Sherlock.　The 44-year-old American actor Robert Downey Jr. who has like Holmes battled his own personal demons,　now tackles the deductive detective in his own inimitable style.

Sure he puffs a pipe but he’s also a man of action who goes bare-chested and bare-knuckled to brawl in the ring.　

With director Guy Ritchie (Madonna’s ex-husband) at the helm, this Holmes saga is full of　mayhem and wit. And Ritchie is on hand to make sure that the versatile Mr. Downey keeps his British educated accent consistent.

Downey did Charlie Chaplin on the big screen, so maybe we shouldn’t be too shocked at his unorthodox and surprisingly entertaining turn as Sherlock. Particularly as he has British actor Jude Law as his sidekick Dr. Watson.　

Jude Law as Dr. Watson and Robert Downey Jr. as Holmes

Downey of course, who has had　 his real life battles with cocaine must have felt some　 kinship with Holmes who, according to his creator, also dabbled with the drug in Victorian England.　 Downey tackles the role with exuberant relish.

How was it reinventing Sherlock, even though the film has none of the "seven percent solution" in it?
I love the "seven percent solution." It was never a high enough percentage for me. Kind of a weak, tepid solution, if you ask me. But this is a PG-13 movie, and even if it wasn't, the idea is that if you go back to the source material he's never described as being some strung-out weirdo. And also back in Victorian times it was absolutely legal and acceptable. You could go down to your corner pharmacist and grab all that stuff. So we thought that it would be irresponsible to not make reference to it. I think that a lot of the flaming hoops that we had to jump through doing Sherlock were how do you take what comes from the source material, how do you mend it so that it's accessible and how do you not whitewash it but still　 be respectful to that. I mean, if there's anything that we've added this time around is that essentially as much as it's about this very far reaching case, and Holmes and Watson save life on earth as we know it, it's also basically a fight over Kelly [Reilly]. It's a fight over her character Mary Morstan.

Were you ever scared about tackling this role?
I don't get scared anymore. I just get busy. I already knew by the time that Guy was directing this that it was a fresh interpretation and then I've worked with (producer) Joel Silver a bunch. I've lived with (producer/wife) Susan Downey a bunch and Lionel Wigram is basically the person who figured out how to reprise this as a film. So I knew that I was in good hands. Then it's just a matter of getting down to business. Fortunately I'd spent some time in England in the late '80s playing Chaplin and I had a great tutelage in all things British from Lord [Richard] Attenborough and so I felt like I'd kind of passed go. But I definitely felt the onus. It's not the fear of judgment from others. It's just at a certain point it comes down to this:　 will you meet the standards that people are expecting of you and you expect of them?

Would you say that this is the most accurate portrayal of Sherlock Holmes ever brought to the screen?
There's an esoteric element to this as well, in that sometimes you just feel like you're in the right groove and you feel the history and the legacy of something. I'm sure that you could say this about Shakespeare, having just done Hamlet. Sometimes you just feel like you are being silently approved of from some other place and time. There were times when we were so locked into it as Doyle expressed it, and you can't beat the guy's words and so we had one of his quotes on the call-sheet everyday but then we had to twist it up a little bit. I think it's no mystery that Sherlock Holmes didn't invent the silencer. If he invented it he certainly did a crap job because it doesn't work but that he's shooting the letters VR into the wall is right from out of one of the books. I think that has to do with one of the Jubilee or Victoria Regina or something like that. So it's a strange way to celebrate it and it just spoke to how strange the guy was. It was just an interesting way to get the job done, that we were honoring it but still being entertaining.

Can you talk about martial arts, and　how you prepared for the bare knuckle boxing?
There was a choreographed version of it. I went in and got all pissy about it. Guy (Ritchie) came in and we worked on it. So I think you were probably seeing version 6.0 by the time that we saw it but Guy is a jujitsu fellow. We managed to get along somehow. It was so fun. And by the way, by the time that we were done shooting that scene I felt like we really had a handle on the movie. Not because we finally top lit me and I'd showed my rippling abs and all that self-important garbage but because this was Guy's idea of Holmes's vision and it was a really bold thing and it could've gone very poorly, in which case the rest of the movie is trying to recover from the bad Guy Ritchie idea that we went out and shot. It was literally perfect and I think that it set the tone on his take for this film. It was about me trusting him and kind of getting each other's approval, so to speak.

Jude Law as Dr. Watson and Robert Downey Jr. as Holmes

How about the martial arts?
Yeah, I'm ripped. I'm crazy. I'm crazy about fighting. Love it.

Do you like filming in Britain?
I was here 20 years ago and the food sucked. I was not particularly happy when I was here. I was doing a movie called Air America. I renamed it Air Generica and we were at Pinewood　Studios.　 Then I came back and I did Chaplin but I think there's just something about the work ethic here. I think there's something about the people and the culture. Obviously, as Americans, and I can speak for myself and Susan [Downey] and Joel [Silver], there's sometimes just a bit of an abrupt attitude that we have, like, "All right, we're here. Let’s get down to the work. Fuck what you're going through. We'll eat later." We were very shortly put in check that there's a more civilized way to operate and that's nice. "Lets put a little cheese. Let’s talk. Let’s be grownups about this. It's teatime now. See you later." And by the way, we're not vulgar or anything but it's just very, very much a part of the furniture here and I think for me anyway that it was just a huge experience in the proper way to do things. I've taken it forth ever since.

How did you find working with Susan again?
She's fantastic. I mean, there was a lot of den mothering going on during this process. Sometimes us fellas would just be having too much fun and her and　(producer) Lionel were like scratching their heads, like, We've just got to get something shot. Or there would be some huge stunt about to go down or maybe something didn't go so well and Guy would be playing his guitars and the troubadour thing, like, "Look at Nero over there fiddling while Rome burns." Susan would be like, "Don't say that. That's not funny. We've got to get this done. We've got to do something." We were constantly rewriting all the time.

You said that the English food sucked in London 20 years ago. Did you go to any great restaurants?
First of all I kind of sucked 20 years ago. Far be it for me to say what was good, when and wherever. I don't really remember any of it. But there's a ton of good restaurants.

Any English food that you might like?
I'll eat anything.

Nowhere Boy, the story of John Lennon’s childhood is fascinating.　 But if you expect Strawberry Fields and a bunch of Beatle hits stay home. This is strictly teenage Lennon coping with his screwed up Liverpool family life as he discovers an early flair for music.　 It helps that unknown actor Aaron Johnson really resembles the youthful Lennon and does a terrific job.

Don’t confuse Up with George Clooney’s adult film outing Up in the Air. Up is an animated movie about a 70-something man who goes on an amazing balloon ride to fulfill a lifetime dream after his loving wife dies. Ed Asner’s voice enthralls us as we follow his picaresque journey. It’s a　 movie that kids and parents can appreciate.

Up in the Air is a cool movie starring the super cool Clooney (not to be　 confused with his outing in The Men Who Stare at Goats which came and went swiftly.) 　 Clooney is a jet-setting 　executive who travels the country firing people for companies who don’t have the guts to do it themselves. His only home is an airport and an anonymous hotel room and that’s just how he likes it until he meets another fast track executive played by the gorgeous Vera Farmiga. This is a great grown up film for adults and those are rarer than hen’s teeth. So don’t miss it.

Clooney scores nicely too as the voice of The Fantastic Mr. Fox, another movie for both kids and adults.

Don’t be confused by A Single Man and A Serious Man, though both are terrific.

Michael Stuhlbarg in A Serious Man

Single Man, based on a Christopher Isherwood short story, has Colin Firth turning in a sensitive and well-crafted performance as　a gay English professor in L.A., whose life begins to seriously unravel following the death of his longtime companion. The ever luminescent Julianne Moore turns in a credible performance as the prof’s damaged ex-girlfriend and confidante.

A Serious Man is the Coen Brothers look at their own family life, circa the Midwest in the sixties. That’s the same Coen Boys who gave us the ultraviolent, though very funny, 　Fargo and No Country for Old Men. This one focuses　on the troubled life of　 Jewish professor Larry Gopnik who tries valiantly to cope with his job and a disintegrating family.　 Look out for Michael Stuhlbarg as a best actor contender as the affable but stumbling Gopnik.

Good old Clint Eastwood. He is still a master of the straight, up and down, well told story. The kind that’s often called old fashioned. Invictus melds sports (rugby) and politics with the life of South African President Nelson Mandella (Morgan Freeman, another Oscar contender.) 　Fresh out of prison, Mandella takes over as president and quickly realizes his country’s survival 　may be tied up with their ability to unite behind their national rugby team. 　Enter a buffed up Matt Damon with a credible South African accent and sterling skills on the field and off, as the tale　heads for its inevitable, triumphant finale.　

The brilliant young British actress　Carey Mulligan turns in a vividly innocent but poised performance as a 16-year-old girl in the Britain of the sixties who has an affair with a thirtysomething conman　(Peter Sarsgaard) in An Education.　 Mulligan deserves the new Audrey Hepburn label she’s been gathering in critics’ best lists.

Do I really have to mention Avatar?　 Okay. Director James (Titanic) Cameron spent years and years 　bringing this special effects laden saga which is set on a distant planet, featuring　 ten-foot-tall humanoids　to the screen—this time in 3-D.　 It’s a boxoffice smash and will collect a handful of special effects Oscars

Morgan Freeman in Invictus

"Young Victoria" shines because of the brilliant performance of Emily Blunt as the youthful Queen. Remember her in "The Devil Wears Prada?"—plus a literate script by Julian Fellows ("Gosford Park") which shows that political maneuvering didn’t just start with the Republicans and the Democrats.

The Hurt Locker, about the dangers faced daily by an elite U.S. bomb disposal squad in Iraq, came out last summer but deserves Oscar recognition for irector Kathryn Bigelow and leading man Jeremy Renner, the cold as steel bomb disposal whiz. By the time the final credits roll you feel as though you have gone through a ferocious　emotional wringer.

The little movie that Hollywood adores: Precious, a grimy, tragic yet strangely uplifting story of an overweight teenage African American girl and her sordid family is a dead cert for Oscar nominations, almost certainly at least　a 　Best Supporting Actress nod for Mo’nique (sorry no last name.)

And hooray for Jeff Bridges’ Oscar sized role as the washed out country and western singer in　Crazy Heart.

Director Rob Marshall, who turned Chicago into such a feast on the big screen, is not able to pull it off for the Broadway musical Nine, based loosely on the life of Italian director Frederico Fellini set in the currently fashionable sixties. Big sets, gorgeous actresses---Penelope Cruz, Nicole Kidman,　Kate Hudson and the irresistible Sophia Loren as well as show-stopper, pop star Fergie—can’t 　save this disorganized flick. Even Daniel Day Lewis as the Italian moviemaker doesn’t make it work.

Brothers was taken from the Danish movie of the same name and updated to point out the futility of war (this time Afghanistan) and　its crippling casualties. Toby Maguire is the gung-ho marine who is scarred by his war experiences. Natalie Portman is miscast as his wife and even the deft hand of director Jim Sheridan (My Left Foot) can’t save the day.　 　Jake Gyllenhaal as Maguire’s troubled　brother tries his darndest to make it work.

And how about Iron Man Robert Downey Jr. tackling Britain’s legendary sleuth Sherlock Holmes—with Jude Law as his sidekick Dr. John Watson? Nice try by director Guy Ritchie to attract　the younger crowd who haven’t a clue about Sherlock’s deductive knowhow.　Martial arts and bare knuckle boxing are inserted in an effort to lure teens and twentysomethings. In my book it won’t work. What made Sherlock a legend was the power of his deduction, not his pecs.

Sad to say bestselling book　The Lovely Bones doesn’t make the transition from printed page to big screen even though the wizard of a director Peter Jackson is the one tackling this ambitious movie about death, murder and the journey to heaven. Worth a look, though just for the performance of l5-year-old　Saoirse Ronan, who got a best supporting Oscar nomination for her role in Atonement as the murder victim.