Holmes & Watson
Columbia Pictures | Release Date: December 25, 2018 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
24
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 23 Critic Reviews
Positive:
0
Mixed:
9
Negative:
14
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinDec 26, 2018
As a director, Coen commits comedy’s most cardinal sin: He gets between us and the performers. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzDec 26, 2018
There are moments, however fleeting, that suggest there’s a decent Mel Brooks-ian farce hiding amidst the wreckage. Deeply, profoundly hidden moments, but peeking through every now and then, an annoyingly sporadic Christmas miracle. Read full review
42
The PlaylistCory WoodroofDec 27, 2018
Holmes and Watson will probably make you smile, and occasionally, it earns that goodwill. But it’s nowhere near where it should be with the company present. Forgive the pun, but it’s elementary to find what’s off with this movie. It’s being solved by detectives missing a key clue. Read full review
42
IndieWireDavid EhrlichDec 25, 2018
The trouble with Holmes & Watson, a witless Sherlock Holmes spoof that supplies fewer laughs in its entirety than “Step Brothers” does in its deleted scenes, is that the movie can never decide how dumb it wants to be. Or, more accurately, what kind of dumb it wants to be. Read full review
41
IGNWilliam BibbianiDec 27, 2018
The lazy gags, wasted supporting cast and unfocused writing make the film an unfunny chore, which evokes but doesn't come close to their earlier comedic outings. Read full review
40
EmpireNick de SemlyenDec 27, 2018
You’ll need a magnifying glass to find the jokes in this send-up of other, better Holmes screen adaptations. With stars this funny, there are inevitably some moments of mirth (several of them onion-based), but it falls well short of their previous team-ups. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesNoel MurrayDec 26, 2018
Because of the talent involved, every now and then Holmes & Watson hits on something bizarrely inspired. Read full review
40
VarietyPeter DebrugeDec 25, 2018
The trouble is, Sherlock Holmes exists so large in audiences’ minds already that the pair’s uninspired take feels neither definitive nor an especially fresh take, but just an off-brand, garden-variety parody. Read full review
40
The New York TimesBen KenigsbergDec 25, 2018
There is still intermittent joy to be found in their autumnal bromance. Read full review
38
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenJan 1, 2019
The real crime in Holmes & Watson is the waste of the supporting cast. Read full review
36
Paste MagazineOktay Ege Kozak Jan 3, 2019
Considering Ferrell and Reilly’s immense talents, Holmes & Watson is an even more unsettlingly unfunny experience. Read full review
33
The Film StageJohn FinkDec 27, 2018
The gags involve cocaine, bees, primitive MMA, raw unions, and a selfie that goes horribly wrong with the queen, all of which are terribly tired and unfunny. This is the kind of damaged goods studios have been quietly selling to streaming services. Read full review
33
Entertainment WeeklyDana SchwartzDec 26, 2018
A brilliant supporting cast, which includes Hugh Laurie, Steve Coogan, Ralph Fiennes, Lauren Lapkus, Rebecca Hall, and Kelly MacDonald, is utterly wasted on this lame and forgettable outing. The only real mystery is why they wanted to be apart of this project at all. Read full review
30
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovDec 26, 2018
Combined with some awfully lazy riffs on Holmes’s fondness for his seven-per-cent solution, Holmes & Watson is not so much a case of whodunit as it is a question why bother. Read full review
25
Movie NationRoger MooreDec 25, 2018
It’s just not funny. Read full review
20
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeJan 16, 2019
Puerile, imbecilic and imbued with the kind of casual 1970s sitcom homophobia that reads all male friendships as somehow suspect, this slack-jawed grossout comedy represents the nadir of Conan Doyle adaptations. Read full review
20
Time OutJoshua RothkopfDec 27, 2018
A completely charmless, laughs-free experience. Read full review
16
ConsequenceDominick Suzanne-MayerDec 27, 2018
When people talk about Hollywood movies feeling more and more like product, this is what they’re driving at. Read full review
12
RogerEbert.comPeter SobczynskiDec 26, 2018
So excruciatingly awful that you have to wonder what it was, other than their paychecks, that could have possessed the cast and crew to keep coming back each day, when it must have been obvious from the first day of shooting that the project was the most hopeless of cases imaginable. Read full review
10
Rolling StoneDavid FearDec 26, 2018
You can only swindle audiences by thinking you simply throw A-list stars in anything and people will still show up, drooling like Pavlov’s pups, for so long before the echo in empty theaters is deafening. Read full review
10
The Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckDec 25, 2018
Making their previous vehicles Step Brothers and Talladega Nights seem the height of comic sophistication by comparison, Holmes & Watson features the duo parodying Arthur Conan Doyle's famous characters to devastatingly unfunny effect. Read full review
5
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeDec 26, 2018
Coroners of comic failure will find much to uncover in the corpse of Holmes & Watson, a thoroughly tedious and never-amusing spoof of Arthur Conan Doyle’s legendary detective. Read full review
0
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyDec 25, 2018
If there are any new jokes left to tell about Holmes, they’re nowhere to be found in the abysmal Holmes & Watson, which might be the worst feature-length film ever made about the “consulting detective” from Baker Street. Read full review
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