Twenty years after its initial release, YOUNG SHERLOCK HOLMES remains a glowing and entertaining film, produced by Steven Spielberg and written by Chris Columbus. Lushly filmed, with state of the art special effects, YOUNG SHERLOCK posits how Holmes met up with Watson, why he remained a bachelor, and gives us some hints as to how the mature Holmes would end up. The cast is marvelous: Nicholas Rowe has a young Basil Rathbone face, and attacks his role with fervor; Alan Cox is stereotypical but fine as the young Watson; Sophie Ward is a lustrous Elizabeth; Anthony Higgins a dashing villain; the late Susan Fleetwood (Mick's sister) a sinister accomplice; and Freddie Jones excellent as always as one of the victims. Reminiscent of the Harry Potter series, it still maintains a charming originality and deserved to fare better.

THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES(Peter Cushing & Christopher Lee); MURDER BY DECREE(Christopher Plummer & James Mason);and this sterling introduction into the mythology of the World's Greatest Consulting Dective comprise,in my estimate,the three best episodes of the Sherlock Holmes cinematic canon. Nicholas Rowe is excellent as the brilliant,arrogant,yet both heroic and(in this singular outing)endearing one-day super sleuth. Alan Cox is good,if stereotypically "slow-on-the-uptake"John Watson who'll be Holmes'side-kick and literary chronicler.Sophie Ward is radiantly gorgeous as(it will prove)the one love of Sherlock Holmes'Life(So much for Billy Wilder's mildly amusing but rather disappointing PRIVATE LIFE of SHERLOCK HOLMES)...

In YSH,"the game is truly afoot" in a story combining elements of murder mystery;horror story;roguish comedy and pure-of-heart romance. Steven Spielberg's SFX are wondrous yet unostentatious. Chris Columbus'script...up to the very last frame of the film under rolling credits...is inspiredly suspenseful and full of genuine surprise. Director Barry Levison has made Holmes his own in the unique way that James Robinson,Stephen Morrington and Alan Moore failed to bring their LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN to the screen with comparable success.

YOUNG SHERLOCK HOLMES is great mystery adventure. It's family entertainment to the max; full of action and thrills but void of gratuitous violence and sordid, bogus "sexuality" comprising much PM fare. It's top shelf "right stuff" and anything but "elementary". (7 stars)

I know alot of people are comparing this movie to the Famous
"Harry Potter" movies, but this movie came first!
JK Rowling took ALOT of the characters from here and added them to her books. If you look at Watson's character (played by Alan Cox)
He looks EXACTLY like how Harry Potter looks!
The SAME glasses, even the SAME hairstyle!
There was even a fellow student at the school that looked EXACTLY like Malvoy (the conceited know-it-all who hates Harry Potter)

The Fencing teacher looked EXACTLY like one of the Professors at the Hogwarts school.
Along with the whole semi-magical atmosphere..but not to the extreme...
Think about it.

Nicholas Rowe as Sherlock Holmes delivers a exceptional performance, and was very believable (even though he had
basically one express through out the whole movie)

Anyways,I remember this from when I was a kid; I rented it at my local video store and kept renting it because I liked it so much...now I recently purchased it on DVD and despite no "Special features" or anything, is still great in DVD Quality transfer, and am happy to have it as a part of my collection.

Maybe if this movie was made now,it would be a national phenomenon with the advance Technology and CGI special effects...this movie would have been a SUPER-smash just like
Harry Potter.
But unfortunately it was made at the wrong time (1985)
and no one at that time was feeling Sherlock Holmes as a
Major money making thing. I always hoped for a sequel but it
just never came. Maybe someone can rejuvenate this movie...just a thought.
Overall this movie is exciting, adventurous, suspensful,mysterious, and even funny, It's recommended for all audiences.

A series of bizarre murders conducted by a secret Egyptian cult in London are using blowdarts with drugs in them to give people freaky hallucinations. A Young man named "Watson" is a new student who just enrolled in a boarding school where he meets a pre-teen student named "Sherlock Holmes" whom definitely wants to become a detective. Sherlock with Watson become good friends as they both are baffled by the mysterious crimes and they begin to investigate these strange murders conducted by the evil cult.

A very entertaining and imaginative adventure from executive producer Steven Spielburg and writer Chris Columbus with tons of great ideas, good special effects on the hallucinations even with the scene that has Watson being attacked by walking talking pasteries, the first CGI character on film, great acting and the music score is sooo underrated but very good. I recommend this movie to anyone who loves a good adventure, but stick around during the ending credits for a suprise.

The DVD is practically barebones with no extras, not even a trailer but has decent picture & fine sound quality.

Also recommended: Return to Oz, Making Contact ( a.k.a. Joey), Big Trouble in Little China, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom, Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade, Poltergeist, The Mummy ( 1999), Van Helsing, Vampire Hunter D, The Great Mouse Detective, Ghostbusters, The Goonies, and Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust.

I am glad that this film has been released on DVD.

It is about Sherlock Holmes as a teenager still in school. Watson is the new student who is drawn to Sherlock out of curiousity. Watson tags along as others in the school test his powers of deduction.

But when people start to see things that aren't there it leads Sherlock and Watson on their first real mystery. It has the added bonus of Elizabeth, the girl who is the object of Sherlock's love.

This is a definite must for anyone who enjoys movies like Indiana Jones and The Mummy. The special effects are great and the movie is well acted and has a non-predictable ending!