A very funny, clever and original telling of a Sherlock Holmes story. Rolls along, with fun and great humour. Michael Caine and Ben Kingsley are in fine form as Holmes and Watson. Good support from Jeffrey Jones, Peter Cook, Pat Keen and others.

'Sherlock Holmes' turns out to be a ham actor (Michael Caine), hired by brilliant detective Dr. John Watson (Ben Kingsley) to play a character whose adventures are dramatised by Watson and published in a popular weekly magazine. But the two men are forced to set aside their differences when Prof. Moriarty (Paul Freeman) hatches a fiendish plot to destabilise the British Empire... An unexpected gem. Thom Eberhardt's clever reworking of the mythology surrounding Holmes and Watson relies for the most part on character-based comedy rather than puns and sight-gags, and a wonderful cast of experienced British thesps plays it with just the right amount of reverence and mockery (Caine and Kingsley, in particular, make a formidable comic team). However, the script - by Gary Murphy and Larry Strawther - is entirely faithful to the spirit of Conan Doyle's most famous creation: Despite Holmes' incompetence and Watson's escalating outrage, the central mystery is genuinely skillful and engrossing, the clues are delightfully outlandish, and the Victorian atmosphere is conveyed with elegant simplicity, thanks to stylish art direction (by Brian Ackland-Snow) and costume design (by Judy Moorcroft).The character of Mrs. Hudson has a prominent role in this film, and it turns out to be a blessing, as Pat Keen played the role to the hilt. Her comedic portrayal of the proper and sometimes haughty Mrs. Hudson of the books was hysterical! (Oops! Some unintended hyperbole there! Well, what the heck, she really was extremely funny and I was impressed at just how engaging Ms. Keen really is! I had never heard of her before this movie and I found myself searching online for roles she has had in other films.) Turning the Sherlock Holmes stories any which way but loose, Michael Caine and Ben Kingsley make a great duet, battling crime and each other. The movie succeeds in being outrageously funny, and yet absolutely gripping. The movie is clean, though Leslie Giles' secret is enough to make you squirm in front of little ones. Lots of humor, a good mystery with quite a bit of suspense and the threat of real danger, plus very nice repartee between the two men as Watson becomes increasingly exasperated with his creation. This is a very under-rated film with a top notch cast.Overall rating: 9 out of 10.

Drawn to its logical conclusion that Dr. Watson (played by Ben Kingsley)created the fictitious Sherlock Holmes, hired a buffoon, drunk, womanizing wastrel (Reginald Kincaid played by Michael Caine)to play the role. Watson tires of his character upstaging him--Watson, who is really the sleuth, the detective, the brain, and wishes to kill off this character he created. (Much like Conan Doyle tired of his fictional Sherlock Holmes who also upstaged him and killed him off with the story "The Adventure of the Final Problem" to have Holmes die in the Northern Swiss Alps at the Reichenbach Falls.) Back to the movie. Watson tells the editor of the Strand Magazine, which serializes the Holmes' stories, and the editor will have none of it. The Sherlock Holmes stories are a financial bonanza to the magazine. Worse news: the police or Scotland Yard's Inspector Lestrade (played by Jeffrey Jones) want none other than Sherlock Holmes to solve cases, no matter how diligent and intelligent Dr. Watson is.So Kincaid/Holmes must be found so the Strand can continue to make money as well as Dr. Watson. What ensues is unending hilarity, a hilarity matched only by Inspector Clouseau.Puns aplenty abound. Slight site gags slip soundlessly. And to top it off, there are all the elements of suspense, shock, deus ex machine to please the most dedicated deist, mystery, Holmes fencing with Moriarty (played by Paul Freeman), and in the end the comeuppance of evil and evildoers to please that most Eminent Victorian who would surely say: "We are indeed amused!"

Michael Caine is "Without a Clue" as Sherlock Holmes in this 1988 film also starring Ben Kingsley, Jeffrey Jones, Lysette Anthony, Peter Cook, and Nigel Davenport.In this story, the real brains of the operation is Dr. Watson (Kingsley) - he solves a case, but because he was up for an important position at the time, he made up the name of a detective and told the police that he had solved it. The name he made up was, of course, Sherlock Holmes.When Holmes becomes in demand, Watson goes out and finds a drunken, womanizing actor (Caine) with gambling debts and has him front for him as Holmes.Watson gets fed up with Holmes, as does Mrs. Hudson, who loathes him, and at one point, they throw him out of 221B Baker Street. Watson tries to take an important case of counterfeit 5 pound notes himself, but the people involved only want Holmes. Watson has to go to a bar and talk him into returning.Very good concept that becomes a little bit slapsticky (though funny) in the middle of the film -- its strong points are at the beginning and at the end of the movie."Without a Clue" is a little bit silly, and with actors like these involved, it should have been a much stronger script. The performances are all excellent. I just wish it had been a little better.