Guy Ritchie gives Holmes and Watson a makeover

The latest in a rush of glitzy London premieres of Christmas movies came last night as Guy Ritchie's new film Sherlock Holmes followed Nine and Avatar into Leicester Square. But while Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law - who portray Holmes and Watson - talked enthusiastically about what a great time they had making a movie with Madonna's ex-husband, the critics were sharpening their pencils.

The result was a mixed bag of overnight reviews ranging from tepid to bemused, mainly because the nuances of Holmes's eccentric character and his relationship with Watson - not to mention the detective's drug-taking - have been airbrushed out to make a family action movie.

As for the film's two leading ladies, English actress Kelly Reilly and Canadian star Rachel McAdams, they both struggled to keep their floor-length evening dresses from getting ruined by the rain as they signed autographs. Whether they should have bothered was a moot point - neither appears to have got much of a look-in on the big screen, with Ritchie concentrating on the 'bromance' between Downey and Law.

Of the early reviewers, the Guardian's Catherine Shoard is the most disappointed. The film looks like a period action superhero movie and shows few signs of Ritchie's old style, she says. "Sherlock Holmes is high-end hack work. It could have been made by anyone."

Holmes is played with "boggle-eyed haminess" by Downey Jr and Law only looks like inspired casting because "his weirdly boring aura" lends itself to the role of the detective's sidekick Watson. "They're both a pain," Shoard concludes, "the former a cartoon with darting eyes rather than a brain, the latter just a blank."

David Hayles in the Times is a lot kinder, calling Downey Jr (pictured left, with Law) "terrific" as Holmes and praising Ritchie for drawing "a career-best performance" from Law.

"However, a pleasing double act cannot carry an overlong film. After the botched jobs of Revolver and RocknRolla it is a relief to see Ritchie directing someone else's script. Sadly, it's not a very good one."

The Hollywood Reporter's Kirk Honeycutt says: "Sherlock Holmes goes wrong in many ways except for one - commercial appeal.

"Credit producer Joel Silver for recognising that the only way to revive Sherlock Holmes for contemporary audiences is by turning him into Jason Bourne and hiring someone like Ritchie to overload the senses with chases, fights, effects, editing, bombastic noise and music."

Another problem is that the lead actors are too alike. "Both are glib, smart, good-looking guys and fine actors of about the same age and build. If Downey would hand his pipe to Law, they could switch roles from scene to scene.

"The two banter a lot with faux hostility, which adds little to what the film takes for wit and subtracts a good deal from whatever suspense the action is meant to generate. If the protagonists crack wise, what danger can they possibly be in?"

Sherlock Holmes opens in the US on Christmas Day and in the UK on Boxing DayWHAT THE CRITICS SAY:Wendy Ide, the Times: "Ritchie has created a dynamic vision of dissolute Victorian London that has more in common with the work of Frank Miller than with Conan Doyle... A touch of liberty-taking in the script notwithstanding, Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes is a riot. The director takes on a British institution with a swagger and a wink and the result is boisterous and unabashed fun." Verdict: 3 out of 5.Nigel Andrews, the Financial Times: "The overblown plot reminds us that all the best Conan Doyle stories had an atmospheric, even seedy particularity of place and event. The script here is a pretext for fatuous action pyrotechnics, misfiring comedy, the inevitable star from Central Crumpet Casting (Rachel McAdams) and CG jiggery-pokery evoking Ye Olde London. In short: Doc, Sh'lock and Every Scraped Barrel." Verdict: 1 out of 5.

Anthony Quinn, the Independent: "Guy Ritchie seems intent on giving Conan Doyle's creation a 21st-century makeover – a sort of Bond in wing collars. Stubbled and stocky, Holmes is no longer just a brilliant mind, he's also a bare-knuckle boxer, an athlete, a cracksman and an inventor. The only thing he can't seem to do is personal grooming."

Nick Curtis, Evening Standard: "This Sherlock Holmes is an erratic but hugely enjoyable slice of hokum. It captures the stink, the pomp and the inventive zeal of Victorian London. It pulls in characters and plot strands from many of Arthur Conan Doyle's stories, draws on Victorian occultism and on conspiracy theories surrounding Jack the Ripper. And it has at its heart a jokey, variety-show double act: Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law as Holmes and Dr Watson." Verdict: 3 out of 5. ·