Movie Review: ‘Sherlock Gnomes’ Blu-ray

Review by Monique Thompson

After a string of garden gnome disappearances in London, Gnomeo & Juliet look to legendary detective Sherlock Gnomes to solve the case of their missing friends and family.

In the sequel to the 2011 animated film, Gnomeo & Juliet, the garden gnomes are back in action in Sherlock Gnomes. What feels exactly like a Smurfs movie, Sherlock Gnomes has a story line that pretty much most animated children movies have these days: beat the villain and become the hero that saves the others.

In Sherlock Gnomes, Gnomeo (McAvoy) and Juliet (Blunt) have recently been appointed the title of garden leaders when they suddenly realize that all of the gnomes in the garden have gone missing. Sherlock (Depp) and his sidekick Gnome Watson (Ejiofor) inform Gnomeo & Juliet that they must follow the clues have been left behind in order to find out who’s responsible for the gnomes disappearance. While following the clues, Sherlock realizes that his arch-nemesis Moriarty (Jamie Demetriou) is to blame and he must defeat him before all of the gnomes are broken.

Sherlock Gnomes does manage to incorporate the characters in the film to the actual Sherlcok Holmes characters, which is great but again, the film feels just like Smurfs but not as good. While still entertaining, there are moments where things go a bit dry and seems to have lost the attention of most of the children in the theater. About 20 minutes into the film, I could hear a lot of chatter from the children, which is a sure sign that something isn’t keeping their attention. Eventually things do start to pickup with the action and 3D animation and the film does start to get much better towards the end.

With some of the biggest names in Hollywood lending their voices for this film, it’s certainly not a dud and is still entertaining. As long as you aren’t expecting to be blown away, you’ll be able to make it through with a couple laughs and enjoy the films greatest moments.

STARRING THE VOICES OF: Emily Blunt, James McAvoy, Johnny Depp, Mary J. Blidge, Chiwetel Ejioofor. Comes to Digital June 5th and Blu-ray/DVD June 12th.