Downey's 'Sherlock': Less Gent, More Hero

Joss Whedon directs Robert Downey Jr. in superhero blowout

(NEWSER) - Sure, it's an effective moneymaking scheme: release movies about individual superheroes, then one about all of them. But with Joss Whedon at the helm, The Avengers really works. What critics are saying:

• "Even if you don't particularly like comic-book adaptations, this film just might make a believer of you," writes Kenneth Turan in the Los Angeles Times . "Whedon is the key reason why this $220 million behemoth of a movie is smartly thought out and executed with verve and precision."

But Nicolas Cage seems to get it: critics

(NEWSER) - Critics agree: Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance is ridiculous. But they're divided over whether the silliness of the sequel, once again starring Nicolas Cage as the devilish superhero, is funny or just bad.

• In the Merced Sun-Star , Roger Moore calls the movie "a profoundly silly mash-up of comic book and quasi-religious 'prophecy' about a motorcyclist who sold his soul to the devil." It beats the original: "This time around, Cage and everybody else on board are in on the joke," and that makes it "almost a great bad movie."

Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law star in Guy Ritchie's sequel

(NEWSER) - You won't find much food for thought in the new Sherlock Holmes film, but is that any surprise? Instead, A Game of Shadows offers more zany action and amusing banter:

• "I could not entirely resist the idiotic allure of Game of Shadows," writes Andrew O'Hehir in Salon . The series "has loosed the most unhinged, unkempt and unclean version of Conan Doyle’s legendary detective ever seen." But "even at his dumbest," Robert Downey Jr.'s Holmes is "semi-irresistible."

RDJ begs Hollywood to let Gibson work

(NEWSER) - Mel Gibson now has someone other than Jodie Foster in his corner: Robert Downey Jr. "Unless you are without sin—and if you are, you are in the wrong f***ing industry—you should forgive him and let him work," RDJ said of Gibson while accepting the American Cinematheque Award Friday night. "He taught me many things, and I will use the 'C' word—courage," Downey said. Gibson, his Air America co-star, was standing nearby, the New York Daily News notes. More»

Reasons to preserve Undershaw are elementary, say Holmes fans

(NEWSER) - Campaigners fighting to save the house where Arthur Conan Doyle wrote some of his most famous stories say they're dealing with a case of greedy developers—and snobbish officials. The Sherlock Holmes creator built his mansion, Undershaw, in the 1890s. It has fallen into disrepair in recent years and developers have won permission to gut the interior, including Doyle's study, and turn the building into apartments, the Independent reports. Famous guests at Undershaw included Virginia Woolf and Dracula creator Bram Stoker. More»