Movie · 1985 · Mystery, Adventure, Thriller · 1h 49m · PG-13 · English
Curator score: 4.0/10 (45.3K ratings)
Before a lifetime of adventure, they lived the adventure of a lifetime.
Overview
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson meet as boys in an English Boarding school. Holmes is known for his deductive ability even as a youth, amazing his classmates with his abilities. When they discover a plot to murder a series of British business men by an Egyptian cult, they move to stop it.
Ratings
Curator score: 4.0/10
IMDb: 6.8/10
Letterboxd: 3.32/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 71%
Metacritic: 65
TMDB: 6.7/10
Director
Barry Levinson
Production
Amblin Entertainment, Paramount Pictures
Cast
Nicholas Rowe, Alan Cox, Sophie Ward, Anthony Higgins, Susan Fleetwood, Roger Ashton-Griffiths, Matthew Ryan, Earl Rhodes, Freddie Jones, Patrick Newell, Nadim Sawalha, Nigel Stock, Brian Oulton, Donald Eccles, Matthew Blakstad, Jonathan Lacey, Walter Sparrow, Roger Brierley, Vivienne Chandler, Lockwood West
Where to watch
fuboTV, Paramount Plus Premium, Paramount Plus Essential
Curator Review
Verdict
A lively, inventive Victorian adventure that blends Sherlockian deduction with Amblin-style wonder and some genuinely memorable visual-effects history. It’s uneven in tone and character depth, but the atmosphere, schoolboy camaraderie, and occult-tinged mystery make it an appealing curiosity rather than a definitive Holmes adaptation.
Best for
fans of 1980s adventure films
viewers who like youthful origin stories
people interested in early CGI and practical-effects craftsmanship
audiences who enjoy spooky boarding-school mysteries
Sherlock Holmes completists open to playful reinvention
Skip if
you want a strict, canon-faithful Holmes story
you dislike kid-centered adventure films
you prefer consistently dark or adult detective thrillers
you’re looking for a tightly plotted mystery over spectacle
you have little patience for nostalgic 1980s family-adventure tone
Overview
Young Sherlock Holmes is less a definitive Holmes film than a time capsule of mid-1980s studio adventure filmmaking. It takes a familiar literary icon and drops him into a boarding-school origin story with secret passages, eccentric teachers, and an Egyptian cult, aiming for wonder as much as deduction. That gamble gives the movie a playful energy even when the script feels a little overstuffed.
Worth noting
The strongest pleasures are tonal: the foggy Victorian setting, the boys’-school dynamics, and the sense that the film is trying to conjure a whole mythic world rather than just solve a case. It also has real historical value as an effects showcase, with a landmark CGI sequence that still matters to film history.
Bottom line
As a Holmes story, it’s more imaginative than elegant, and some viewers will find the premise too cute or the mystery too pulpy. But if you meet it on its own terms, it’s an entertaining, slightly strange adventure with enough atmosphere and invention to justify the detour.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Craig Good (2★) · 355 likes
Full disclosure: I worked on this movie. It was my first feature film credit, in fact. All of us at the old Lucasfilm Computer Graphics Division learned a ton, mostly from Dennis Muren, while making it. And Dennis learned from us that the future of visual effects was CGI. This has the first 3D CG character integrated into a live action film, and for many years had the only rack-focus CG shot ever seen. ILM did a fantastic job with… more Full disclosure: I worked on this movie. It was my first feature film credit, in fact. All of us at the old Lucasfilm Computer Graphics Division learned a ton, mostly from Dennis Muren, while making it. And Dennis learned from us that the future of visual effects was CGI. This has the first 3D CG character integrated into a live action film, and for many years had the only rack-focus CG shot ever seen. ILM did a fantastic job with… more
Mister Cap (4★) · 94 likes
ENGLISH VERSION below
Es war ein kalter Abend, als ich erneut den Fall "Young Sherlock Holmes" aufrollte. Schon die Idee, Holmes und Watson als Schulfreunde zu sehen, wirkte zunächst wie ein Schock – doch bei näherer Betrachtung? Genial! Die ungleiche Freundschaft zwischen Holmes, dem überheblichen Detektiv in spe, und Watson, seinem bewundernden Gefährten, lässt sich herrlich in den jugendlichen Eifer übertragen. Man merkt sofort: Diese Schule ist der ideale Nährboden für kommende Abenteuer.
Mit exzentrischen Lehrern wie Professor Waxflatter, der… more
Paul Anthony Cassidy (3.5★) · 84 likes
As much a retrospective this as it is a film review but anyway......
Back in 1985 when Steven Spielberg could do no wrong at the box office and was in the midst of the Indiana Jones phenomenon he decided to produce an adventure picture in time for Christmas that was very much in the aforementioned Indiana Jones mould based on the younger years of the iconic fictional London sleuth Sherlock Holmes.
Revising some established aspects of the Holmes myth such… more
Will Menaker (1.5★) · 73 likes
An unbelievably weird and awful movie. Written by Christopher Columbus, produced by Steven Spielberg, takes place at a Victorian era boys school in London, stars precocious child actors, the occult is involved ...is this film a coded confession of secret pedo shit? Maybe.
It’s about the young Sherlock Holmes and Watson who solve the case of a half Egyptian man passing himself off as British. He and his cult are seeking revenge against some fourth form chums who slaughtered his entire village to build a hotel. Glad the boys solve the case!
A travesty on many levels.
AD917 (4★) · 66 likes
I’ve been avoiding this movie my whole life just because of the title. The whole “see what your favorite characters were like as children” concept has just never appealed to me. And if it has to be done, it seems more suited to television or comic books; any kind of serialization.
What a bloody fool I’ve been!
All the ingredients for peak era Amblin entertainment are here, but given their own unique twist within the concept and setting.
—Kids without… more