Young Sherlock Holmes (1985)

Young Sherlock Holmes (1985), directed by Barry Levinson.

I hadn't thought about this one for years until it unexpectedly showed up at Redbox on DVD.

It's a PG-13 family-friendly adventure supposing young Holmes and Watson were at school together. Some light comedy and detection at first, then a more serious investigation into a series of suicide/murders, finally moving into a long overblown Temple of Doom plot involving a secret religious cult staffed by the murderously superstitious foreign minions you find in Victorian adventures.

Holmes has a girlfriend! What he wants most in life is "never to be alone." We know how that worked out. The story explains how he became a lonely confirmed bachelor.

Executive Producer Steven Spielberg exerts a heavy influence: sugary sweet bits, the Temple of Doom, and a score suggesting Indiana Jones.

Many hallucinogenic drug sequences. A menacing knight made of stained glass was cutting edge FX at the time. Watson looks a lot like a proto-Harry Potter. We even have a Malfoy character.