(The above photo was taken by Emma Span, and is of my granddaughter Robin and her dog Sandy. They are a pair of hellions)

Holmes @ Watson, the new comedy from Director Etan Cohen, is funny. It stars Will Farrell and John C. Reilly.

The film draws lovingly from Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic mystery series, also also from the great slapstick movies of the 30’s an 40’s, especially the Mark Brothers and W.C. Fields.

The movie is written with a contemporary cultural sensibility, it is hip and wry spoof of the Holmes mythology. There are a 100 references to historic figures – Chaplin, Einstein – and some riotous use of contemporary music, which is sprinted throughout the film to funny effect.

Maria and I are both slapstick fans, we laughed throughout the movie. We took a bit of a flyer on the film, it just came out Tuesday and there are no reviews as yet.

Good slapstick is crude, unrestrained and a bit over the top. The best slapstick pokes the pompous, we love to see them get taken down.

Slapstick movies never lapse into violence because they never get close to reality. There is not a tense moment in this movie, and the filming is surprisingly beautiful and rich.

Will Farrell is just very funny, is what it comes down to, especially with Reilly, who plays Watson as dumb and fawning.

Farrell has a blast impersonating the pompous and in this movie, somewhat foppish and narcissistic Holmes, who is obsessed with his image and  obsesses on different hats for his publicity shots. He throws up into a bucket at the mere mention of autopsy.

Ralph Fiennes was a fine Professor Moriarity and Pam Ferris, as the haughty Queen Victoria, was a riot. Watson is smitten with her also, and keeps trying to touch her.

Ferris is a brilliant deadpanner. I especially loved the scene where Watson knocks the Queen out with his big box camera while trying to film a selfie.

I thought that John C. Reilly who plays Watson, had an amazing chemistry with Farrell, he nearly stole the movie right out from under him. The two of them seemed to be improvising  and having fun with one another  throughout the movie, and their manic energy was both infectious and in the best traditions of slapstick.

I don’t want to get to heavily into the movie or the plot which is, of course, almost irrelevant. The movie is a string of great sight gags and slapstick scenes.

Maria and I laughed a lot, and I want to see the movie again to figure out all the in-jokes that I missed. Holmes struggles to get in touch with his inner, gentler self, he ends up also spoofing our national  pasttime (no, not fighting, navel-gazing).

I just wanted to write about this movie to highly recommend it.

We need to laugh these days, and laughing at a movie perfect for kids of all ages is a great thing to do over the holiday weekend. Go see it if you need or want to smile.

It’s classic slapstick, so I don’t need to take it too seriously here. What I needed to say is that this comedy is  funny, and Maria and I both loved it.

There is always something dumb about good slapstick movies – critics usually hate them until they are at least 40 years old . Farrell is the reigning king of the genre, he does not disappoint. In fact I think he needed a smart and timely role like this.

This one really worked for me, and lots of us need a laugh this days.

I should say the movie takes a very funny swipe at our whining Tweeting President, holed up this weekend in the White House in a rage, sending off a barrage of barrage of self-pitying  tweets. Maybe he really does need to go to Florida and play some golf, before he shuts down North America.

The timing for a movie like this is perfect.

You will get your laughs with Holmes & Watson. The movie has a great deal of fun with itself, it never lapses into posturing, and is thus a great deal of fun to watch.

Get some laughs this week. It’s good to hear a lot of guffawing.