This film was targeted towards fans of the Spielberg productions of that time, such as Gremlins and Goonies, considering it was written by the same guy who wrote those two films. And it was very similar too, with young people as the leads and a lot of special effects. This was my favorite movie of that year. For some reason, it didn't do well. Some critics complained the action sequences and special effects were not appropriate for a Sherlock Holmes story but I thought the whole film in general worked well, and the characters were very well portrayed. I am really disappointed the dvd had absolutely no special features though.