Dir.: Guy Ritchie
With: Robert Downey
Jr, Jude Law
To be perfectly
honest, I found this second instalment of the revised Sherlock Holmes story
much more enjoyable than the first. It seems that the scriptwriters and the
director actually listened to the critics of the first movie, dispensed with
the less successful elements and concentrated on making the second film a
funny, entertaining and very charming story. ‘Game of Shadows’ has all those
things that I loved in the first movie in abundance – the funky Victorian
London vagabonds, plenty of Robert Downey Jr madness, A LOT of homoeroticism,
phallic symbolism and old-couple bickering between Sherlock and Watson. On top
of that there were many wonderful and memorable one-liners like ‘Shirley
no-mates’ and, most importantly, the one and only Stephen Fry played Mycroft,
the insane/genius brother of Sherlock.
Of course, the actual
plot is completely incoherent and unrealistic, however, this doesn’t matter at all
as the film has so much spirit and action shots that simply overshadow
everything else. It is unnecessarily long and there are a few moments when
things get a little slow, but the movie picks up again towards the second half.
I have to say that Professor Moriarty played by Jared Harris from ‘Mad Men’ was
great. Charismatic, scary, psychotic and obviously brilliant, he was able to
hold his own against Downey’s Holmes and rebuke his attempts at deduction.
Noomi Rapace from the Swedish ‘Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ was very boring as
a random gypsy, and to be honest, she generally annoys me. She just
does. It’s personal.
I wonder whether the
Sherlock Holmes films would have been this popular if Robert Downey Jr wasn’t
involved. I think not. The actor is good-looking enough to be more than
watchable but not strikingly so. His looks are indeed very likable and his
personality shines through in this film. He is quick-witted and
self-deprecating, completely nuts and quite inspiring. His comedy timing is
perfect, both in dialogues and in slapstick. The final scene of the film is
properly laugh-out-loud funny; I think I found my next Halloween costume. For those
of you going to see it, two words - urban camouflage.
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