Movies don’t get much better for me than Sherlock Holmes, Guy Ritchie and Robert Downey, Jr. I like this one better than the first, mostly because of the smaller role for Rachel McAdams’ character, Ms. Adler. McAdams is a really good actress, but for me, I’m not interested in hearing American accents in a movie that takes place in Victorian England. Sherlock Holmes is as English as it gets and there’s just no reason to throw in the equivalent off an older Tom Sawyer character, like they did in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
The sequel is classic Holmes vs. his arch enemy Moriarty. Ritchie’s direction becomes more refined as he doesn’t solely rely on his tricks from the first movie. He mixes it up and then ups the ante at the end. Jude Law is a fun Watson and he gets a little more to do this time. Stephen Fry is very awesome as Mycroft, Sherlock’s brother.
Holmes purists will probably argue that there is too much action. I would argue that some of the first movie’s action scenes were a little gratuitous, but these seem to jibe nicely with the storyline. Screenwriters Michele and Kieran Mulroney add nice touches of the politic trappings of the era. As in the first movie, the technology of the time is pushed to its maximum, but seems to work and some of the moments from Arthur Conan Doyle’s original stories are slipped in. I enjoyed it immensely. Go see it bros.
I give Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows 10 out of 10 keggers.
