Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011)
Director
Guy Ritchie’s 2009 “Sherlock Holmes,” with Yank actor Robert Downey Jr. playing
the Brit detective, was an entertaining farce that tripped too
far into the superhero arena. The Ritchie-directed sequel “Game of Shadows” gallops
full force into silly Hollywood cliches with “top this” action pieces minced
into slow-mo chunks of film that may irritate even the most Ritalin-deprived
viewer. A third-act chase through a forest sticks out as the sorest thumb,
smashed by Ritchie’s antic edits. Ditch the deerstalker hat and get this Sherlock
a cape as Holmes’ pipe, careful contemplations, and witty word play are
for the most part dumped in lieu of a 007-worthy plot involving arch-nemesis Moriarty
(a ho-hum Jared Harris) as the instigator of a 1890s European war that plays
out too broadly and with inane clues (to the winery!) that reek weak. Worse,
great actress Noomi Rapace (the Swedish “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” and “Prometheus”) is stuck glaring
in silence as Downey along with Jude Law as Watson ham up literature’s
oldest bro-mance, making this outing shrivel under the shadow of greater
Holmes adaptations, including the stellar BBC modern-day-set mind-fuck “Sherlock.”
C
Labels:
007,
1890s,
Game of Shadows,
Guy Ritchie,
Jude Law,
London,
Moriarty,
Noomi Rapace,
Robert Downey Jr.,
sequel,
Sherlock Holmes,
superhero
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