Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

 

A Warner Bros. release presented in association with Village Roadshow Pictures of a Silver Pictures and Wigram production. Produced by Joel Silver, Lionel Wigram, Susan Downey, Dan Lin. Executive producers, Bruce Berman, Steve Clark-Hall. Co-producers, Lauren Meek, Ethan Erwin. Directed by Guy Ritchie. Screenplay, Michele Mulroney, Kieran Mulroney, based on characters created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Sherlock Holmes:  Robert Downey Jr.
Dr. John Watson:  Jude Law
Simza Heron:  Noomi Rapace
Irene Adler:  Rachel McAdams
Professor MoriartyJared Harris
Mycroft Holmes: Stephen Fry
Colonel Sebastian:  Moran Paul Anderson
Mary Watson:  Kelly Reilly
Inspector Lestrade:  Eddie Marsan

Smart, action-packed, rousting, and hilarious, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows is the one to see this holiday season!  Guy Ritchie‘s Sherlock is re-imagined not as a reclusive genius but as a thuggish rogue with a madcap side.  This reworking of Sherlock goes completely against the grain of Conan Doyle‘s creation who relied solely on his brain rather than his brawn.  While this is Sherlock for the new millennium, it renders the film almost completely unrecognizable from its source material.  However, this makes the film a helluva lot more fun than the drearily serious PBS-style Sherlock films we are used to.  The story by Michele and Kieran Mulrooney is more developed than in Ritchie’s first one.   The plot centers around the cat and mouse game between Sherlock and his nemesis and intellectual equal, Dr. Moriarty and takes us on a rollicking, nail-biting, edge-of-our-seats race across the continent.  Chock-full of explosions, gunfire, fist fights, and action the Game Of Shadows is far more exciting than Ritchie’s first stab at the genre.

This characterization of Sherlock is positively tailor-made for Robert Downey, who is at his very best combining intellectual prowess with raucous hi-jinks.  Jude Law, as his faithful sidekick Watson, is pitch perfect mixing his love and admiration for Sherlock with his annoyance at his life-threatening shenanigans.  And I can think of no better actor than Jared Harris to play Professor Moriarty.  Quietly malevolent, he is the best on-screen villain of the year to date. (The off-screen award goes to Yee Lim, my evil Williamsburg landlord, who is trying to put tenants out of our building at Christmas to up the rent!  Yikes, where’s OWS when you need ’em!)  Stephen Fry makes a memorable comedic turn as Sherlock’s eccentric brother, Mycroft.  The female leads, Nooni Rapace, as Sherlock’s second sidekick on this mysterious journey the gypsy Madam Simza and Kelly Reilly as Watson’s new wife, are also outstanding.

Sherlock Holmes: The Game of Shadows delightfully never stops moving and makes my Top Ten List for the year.  It’s an absolute TGATP must-see!

 

 

 

That Girl At the Party

I am a proud blogger of 11 years, Founder of Canappetit, PR person, Web and Cannabis Entrepreneur, Founder of the LTN Card, the Let Love Festival and the Henley Foundation, aunt to 12 and human to Bodhi and Yoko Rey

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