Customer Reviews

Sherlock Holmes - A Game of Shadows

There is a lot that might be said about Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows, I'll try to keep it to a minimum. We are served everything we loved from the first movie with a lot more bolted on besides. There is a lot of humour and excellent touches that demonstrate Shadows was made by people who know what they're doing and having a lot of fun doing it. It is superbly stylised with enigmatic acting, if woefully wasting the very talented female leads. It takes the plot beyond Sherlock's usual remit, galloping across Europe with assassinations, hand to hand combat and explosions usually reserved for Bond or Bourne. Come the end the pace has been so fast you might feel a little dizzy with several quite puzzling but pertinent questions on the tip of your tongue, which matter little because we have been so wonderfully entertained.

This film continues with the same cinematic techniques as the last one incorporating the slow motion wind back that makes this series enjoyable. Holmes is once again locked into combat with the evil Professor James Moriarty. The basic plot is relatively straight forward and unimportant to the film. The enjoyment comes from the character and dialouge of Robert Downey Jr. as Sherlock Holmes. The individual scenes outweigh the plot. Based on the book "The Final Problem."

Holmes on the auto carriage: "One day every town in Europe will have one of these."

The movie assumes you are familiar with the characters and relationships from the first one. I would recommend you see the first one before this one.

Great teen entertainment.

No f-bombs, no sex, male rear nudity.

Over the years the character of Sherlock Holmes has been translated onto screen in a variety of ways - true to Conan Doyle's original (Jeremy Brett), as a comic figure (Michael Caine), as a propaganda instrument (Basil Rathbone) and by a host of others in ways too numerous to mention here. But of all of them, this has to be the most fun.

Guy Ritchie's vision of the Holmes legend manages to get a few names, the odd line and occasional detail from the books, but most of the character of Holmes has been reinvented into Robert Downey Jr's very knowing hero. Watson is transformed into much more of a man of action in one of Jude Law's better performances, and it is good to see the Doctor portrayed as a dependable intelligent man capable of his own thought and action, rather than the blind bumbling fool he is often seen as. There is also a fun cameo for Stephen Fry as Mycroft (the interplay between Holmes and Mycroft seems to give a wink to the execrable Peter Cook/Dudley Moore spoof, if Ritchie watched that film as part of his research then I tip my hat to him for his diligence and willingness to suffer for his art!). Ritchie's directorial vision of a Victorian London just starting to enter the modern age, especially with the pictures of the construction of great monuments and buildings we all take for granted today, is definitely refreshing.

With an almost steam punk atmosphere to his vision of Europe, Ritchie weaves a tale around Holmes' struggle against the machinations of a certain Prof. Moriarty, of infamous memory. Moriarty, played with a gleeful evilness by Jared Harris is an opponent worthy of Holmes, and the final face off between the two is very well realised. Utilising his reinvention of the characters to its utmost Ritcie gives us a well paced action film full of twists, turns, surprised and comedy. It's slick, it's fun, and it's damnably entertaining. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I would guess that serious Holmsians will hate it, but taken on its own terms as a fun film it's admirable and gets a whole hearted five stars from me.

I never thought Robert Downey Jnr could surpass the great British actors who have played the part. To my total surprise the first Guy Ritchie adaptation was superb. A Game of Shadows has taken his vision further, much to my delight! A must see, and then watch again, and again.What a great sequel.

The movie I saw in the cinema and enjoyed - wanted to buy a Triple Play which is usually Blu-ray DVD and a Digital Copy from iTunes - This was not stated in the title on amazon but the digital copy is in fact an ULTRAVIOLET digital copy and will not play in iTunes will also not play for me on my Mac and I am sending tonnes of e-mails answering lots of stupid questions and still have no working digital copy for my other devices both Apple and non apple! - Were it an iTunes download it would be playable and streamable to all my devices - Ultraviolet does not work for me and amazon should have made it clear it was an Ultraviolet copy - I would have just bought the DVD then!!
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows - Triple Play (Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy)[Region Free]

In 2009s Sherlock Holmes, director Guy Richie took Arthur Conan Doyle's Victorian sleuth and completely re-invented him as an action hero for a modern audience, shocking purists the world over. There were fist fights, endless banter with his faithful compatriot Dr. Watson and silly disguises galore. I liked it immediately. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows goes one step further, taking the same formula from the first film and cranking up the volume, pace and budget.

This is certainly not the Holmes we know from Conan Doyle's classic stories. There are similarities of course; his brilliant mind, his keen skills of observation, his arrogance and his experimentation with various substances that Conan Doyle's books allude to. But Conan Doyle's Holmes would never have been pursued by soldiers through a German forest while being shelled with mortar fire. I for one am glad for this `re-imagining'. We've seen plenty of Sherlock Holmes TV adaptations in the past (the best being the BBC's current adaptation, the excellent `Sherlock'), but this is a very different animal, an actioner with a huge sense of fun and adventure, not intended to be true to Conan Doyle's books in any way. The two films together represent what is surely by far and away the best spell in Richie's career as a film director.

The plot, some elements of which are drawn (so very loosely) from `The Final Problem', is almost inconsequential to the enjoyment of the film, but involves a scheme by Holmes' arch nemesis Professor Moriarty to start a war in Europe with a campaign of murders and bombings in France and Germany, his motive being profit from his investment in a huge factory developing new artillery and munitions. In the meanwhile Holmes is struggling to adapt to the prospect of a life solving mysteries and beating up crooks on his own, as Dr. Watson is about to marry Mary (Kelly Reilly) and submit to a peaceful life as a family man. But will he give up a life of excitement so easily?

Thankfully all of the main cast members that made the first film such a joy to watch are here, plus a few new additions; the excellent Stephen Fry as Holmes' self satisfied brother Mycroft, Jared Harris makes a creepy and malevolent Moriarty and The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo's Noomi Rapace appears as a gypsy fortune-teller. The chemistry between the leads Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law is still electric and their double act is thoroughly engaging. Many were originally sceptical at the casting of Downey Jr. as such a quintessentially British hero, but he has really made the role his own and puts in another highly charismatic turn, with superb comedic timing.

Richie's direction is slick, and he clearly has a great production team behind him. The action scenes are frequent and thrilling, particularly an escape from a German arms factory while chased by German soldiers and an inventive shoot-out on a moving steam train. One thing I particularly enjoy about these films is the picture of Victorian times as one of great wonder; a time when amazing advances were being made in the world of science, technology and industry and Richie never misses an opportunity to throw in some new gadget or weapon.

Shortness of plot is the films most glaring drawback, and there is not really much of a case for Holmes to `solve'; the plot is more `007' than `Sherlock Holmes'. Perhaps a little sprinkle of Conan Doyle here wouldn't have gone amiss. Jared Harris is a little underused as Moriarty until the final reel, and the same might be said of Noomi Rapace, whose presence becomes less noticeable as the film draws to its conclusion. But these are fairly minor gripes and actually barely noticeable until subsequent reflection.

It's not Holmes as we know him, for sure, but you'll struggle to find a film that is more raucously entertaining. Is it as good as 2009s Sherlock Holmes? I'll have to see it again to decide, but it's marvellous escapist entertainment nonetheless. I enjoyed it tremendously, and can't recommend it enough. 7.5/10.

Firstly let me say that the 3 stars is not for the movie itself - I'm an avid fan of anything Sherlock Holmes and although this is pretty far removed from the stories themselves, I really enjoy these movies and Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law in the roles. They're entertaining, atmospheric fun, and I would happily give it 4 or 5 stars.
I ordered the Triple Play version as a replacement for my original dvd that went missing. I don't yet own a blu-ray player but planned to buy one fairly soon, so I decided this would hopefully be the best of both worlds and allow me to play the dvd when it arrived, use the digital copy on my iPad and then be able to watch in HD once I finally got around to purchasing a blu-ray player.
It arrived fairly quickly, but when I opened the packaging it appeared to look just like a single blu-ray disc. I'm certainly no expert and for a moment I wondered whether there would still be 2 discs inside (or even if one disc would play on both), but it was the smaller size with no 'Triple Play' written at the top so I didn't dare open the cellophane to check and just returned the item. In fairness I received a very quick apology and an assurance that the correct version would be sent out right away. Sure enough it arrived the next day, but it was exactly the same single blu-ray! At this point I was just about to go away so didn't get chance to return it, and by the time I arrived back I figured I may have missed my opportunity. As a result it's actually pushed me into buying a blu-ray player...from Amazon. So apparently I can be a bit ditzy sometimes. Well played Amazon :D
In all seriousness though I thought it best to warn people that if they order the triple play it may not be what they receive. I've since played the movie and, as expected, the quality is excellent on the blu-ray, but there was certainly no dvd included in the box, and I wonder if there may be a fundamental error with Amazon's ordering system for this item, as it's happened to me twice. Either that or I am definitely missing something along the way!

When I went to see the first Sherlock Holms film, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I feared for a dumb Hollywood remaining with big actions scenes and holms reduced to a sexy action hero. While the film did have big effects and action, it also had a well written story and a wonderful performance and characterisation from Robert Downey Jr as Sherlock.

Its sequel, A Game of Shadows, however, is far closer to what I originally fear.

Apart from an interesting twist at the beginning, the plot was pitifully weak. Perhaps it’s because I have been watching too much of the BBC’s modern day version of Sherlock, but I expected a well throughout, clever story with twists and turns along with more ‘aha!’ revelations. What we got was a simply narrative, with little in terms of impressive ‘deductions’ or wits. At the end, I could not help but to think that Moriarty’s plan was too basic and ‘James Bond’ like, and not really worthy of such a great character. It also lacked in emotion for most part, though again that could just be me comparing it to Sherlock. The fact the film seems to jump across the globe didn’t help ether, as it served little purpose. I missed the Victorian streets of London early on.

There is plenty of action to behold, and while impressive some (like the chase through the forest) go on for far too long.

The cast is the highlight, with Robert Downey Jr stealing every scene he is in while Jared Harris makes for an interesting, if horrifically miss-used, Moriarty. The best scenes in the film are simply involving these two actors when they are alone, confronting each other mentally rather than physically for the most part. Jude Law is alright as Watson, although I have never found his adaption of the character very likable. Noomi Rapace is a good actress, but her character Simza fails at being a memorable heroine. I enjoyed Steven Fry as Mycroft, even if he was played for laughs more than anything.

In the end, it’s an alright action film, but one that’s not as smart as it thinks it is, and had the potential to be alot better.

The first 15 minutes we see a kung fu fighting and an over the top Sherlock Holmes performance by Mr Downey jr

Mr Downey jr's English voice accent sound is AWFUL!

Lots of camera shaky movements

basil Rathbones's Sherlock Holmes was less Sunday school theatrical and more fun to watch.

The movie itself is hyper and with lots of digital glitter recreating the 1890's era, but the story and character and plot are empty and shallow.

1 star

One of the reviewers here claims Guy Ritchie (director) 'reinvents the Sherlock Holmes genre' here. I say this has more in common with Chinese Kung Fu style slow motion films than anything. It actually has less style. It is a Sherlock Holmes not on 7% morphine solution but clearly sniffing lines of cocaine in between takes. I felt it myself after ten minutes, and never has the more traditional approach of Jeremy Brett looked better - and safer for the prospects of my long term sanity. I've just finished it now - I shan't bother with it again. Such a pity as I am such a fan of all the cast members involved.

Be warned: If you are not of the video game generation and prefer your Sherlock Holmes thoughful and eccentric this is NOT for you!