Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011)
Directed by Guy Ritchie
There is a new criminal mastermind at large (Professor Moriarty) and not only is he Holmes’ intellectual equal, but his capacity for evil and lack of conscience may give him an advantage over the detective.
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What critics say influenced Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
For those critics who complain that Ritchie's depiction of Holmes is not accurate to Doyle's accounts, I can only remind them that after Twentieth Century Fox made the second of their popular Basil Rathbone Holmes movies, "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes," in 1939, the studio changed the time setting thereafter to World War II and beyond, a far bigger revision of Doyle's original concept than anything in Ritchie's world.
There are also passing references to Anthony Harvey’s They Might Be Giants—just think of the scene in that film when Dr. Mildred Watson (Joanne Woodward) thinks Holmes (George C. Scott) is dead, or Holmes’ glib response to the line, “I thought you were dead.”
In one of the high-octane film’s best and quietest moments, he visits Moriarty (played by Jared Harris, son of Richard Harris of “Camelot” and the original Dumbledore in the first Harry Potter movies) to ask whether they can agree to let Watson be free of any entanglement in the unpleasantness ahead.
In one of the high-octane film’s best and quietest moments, he visits Moriarty (played by Jared Harris, son of Richard Harris of “Camelot” and the original Dumbledore in the first Harry Potter movies) to ask whether they can agree to let Watson be free of any entanglement in the unpleasantness ahead.
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His late father, esteemed actor Richard Harris, played Richard the Lionheart in Robin and Marian (1976) with Sean Connery and Audrey Hepburn.
Hans Zimmer's melodramatic score incorporates arias from Mozart's Don Giovanni and a jaunty Morricone theme from Two Mules for Sister Sara.
Although spy intrigue is an essential element to the winning M:I formula, the feature films have always tilted more toward the action spectacle, and snagging Oscar-winning animation director Brad Bird to fill the director's chair proves to be an inspired choice--and, upon thought, a bit of a no-brainer, given that his The Incredibles was one of the most exciting action pictures in recent memory, animated or otherwise.
And director Brad Bird—the Pixar wonder kid lured away from Oscar-winning animation (The Incredibles, Ratatouille) for a first foray into live action—is resolute in keeping cliché pyrotechnics to a minimum: Most of the thrills here are provided by practical stunt work, for which Cruise must be given abundant props.
Where the Holmes and Watson partnership goes from here is a tossup, but I wouldn't blink if they ultimately reprise the finale of "Some Like It Hot."
Ritchie makes the joke explicit here by having Holmes don Jack Lemmon's outfit from "Some Like it Hot," and supplant Mrs. Watson during an elaborate train stunt.
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They have fun with the characters in a His Girl Friday kind of way, with Holmes acting as a Walter Burns to Watson's Hildy Johnson.
The Holmes in Shadows , played by Robert Downey Jr., isn’t so much a detective as a globetrotting action hero, the 19th-century version of Jason Bourne or Mission: Impossible ’s Ethan Hunt.