What Do The Critics Say?

"The sequel to the wildly popular original 2009 Sherlock Holmes is very similar to the first, with the addition of gypsies and even more action. There is plenty of comedy to go along with the drama and action. Robert Downey Jr. does a great job as the wild and crazy savant, Holmes. Jared Harris does a fine job playing the villain, Moriarty. Let us hope he returns for the next film." Robert Roten LARAMIE MOVIE SCOPE "Still crazy: A Game of Shadows; does have one trick up its sleeve that makes it a worthy companion to its predecessor: the upgrading of the homo-erotic subtext to clear as day text. There seems to be no effort made to obscure Sherlock and Dr. Watson’s full-blown love for one another; not even Watson’s marriage to another woman can dim their adoration. There are a couple of fresh inclusions to the saga." Simon Miraudo QUICKFLIX "In this version, Watson is getting married, with Holmes as unenthused about this as ever (the gay subtext is even more pronounced than in the previous film). the film is full of action set-pieces, but these are intelligently constructed and fit surprisingly well within the Holmesian proceedings. The tone is right and the characters are right. That rare thing: the sequel that is better than the original." Ken Hanke MOUNTAIN XPRESS "I'll say one thing, when you hire Guy Ritchie as your director you get your money's worth: not necessarily in quality; but certainly in effort, volume and exuberance. Jude Law and Robert Downey Jr. snipe at each other like a homoerotic odd couple, consummating their bromance through innuendo-laden banter and frantic shootouts. Bigger explosions, more elaborate stunts and grander set pieces." Jeff Meyers METRO TIMES

"Did I mention a fun new edition to the series: "Sherley's" gay older brother? That would be Mycroft, a dead ringer for Oscar Wilde. Mycroft is a sidebar to the main action: the arrival of Holmes' intellectual nemesis, the diabolical Professor Moriarty. The gay subtext reaches its peak during a thrilling action sequence set aboard a speeding train. Gay audiences will immediately pick up the innuendos. The whole movie, chock full of queer undertone, is one long sly smile. And deliciously so." Richard Knight KNIGHT AT THE MOVIES "Jude Law is much better this time around. Rapace is eminently watchable in what is essentially a thankless role and Harris is easy to loathe as Holmes's formidable adversary. Stephen Fry is terrific as always, although some may rightly argue far too much is seen of him in one revealing scene." Louise Keller URBAN CINEFILE "Briskly executed, genuinely exciting and altogether entertaining, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, manages to outdo its predecessor by keeping all that was right about that film: the chemistry between its two leads, the sumptuous recreation of England’s late Victorian Age and an inventive approach to action and provide what that 2009 feature was lacking. Though it moves quickly, the film’s plot is easy enough to follow. In 'Game of Shadows', Sherlock is better than ever." Charles Koplinski ILLINOIS TIMES "Downey and Law are more like an old married couple then professional partners. If I were to liken them to another film duo, I would call them the Riggs and Murtaugh of the 19th century. Told in director Guy Ritchie’s inimitable style, "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows" is a worthy follow up to 2009’s initial “Holmes” film. The familiar faces are back but it’s a new face that makes the film so enjoyably fun." Michael A . Smith MEDIA MIKES

The Inside Story "Case re-opened." Those two tantalizing words at the close of 2009's "Sherlock Holmes" promised audiences that more adventures lie ahead. Now, "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows" fulfills that promise, bringing the legendary detective back to the big screen in a new action-packed mystery that reunites the stars and filmmakers behind that worldwide hit. 2000 Edgar Award winning Director Guy Ritchie: "I was very keen to return to Sherlock Holmes's world because the experience of making the first movie was so positive, both personally and creatively. There were a myriad of story possibilities in revisiting this character because he has so many interesting facets. His idiosyncrasies almost transcend description, so I wanted the opportunity to explore that more, while giving audiences something they hadn’t seen." Ritchie's "Sherlock Holmes" had redefined the iconic character (created by Scottish physician and writer Arthur Conan Doyle, who was knighted in 1902), for a new generation, with 1993 BAFTA Film Award winner Robert Downey Jnr ("Chaplin") creating his own unique incarnation of Sherlock Holmes, alongside 2007 Honorary César winner Jude Law as Holmes's friend, partner, and occasional foil: Dr John Watson. Doyle's Sherlock Holmes first appeared in the story "A Study in Scarlet" which was written in 1886 but was not published until 1887 when it appeared in Beeton's Christmas Annual. Producer Joel Silver ("Kiss Kiss Bang Bang starring Robert Downey Jnr as Harry Lockhart) "states: "There was a kind of magic that came out of the dynamic between Robert and Jude as Holmes and Watson, and this film gave us a chance to take that up a notch. In the first movie, we had to give audiences the time to get to know the foibles of the characters. Coming into this movie, we had already laid the foundation, so we could launch right into the action, which is bigger, funnier and more explosive in every sense of the word." "First and foremost," Downey Jnr ("Tropic Thunder") adds, "we wanted to maintain the visceral tone that was part of Guy's original vision, while presenting Holmes with an even more difficult case, one that would challenge his considerable skills." That challenge arises out of the threat from a redoubtable adversary, one whose name is familiar to anyone with even a passing knowledge of the Sherlock Holmes canon: Professor James Moriarty. "We needed a mystery that raises the bar for Holmes, so we pitted him against his most famous foe," producer Susan Downey, a principal partner of Team Downey, the production company she formed with her husband, Robert Downey Jnr notes. "At the end of the last film, Sherlock fleetingly learned of Moriarty from Irene Adler. In the time elapsed, he has become increasingly obsessed with what Moriarty is up to and has only begun to realize the breadth of his plan." Producer Lionel Wigram (who produced four of the Harry Potter films and co-wrote the screen story for "Sherlock Holmes" with Michael Robert Johnson) notes: "Moriarty is the greatest criminal mastermind in the world. He is a genius: albeit a mad genius; but because he is so brilliant, Holmes may have met his match." "Because they are intellectual equals to a degree, there is the sense that this is a game that is stimulating to them both," Ritchie ("Revolver") notes. "In this way, they actually need each other, and that idea is authentic to the books. Holmes needs Moriarty as much as Moriarty needs Holmes." To write the screenplay, the producers enlisted husband and wife writing team Kieran and Michele Mulroney. It appears that Michele Mulroney ("Paper Man") was exceptionally well-versed in the source material. How so? Michele recalls: "Growing up in England, I remember reading the books and being awed by the weird and wonderful way Holmes's mind worked. It was a joy to revisit the original stories and still marvel at the inventiveness and intricacies of Arthur Conan Doyle’s mysteries." In fact, true Sherlock Holmes enthusiasts will notice that the filmmakers have paid homage to the author by incorporating some of Conan Doyle’s language in the dialogue. The screenwriters also felt a responsibility to do justice to the story’s villain, as well as its heroes. Kieran Mulroney (who along with Michele co-wrote and directed 1999's "Paper Man") confirms: "We knew that whatever dire scheme Moriarty had up his sleeve, it had to feel insurmountable." "The stakes needed to be proportionate to the professor’s appetite for evil, which is obviously huge. Our goal was to push Holmes and Watson to their limits in pursuit of this man…to test their relationship even more than in the last film." "I was thrilled that the connection between Holmes and Watson, as we had developed it, was still very much the heart and soul of the story," says Law. Producer Dan Lin ("The Invention of Lying"), observed: "Kieran and Michele’s script explores the evolution of Holmes and Watson’s relationship after the first movie, with Sherlock ready for the next case, and Watson engaged to Mary and planning to settle down and step away from the life of a private detective. What does this mean for their future? And how will the world survive without them, especially with Sherlock’s most formidable nemesis, Professor Moriarty, on the loose?" Apart from Moriarty, the sequel introduces contemporary film audiences to another character well known to readers of the original stories: Sherlock’s older and far more urbane brother, Mycroft Holmes; played by Stephen Fry, who was cast as Deitrich in "V For Vendetta". Two time ShoWest Award winner, Rachel McAdams (2005 & '09) reprises her role as Irene Adler, tempting and tormenting Sherlock, while a new woman enters the fray: a Gypsy named Sim, played by Swedish actress Noomi Rapace (2008 Robert Award winner for "Daisy Diamond"), who could provide the link to the final piece of the puzzle, completing the picture of Moriarty’s sinister plot. As the vastness of Moriarty’s conspiracy unfolds, it broadens the scope of the action beyond the confines of London, to France, Germany and on to Switzerland. Ritchie asserts: "Our narrative enabled us to spread our wings across Europe to expand the topography and tapestry of the story." Wigram ("August Rush') notes: "It also allowed us to add a different flavor to the mix that dovetails nicely into what was happening at the end of the 19th century, politically, economically and especially in terms of industry. It was the beginning of the modern age, where we see the seeds of the military-industrial complex, with bigger and more powerful weapons and more efficient warfare." With a changing world on the brink, there is danger afoot. For someone who knows how to stir the pot, however, there is also tremendous opportunity to grasp untold wealth and power. Only Sherlock Holmes has deduced that Professor James Moriarty is the one stoking the fire, and it is only a matter of time before everything boils over. The titular character created by Robert Downey Jnr has defied convention. Gone are the once emblematic deerstalker hat, curved pipe and posh British decorum (Ritchie describes them as "somewhat dustier") made famous by the likes of Ronald Howard and Basil Rathbone. They have been replaced by a streetwise, bare-knuckled brawler, whose physical prowess was equal to his superlative mind and preternatural powers of perception. "One of the most important things about the first movie was to get away from the somewhat dustier, if you will, impression of the character that I think many people were expecting," Ritchie says. "In keeping with Conan Doyle’s original creation, we wanted to access the physicality of Holmes while conveying his intelligence and wit, and Robert brought all that and more to the equation." In the time that has elapsed since the end of the first film, Holmes has been bent on a singular mission, triggered by the revelation that, while he had taken down the evil Lord Blackwood, he had somehow missed an even greater threat. Shrouded in secrecy, Moriarty had been patiently lying in wait to capitalize on Blackwood’s handiwork. "Robert knew how to get inside Sherlock Holmes's head; to make him funny and eccentric and yet absolutely believable as the most renowned detective of all time. It was fantastic to watch," says Silver, who in 1985 formed Silver Pictures which produced the hit action franchises, "Lethal Weapon" and the "Matrix". In the latest story, Downey Jnr (who played Telephone Jack alongside Eric Bana & Drew Barrymore in the 2007 Curtis Hanson film, "Lucky You") says audiences will "see the after effects of Holmes having been consumed with Moriarty, to the point that he’s clearly kind of 'nutting up'. He’s focused on him to the exclusion of everything else, including, quite possibly, his own sanity." That is the state in which Watson discovers his old friend when he returns to Baker Street on the eve of his wedding to Mary. "Watson arrives looking forward to the stag party that his best man was supposed to arrange. Instead, he finds he has reason to be concerned with Holmes's obsessive behavior regarding Professor Moriarty," says Law, who dropped out of school at seventeen, to star in a Granada daytime TV Soapie "Families". The connection between Holmes and Watson was reflected in the off-screen friendship between Downey Jnr and Law. "I feel about Jude the way Sherlock feels about John: I love the guy like a brother. I couldn’t ask for a better partner," Downey Jnr confirmed. In casting one of the most malevolent characters ever imagined, the filmmakers had to consider the fact that the world perceived Moriarty as a brilliant but benign professor of mathematics, who was admired rather than feared. Ritchie explains: "We wanted to stick to the idea that Conan Doyle intended him to be the least likely villain you can imagine. It was the size of his ambitions that set him apart." The role went to 1998 Sitges - Catalonian International Film Festival Best Actor winner, Jared Harris ("Trance"), who Ritchie describes as "the right man for the job." Long time Sherlock Holmes fan Wigram notes: "Jared plays Moriarty with a wonderful combination of charm and menace. He can appear very demure and kind, but there’s also a mad glint in his eye, so he conveys the different sides of Moriarty: respected university professor and friend to the rich and powerful, and the diabolical mastermind of a massive criminal enterprise, who sees how industrialization is changing the landscape and is exploiting it to his own ends in a way no one else would fathom. That’s his genius." Harris describe Moriarty as: "arguably the first uber¬villain in modern literature, which was quite daunting. You have to believe he is as smart as Holmes: perhaps smarter; like a grandmaster in chess who is able to think several moves ahead of his opponent. But the fact is he’s a sick sociopath. Which made him a lot of fun to play." What's It All About?

Sherlock Holmes has always been the smartest man in the room: but is that about to change? It seems there is a new criminal mastermind at large: Professor James Moriarty; and not only is he Holmes' intellectual equal, but his capacity for evil, coupled with a complete lack of conscience, may actually give him an advantage over the renowned detective. When the Crown Prince of Austria is found dead, the evidence, as construed by Inspector Lestrade, points to suicide. But Sherlock Holmes deduces that the prince has been the victim of murder. And, his deductions don't stop with the Prince's death. Holmes believes that it is only one piece of a larger and much more portentous puzzle: designed by the cunning Moriarty; who, while spinning his web of death and destruction, manages to stay one step ahead of Holmes. A greater plan, that if successful, will change the course of history.

The Verdict "Driven by the excitement and freshness of 2009's "Sherlock Holmes and the hype of the sequels trailer, 'A game Of Shadows' is sure to attract a huge following from fans. But, will they enjoy it as much as they did when Robert Downey Jnr, Jude Law, Rachel McAdams and Mark Strong appeared in Guy Ritchie's imaginative tale of the iconic detective and his sidekick? I must admit, the trailer for "Sherlock Holmes" grabbed my attention and yes, it certainly kept me thoroughly entertained throughout two hour running time. And, while I did enjoy this latest edition: "Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows"; I have lingering doubts as to whether everyone will enjoy 'Holmes' the second time around. Yes it is a good yarn! Yes, there is plenty of intrigue! True, there's some excellent action pieces. But (and sometimes there is a but), while the use of super slow-mo worked well in the first film, it's over-use in this one, takes the shine off what could have been, an exceptionally good experience for 'Holmes Lovers'. And, "explain please!" Am I missing something which many critics find glaringly obvious? Are the filmmakers 'outing' Holmes and Watson? Are the Detective and the Doctor, straight or gay? Or could it be, Ritchie and the screenwriter are just messin' with us? Entertaining sequel. 3 1/2 STARS." Who Is Playing Who?

Robert Downey Jnr Jude Law Kelly Reilly Noomi Rapace Rachel McAdams Jared Harris Stephen Fry Paul Anderson Geraldine James Eddie Marsan William Houston Wolf Kahler Iain Mitchell Jack Laskey Thorston Manderlay Affif Ben Badra Daniel Naprous Lancelot Weaver Vladimir Furdik

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

Sherlock Holmes Dr John Watson Mary Watson Madam Simza Heron Irene Adler Professor James Moriarty Mycroft Holmes Colonel Sebastian Moran Mrs Hudson Inspector Lestrade Constable Clark Doctor Hoffmanstahl Auctioneer Carruthers Alfred Meinhard Tamas Marko Stefan Andrzej

The Production Team Directed by Guy Ritchie Written by Michele Mulroney & Kieran Mulroney Created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (characters: Sherlock Holmes & Dr Watson) Produced by Susan Downey/Dan Lin/Joel Silver/Lionel Wigram Original Music by Hans Zimmer Cinematography by Philippe Rousselot Film Editing by James Herbert Casting by Reg Poerscout-Edgerton Production Design by Sarah Greenwood Supervising Art Director Niall Moroney Art Direction by Netty Chapman/James Foster/Nick Gottschalk/Matthew Gray Set Decoration by Alison Harvey Key Set DecoratorKatie Spencer Costume Design by Jenny Beavan Run Time 128 minutes Rated M [AUST] Copyright ©2011 - Warner Bros Pictures - All Rights Reserved Enduring © - The Movie Pages & Impact Internet Services - All Rights Reserved. Protected by Australian & International Copyright, Trademark Laws & Intellectual Property Rights.