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Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows (Ritchie, 2011)

The genial sleuth mutates into a spectacular superhero to save the world from another evil crimelord.


There is an interesting trend to superheroize anything - spearheaded by the deadly avalanche of more or less cleverly made or marketed comic adaptations, the box office has started to execute power on the neighboring genre, such as the classical detective story.

It was a smart move to choose Downey as the slightly crazy sleuth, given his real-life experience with drugs, his relentless sarcasm and him having just the right age for this role. Jude Law also gets his moments, but they are few and their numbers quite possibly related to some kind of co-production contract. So - this leaves practically the whole cake for Downey. And he gets it and he eats it. (at least as Holmes)

Some of the more spectacular jokes didn't quite work for me and sometimes the video-game style editing takes you completely out of the movie and places you on the sidewalk outside the theatre. I remember at least two occasions, where there were edit sequences just to show off. But the rest is fantastically put together.

Great scene: restaurant scene in the beginning. Nice idea, good execution.


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