Sherlock Holmes and his sidekick Dr. Watson join forces to outwit and bring down their fiercest adversary, Professor Moriarty.
Holmes and Watson are happy and their escapades play out with such grace and brio that the fun is infectious.
A sequel confident in what it's about - bigger, better, funnier, without stretching the joke.
With its cross-dressing lead, hissable villain and oodles of double entendre, Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows is the closest action cinema has ever come to pantomime – and that’s meant as a sincere compliment.
Faster, funnier and even more bromantic than the original, this far from stately Holmes delivers piping hot entertainment at a furious lick.
Ritchie is smart enough to pull out some effectively Holmesian twists in the film’s conclusion, but in terms of continuing the balance achieved in the first film, it is a case of too little, too late.
It's not all boys and their toys, there are some cute visual gags as well, but the action is paramount. You know the Ritchie methods by now, and in the legend of Holmes he has found a happy home for them.
One of the year’s most satisfying cocktails of action, comedy and drama.
Director Guy Ritchie again plays out the fights in super slow motion, a highly stylised approach that renders the movie exciting because it is boisterous and noisy, not because it is especially imaginative or clever.
It's all great fun, and a sure bet for those seeking thrills and spills and laughs this Christmas: elementary.
There are many minor quibbles you could make about A Game Of Shadows but generally it is a great, swaggering, globe-trotting slice of entertainment to divert and delight on a stormy winter’s night. Sometimes that is all you want from a trip to the cinema.
A Game of Shadows only becomes enjoyable when it pauses the plot and gives the stage to its performers, or rather, performer: Downey Jr sports with the role like a jazz musician noodling in and out of a tune.
Action and fun.
As it stands, it has more in common with the Pirates of the Caribbean sequels than its tightly plotted inspiration.
The picture is frantic and lavish enough to distract and maybe it will hit the bullseye with it’s young target audience but the opportunity to craft a celluloid action-hero in Holmes with charm, intrigue and longevity appears to have now been squandered.
In between some spectacular set-pieces, there’s a surplus of tedious chatter and the first 20 minutes are so breathlessly told it’s hard to know quite what’s going on.
Guy Ritchie's second Sherlock Holmes film improves on the first one in every respect.
Sherlock Holmes is transformed into a man of action in Guy Ritchie's latest reimagining of the Victorian sleuth.
Robert Downey Jr is still a great fit as the mordant detective whose mind and mouth outpaces the script he’s working with.
Robert Downey Jr, Sherlock Holmes and the sequel struggle
General release. Check local listings for show times.