Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows: Critic Reviews

Here, as before, part of the movie's perversely cheeky design is that it throws away its own cleverness.

Can a movie be hyperactive and lazy at the same time? Clever and idiotic? If the director is Guy Ritchie, the questions answer themselves.

It's all great fun, and a sure bet for those seeking thrills and spills and laughs this Christmas: elementary.

A Game of Shadows assures us that escapism is good, that mischief must be celebrated. Holmes and Watson are happy and their escapades play out with such grace and brio that the fun is infectious.

The chemistry between Watson and Holmes is spotty, and their banter grows tedious.

It's a modest improvement on bad-boy director Guy Ritchie's first tweaking of Arthur Conan Doyle's iconic detective.

"What do you see?'' the gypsy girl asks him. "Everything,'' Holmes replies. "That is my curse.'' If Downey has a curse, it'll be called "Sherlock Holmes 3.''

Lackluster screenwriting and the absence of actorly communion are breezed past with monotonous banter, as is the fleetingly visible plot.

Ritchie's franchise - 7% classic formula, 93% adrenaline - is smart in a showoffy way that flatters its star as well as its audience.

There's ... a desire for coherence and humanity in movies. This one doesn't feed it.

This new outing matches the original Sherlock in wit, action and the bromance between Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law.

Downey and Law remain this presumptive franchise's draw.

As big, loud moviemaking goes it's not quite as devoid of charm as it could have been, and things being as they are these days, that's saying something.

It's complete trash and makes a mockery of Holmes's vaunted deductive reasoning.

The thing to do, I suppose, is to set aside your memories of the Conan Doyle stories, save them to savor on a night this winter and enjoy this movie as a high-caliber entertainment.

You may ponder: Would this movie actually be less aggravating with Adam Sandler in it, playing twins?

Even at its worst the movie is redeemed by the presence of two fine British character actors playing Conan Doyle regulars: Stephen Fry as Holmes's waggish older brother, Mycroft, and Jared Harris as the fiendish Dr. Moriarty.

Virtually every set-up and set-piece in this extravagantly tedious adventure is misleading, or worse, irrelevant.

"Diminishing returns" is a description that applies to many film series. "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows" is a delicious exception.

Downey's career is something of a game of shadows, but it's one still worth playing, for now.

Robert Downey Jr. is back as Holmes and Jude Law returns as Dr. Watson. They retain the winning chemistry from the first, superior film, and that's enough to make you soldier on through the overly stylized action.

While director Guy Ritchie's excesses and modern concessions -- among them a lot of explosions -- remain intact, the parts of this second Sherlock Holmes are considerably more rewarding.

The skill level in the script is elementary school, my dear Watson.

It doesn't take a master of deduction to see that Ritchie has decided to play it too safe with this sequel.

The production is still needlessly overlong and overblown, a far cry from your father's (or even your cousin's) conception of the master detective. But it's certainly lively and has clever moments that involve Holmes' keen powers of observation...