{"id":5415,"date":"2012-08-13T14:13:53","date_gmt":"2012-08-13T18:13:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=5415"},"modified":"2012-08-13T14:13:53","modified_gmt":"2012-08-13T18:13:53","slug":"br-sherlock-holmes-a-game-of-shadows-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=5415","title":{"rendered":"BR: Sherlock Holmes – A Game of Shadows (2011)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Return to: <\/strong>Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Blu-ray, DVD, Film Reviews<\/a> \/ <\/em>S<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>Film: Excellent\/ BR Transfer: Excellent\/ BR Extras: Excellent<\/p>\n

Label: Warner Home Video\/ Region: All \/\u00a0Released: June 12, 2012<\/p>\n

Genre: Sherlock Holmes \/ Mystery \/ Comedy \/ Action<\/p>\n

Synopsis: Holmes and Watson must avoid becoming the doomed pawns of Prof. Moriarty’s eeevil plans. That is all.<\/p>\n

Special Features: Maximum Movie Mode with Robery Downey, Jr. \/ Movie App for iOS and Android devices \/ DVD copy of film and select extras \/ Ultraviolet Digital Copy<\/p>\n

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Review:<\/p>\n

In practice, the first sequel in a franchise tends to be the weaker of the two (Die Hard II<\/strong>, Mission: Impossible II<\/strong>) but there are exceptions (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan<\/strong>, Aliens<\/strong>) that manage to break the rule of diminishing returns.<\/p>\n

Whereas the first Sherlock Holmes<\/strong> (2009) film rambled on with a meandering story and had Robert Downey\u2019s performance being eclipsed by a far more interesting Jude Law, the screenwriters of Game of Shadows<\/strong> seemed to feel the best way to handle Holmes and Dr. Watson was to enhance their divisions and combative behaviour based on what had been established in the first film: Holmes had overstepped his boundary and offended Watson and his bride-to-be, and the super detective\u2019s arrogance had gone too far too many time for Watson\u2019s patience, mandating a needed separation.<\/p>\n

When Shadows<\/strong> begins, Watson\u2019s intellectual self is in the process of pushing him away from Holmes, and he\u2019s looking forward to his new life as a married man with a hottie, yet Holmes\u2019 trickery creates more grievous upsets \u2013 tossing the new bride out of a moving train, for example \u2013 which aggravates their professional relationship. Their need to remain together stems from the evil maneuvering of slimy Prof. Moriarty (slimy Jared Harris), who appears to have killed Holmes\u2019 fiery love Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams \u2013 hottie of the prior film, and sure to return in the next sequel) and is now determined to wipe out the dynamic detective duo.<\/p>\n

The story is unsurprisingly byzantine \u2013 new clues yield new near-death experiences \u2013 and the addition of Madam Simza Heron (Noomi Rapace) really does nothing except ensure there\u2019s a pretty face bumping into due when things are getting too masculine, but what distinguishes Shadows<\/strong> from its predecessor is the dry humour and Holmes\u2019 increasingly odd behaviour, often donning more elaborate disguises, and driving Watson to near madness (and murder). It\u2019s a tighter script in terms of dialogue, and more so than in the first film, Guy Ritchie\u2019s visual indulgences work extremely well in several kinetic action scenes. A chase through a thick backwoods is a superbly choreographed with bullets, canons, slo-mo footage, frame ratcheting, kinetic editing, and wit scurrying across the frame, whereas Watson\u2019s sad \u2018bachelor party\u2019 works with more traditional editorial touches.<\/p>\n

Also on hand in Games <\/strong>is Hans Zimmer\u2019s score which either by design, by its existence in a temp track, or coincidence integrates small aspects of Ennio Morricone (specifically, a cue from Two Mules for Sister Sarah<\/strong>!), plus more klezmer music and Wagnerian bombast. It\u2019s a great score that neatly supports and enhances the antics of the detectives without treating them as buffoons; they\u2019re just a brilliant, eccentric couple who in different times might have been married.<\/p>\n

Warner Home Video\u2019s Blu-ray includes a sharp transfer and standard making-of extras, of which the most detailed are in WHV\u2019s Maximum Movie Mode, covering most production aspects (but lacking an exclusive showcase on the score\u2019s creation).<\/p>\n

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\u00a9 2012 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

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External References<\/em>:<\/p>\n

IMDB <\/a>— Official Website<\/a> — Soundtrack CD Review<\/a> — \u00a0Soundtrack Album<\/a> — Composer Filmography<\/a><\/p>\n

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Return to<\/strong>:\u00a0Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Blu-ray, DVD, Film Reviews<\/a> <\/em>\/\u00a0S<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Return to: Home \/\u00a0Blu-ray, DVD, Film Reviews \/ S . Film: Excellent\/ BR Transfer: Excellent\/ BR Extras: Excellent Label: Warner Home Video\/ Region: All \/\u00a0Released: June 12, 2012 Genre: Sherlock Holmes \/ Mystery \/ Comedy \/ Action Synopsis: Holmes and Watson must avoid becoming the doomed pawns of Prof. Moriarty’s eeevil plans. That is all. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[18],"tags":[1497,162,1498,1496,1141],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-1pl","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5415"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5415"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5415\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5418,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5415\/revisions\/5418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}