Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
Director Guy Ritchie knows how to produce a rip roaring action film. His cinematic debut Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels was a no holds barred look at a criminal underworld and thus it is no surprise that his versions of Sherlock Holmes retain much of the same spirit. However, his latest instalment in the Holmes series is a disappointment.
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows takes place around the nuptials of sidekick Dr. Watson. Robert Downey Jnr. and Jude Law reprise their roles, as Holmes and Watson respectively, with the same chemistry that made the first film so enjoyable. This time they assist Madame Heron (Noomi Rapace) as they battle Holmes’s nemesis Professor Moriarty (Jared Harris) and try to stop a world war. Stephen Fry makes a welcome cameo as Mycroft Holmes and plays an integral part in the final outcome.
The strength of the first Sherlock Holmes movie was its different take on a classic character. Robert Downey Jnr. gave Holmes a more macho persona to balance out his intellect with a knack for gadgets to get himself out of tricky situations. This is continued in A Game of Shadows but the novelty of seeing fight scenes played out before they occur wears a bit thin and one wonders what else Holmes has to offer. In fact, Holmes seems less intelligent in this film and relies more on a parade of ridiculous looking costumes rather than brains to escape most situations. Combined with the fact that Moriarty is clearly better prepared than other adversaries, the upside of this is that it does create the real tension that Holmes may in fact be beaten.
The other weak points of the film are the dialogue and action scenes. Whereas Holmes and Watson maintained a witty banter in the first film, their interactions seem dull and lack spark. This is not the fault of the actors as the lines they are given to work with are clearly below par. Moreover, this is made worse by the indeterminately long action sequences that seem designed to show off every special effect possible rather than entertain the audience. The fight through the woods spruiked in the trailers is perhaps the best example with an overuse of close ups, slow motion and explosions while not adding significantly to the storyline.
Ultimately this is not the worthy successor to the first Sherlock Holmes film. Guy Ritchie has been hamstrung by a poorer script but this cannot negate the fact that his handling of the action sequences was tiresome and the film overlong.
Women of the 6th Floor
This is the first film of the year I have walked out of the cinema for. Honestly, it was that cringe inducing and predictable that after forty minutes I had had enough. In fact, it made Melancholia seemed bearable as at least I had an interest in the final outcome.
My major gripe with this film: realism. Touted as a “sleeper hit” and an “upstairs/downstairs comedy”, I expected a quirky film with some funny class jokes. Instead, Phillippe LeGuay delivers a trite and predictable comedy that reminds me why I avoid “sleep hits” like Death at a Funeral. His characters are plain, everyone overacts their roles and the situations are improbable and fanciful.
Take the leader character, Jean-Louis Joubert, a wealthy Frenchmen and stockbroker. No matter how kind he might be, he wouldn’t suddenly be spending money on plumbers and phone calls to placate house maids in his building. The whole premise of the “upstairs/downstairs” comedy is that the rich cannot understand what real life is like and thus must be exposed as frauds. Thus, making your main character sympathetic to start with already fails the formula. Also, his obsession with boiled eggs, meant as a joke no doubt, makes him appear to have a borderline personality disorder.
Finally, it seems that in an effort to exaggerate the workers from the rich, the director insisted that all the Spanish actors heap on the “Spanishness”. Never in one scene have I seen so much yelling, hand gestures and over the top emotions as when they all decide to help the new maid clean Joubert’s house. Apart from the improbability of them skipping a whole days work and avoiding punishment, the singing is truly awful and makes the housework seem enjoyable (once again counter to the whole upstairs/downstairs genre).
In retrospect, despite having only seen forty minutes of the film, its awfulness is apparent in the length of this review. Don’t waste your money or time with this French garbage, cleaning your own home would be a much better way to spend the two hours.
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