SHERLOCK HOLMES - A GAME OF SHADOWS

Warner Bros. Pictures

Rated PG-13

Running time: 129 Minutes




Click below to watch the Sherlock Holmes - A Game of Shadows trailer.



In Warner Bros. Pictures Sherlock Holmes - A Game of Shadows, which is based on the stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - the world's greatest detective Sherlock Holmes, Robert Downey Jr., plays a deadly game of chess against a new arch nemesis by the name of Professor James Moriarty, Jared Harris, just before World War I.

In this sequel to Sherlock Holmes, Downey brings his reluctant partner Dr. Watson, Jude Law, back into Holmes adventurous investigations - this time against Harris. Law is reluctant to get involved with Downey again because Law is getting married to Kelly Reilly. Although she does not get much screen time, charming Reilly appears to be a worthy wife to Law - especially in Downey's investigative world. The cameos by Rachel McAdams adds a sense of continuity to the first Sherlock Holmes movie.

A series of deadly events around the world has Downey somehow conclude that mastermind Harris is at the center of these events. Downey's investigations of Harris lead Downey and Law all across Europe with Harris one step ahead of them. Gypsy Noomi Rapace is the sister of a man who is integral to Harris's plans and joins Downey and Law in their pursuit of her brother and Harris amongst the rich and powerful.

I liked that fact that they had Sherlock Holmes smarter brother Mycroft Holmes, Stephen Fry, in the film. Although he was not portrayed as exceptionally smarter than Sherlock, Fry was more of an influential government official. Too bad that Fry did not have much more screen time, just slightly more than Reilly. The relationships between all the characters was very good, and you felt that Harris was an intellectual equal to Downey as an opponent. And both Downey's and Law's observations and deductive reasoning of forensic scenes were incredible. Law makes a very good partner for Downey. Downey's disguises were very good, especially his urban camouflage. I am not sure if the urban camouflage was special effects or really good camouflage as I could not tell where he was until he revealed himself. Director Guy Ritchie's slow-motion montages of various action scenes adds a sense of drama to otherwise typical action scenes. The credits were portrayed as if you were reading a book, as well as having the camera panning over excerpts of Doyle's books as Law writes about Downey's exploits. The film itself is full of excerpts of Doyle's books and leaves itself open to a sequel.

Rated PG-13 for violence, sexual situations, and drug use. Running time: 129 Minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

Pancho's Movie Reviews

WAR HORSE

Touchstone Pictures

Rated PG-13

Running Time: 146 Minutes



Click below to watch the War Horse trailer.



In Touchstone Pictures War Horse directed by Steven Spielberg and based on the children's book and stage production War Horse by Michael Morpurgo, Jeremy Irvine's horse Joey, whom Irvine has raised since Joey was a foal at their poor farm, is sold by his war veteran father Peter Mullan to the British cavalry at the start of World War I.

A combination of Black Beauty and Saving Private Ryan - the film is more about the horse Joey, than it is about the war as the film follows Joey and the various horse tending people Joey encounters on his various adventures. Due to the fortunes of war, Joey goes back and forth between both sides of the war. As a result of which, I cared about the various characters Joey encounters during the war - no matter which side you are on. Having the Germans speaking English throughout the movie was a little disconcerting to me and made it difficult for me to tell which side of the war Joey was on - as under battle conditions, everyone looks almost alike. I would have preferred to have read subtitles when the Germans were speaking, but from a commercial point of view it made sense as most of the audience would not like to read subtitles throughout half of the movie. Since the movie was mostly filmed in England, there were no American soldiers integrated into the British units throughout the war.

The uses of horse-ridden calvary was initially a surprise for me as I generally think of WWI as the beginning of mechanised warfare which was used by Great Briton and France with tanks. However WWI was a combination of using both 20th century technology and 19th century tactics. Thus, a calvary charge with swords - while a sound tactic in the 19th century, and effective with thousand pound horses bearing down on lightly armed men - is hopefully outclassed against a defensive line of machine guns. The use of horses hauling artillery was much more relatable to me as the German Army was ahead in the war in fielding heavy artillery.

The trench warfare of No Man's Land, while scary with the machine guns, is not as intense as the first ten minutes of Saving Private Ryan - probably because there is a distance in No Man's Land between the audience and the British troops as they go over-the-top of the protective trenches into the heavily machine gunned barbed-wire battlefield, as compared to the up close and personal battle scenes in Saving Private Ryan. One reason for why the distancing might be, may be due to the post-traumatic stress reaction war veterans had to watching the first ten minutes of Saving Private Ryan. Certainly, you saw no real graphic consequences of the battle - even with the use of poison gas in the trenches. Although with gas masks, chemical warfare was of limited use in the war anyway despite the stigma of the use of poison gas during the war.

The horses were definitely the stars in this movie as you definitely got acting and emotion out of these beautiful horses, even if they are animals. The horses, especially Joey, care for each other and they make for nice tear-jerker characters for the film.

At the end of the film, the audience applauded. A rare thing indeed, which makes me think War Horse will be a contender for an Oscar.

Rated PG-13 for violence and language. Running Time: 146 Minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

 Pancho's Movie Reviews