Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows [Blu-ray + DVD] [Region Free]

As with the first Sherlock Holmes film, brilliant acting by Robert Downey Jr as the eccentric but highly intelligent Sherlock Holmes and Jude Law, the great Doctor Watson. The same scenery, alive with the activity, filth, violence and squalor of Victorian life and the fights are often punctuated with humour. However, the enemy this time is the genius but evil Professor Moriarty played wonderfully by Jared Harris. Love this film and I don't tire of watching it over again, especially in Blu Ray.

Robert Downey Jr. plays Sherlock Holmes and Jude law plays Dr Watson. Homes pits his wits against the protagonist lots of lighthearted humour great fight scenes and great Storytelling.

Highly entertaining film, really a first class film with first class actors.

As a stuffy Canon purist who despised the first movie for its painfully out of character portrayals and Holmes' utter slovenliness, I can say with honesty that despite my reservations,'A Game of Shadows' not only outshined its predecessor, at its heart was more substance than I ever thought possible for what I'd dismissed as a mindless action flick. Guy Ritchie clearly took pains to correct much of what was broken in his '09 effort, from the little touches to the major issues regarding the disjointed feel to his directing. I was relieved to note that there were improvements made in cleaning up Holmes' intolerable slovenliness - though by no means does he display the "quiet primness of dress" Watson wrote him as having, he is slightly more of a conventionally dressed gentleman here. Slightly. And while RDJ's Holmes is far from the "quiet thinker of Baker Street", here we see performances that become entirely more recognizable.The modernity and steampunk elements have been toned down somewhat, and the fact that two completely different (and talented) writers had scripted this one was glaringly obvious. We have a Holmes whose intelligence has been dulled for the sake of comic relief, I am sad to say, but in this film it is done in a more tolerable - even endearing - manner. I also confess to despising Jude Law's Watson in the first film, for what I thought was an uncalled for level of hostility. Best of all was the fact that the razor edge to his character was blunted in the sequel, and we we are given a Watson who is exasperated, yet lurking underneath was a palpable fondness not present in the first installment. I could believe that underneath it all was a friendship, and that honestly made all the difference in convincing me this was the man who would willingly follow Holmes to the ends of the earth. We are shown the camaraderie and affection between Holmes and Watson that existed in Doyle's stories, and understand how it hurt them both when the doctor marries Mary Morstan. Regardless of how you view their relationship, this did pain Holmes in Canon, and I've never seen that heartbreak rendered so beautifully and respectfully as it was here.I was especially taken with Jared Harris' performance as Professor Moriarity, and the back story surrounding him has quickly become a favourite with me. He was quite convincing as an amoral intellect to rival the foremost mind of his time - when they clash, it is genuinely frightening, and the shivers come not because we think he's some volatile nutter, but because his decided lack of a conscience becomes a true counterweight to Holmes' sense of justice. Holmes of Canon was a flawed man (why we love him, honestly) but he was also a good man. He would have come to the same conclusions about humanity and the coming wars as Moriarity did in this film, but opposed them all the same. He is a worthy opponent, and we feel this throughout.Of course, I had my issues, mainly with the overdone action sequences that I find boring and the scene in the train where Holmes is decked out in drag. But these quibbles are easy to overlook when the movie was such a fresh take on 'The Final Problem', when we were given such a beautiful representation of the love (whether you see it platonic or otherwise) between Holmes and Watson, and that memorable ending scene where all Holmes' logic is cast to the wayside with one selfless act. It was truly gorgeous, and elevated this from being just another action flick to an actual relevant movie pastiche. While it doesn't approach the loyalty as that of the BBC adaptation, it does do ACD's immortal characters justice this time around.

You would need to watch both films as thay are follow on films

Good film

Wore out my old copy ,new friends had never seen - it had to be doneGreat stuff

good service

Good movie

J'ai bien aimé

Che dire... se vi è piaciuto il primo adorerete questo seguito.. "more of the same"! Libero dalle pastoie del primo episodio (nel quale giocoforza vanno "presentati" i vari protagonisti), Guy Ritchie si scatena (aiutato anche da alcune trovate di Robert Downey Jr.) realizzando un ottimo mix azione-deduzione.Eccellenti in primis le scene action, specialmente quelle sul treno (la gatling è da antologia!) o la fuga dal laboratorio tedesco (con un cannoneggiamento epico): se si ha un impianto audio all'altezza (almeno 5.1), sono sicuramente da mostrare agli amici. Anche il bullet-time è realizzato bene e non troppo invasivo o ripetitivo. Riguardo all'intreccio, lascia alcuni spiragli aperti (come tutti i "secondi episodi") e il sottofinalino era anche un po' inutile (spiega troppo) ma va bene anche così: chiaramente, il magistrale scontro (soprattutto mentale) tra Holmes e Moriarty è la portante di tutto questo "Gioco di ombre", ma anche Sebastian Moran è un simpaticissimo cattivone!Gli autori, checché se ne dica, hanno avuto un grande rispetto per la figura canonica di Holmes, umano, fallace (e ne paga le conseguenze...), e non certo un supereroe infallibile, anzi tutt'altro: a volte, come nei racconti, tutti i suoi sforzi non riescono ad impedire l'inevitabile, ma solo a ritardarlo...Dal punto di vista tecnico, luci e ombre: il Blu-Ray ha un buon video, ma la fotografia desaturata e spesso in notturna e con color correction non aiuta

Good movie

Nothing really to say about a movie other than it's a mystery type one. If you like Robert Downey Jr then you will like this, he is a bit of a drunk in it and there is some comedy in it. Good movie anyways.