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Men In Black 3

It’s not a sequel that needed to be made, but thanks to the charm of its leads and a tone that harks back to the wit and humour of the original, it’s a pretty enjoyable trip.

Bel Ami

The excellent female support cast saves this patchy effort, which is let down by its leading man and a flat screenplay.

The Dictator

A disappointing, often repulsive and mean-spirited mess of a film with seemingly only one real criterion on its agenda: to shock and offend.

The Woman In Black

Packed with atmosphere, this old-fashioned but deftly told ghost story delivers ample chills and thrills.

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Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows (Film)

by Cara Nash | December 21, 2011 12:55 | Edited December 21, 2011 12:57

Despite its one-liners & visual pizzazz, this fizzles out in terms of comprehensible action & character development.

No one would accuse 2009's Sherlock Holmes of being particularly deep and it definitely had its flaws, but it also made for a rollicking serve of entertainment, which saw Arthur Conan Doyle's venerable detective transformed into a whip-smart, slightly unhinged modern hero. Robert Downey Jr. gleefully made the character his own, but the real highlight of the piece was the punchy, pithy and affectionate interplay between Holmes and his partner in crime, Watson (a wonderfully matched Jude Law). However, instead of improving upon the weaknesses and filling the gaps of his first effort (ahem, character development), Guy Ritchie only seems concerned with making everything, well, bigger in his follow-up. The action is bigger, the explosions are bigger, the scope of the piece (which globe-trots across Europe) is bigger, and even the jokes seem bigger, but somehow the personal stakes never seem very high at all.

Whereas the narrative of the first film may have been silly, at least it was comprehensible. Here, it's disjointed and confusing, but what we're meant to gather is that Holmes suspects his arch-foe Moriarty (Jared Harris) is responsible for a string of bombings that are being blamed on anarchists and stirring up tensions in Europe. In order to expose him, Holmes enlists the help of an initially unwilling and recently hitched Watson and a mysterious gypsy (Noomi Rapace) whose brother is mixed up in the drama. With a fistful of varying plot points, as things grow increasingly convoluted, our involvement shrinks.

Sure, there's a lot happening, but not a lot of it means much or contributes anything. In almost a gung-ho approach, Ritchie throws everything at this picture including a bunch of unsatisfying cameos and appearances (Rachel McAdams bustles in and out before the first act is over and Eddie Marsan is sorely missed). He also throws up a never-ending barrage of stylistic flashes and tricks; the most notable of which sees Sherlock and co. running from gunfire and explosions through a forest with the director shifting in and out of slow motion for no other reason than stylistic pizzazz. All of this may have been easier to forgive if Ritchie had rooted the action in his characters, but even more than the first film, the director seems totally unconcerned with fleshing out their motivations or developing them by even the smallest measures.

Admittedly, there are still things to savour here. There are a handful of memorable jokes and one-liners. The interplay between Sherlock and Watson is not as irresistible the second time round, but it's still enjoyable. As the man of the hour, Downey is as cool as ever and it seems that Ritchie is happy to coast on his leading man's charm. As such, this is perfectly passable entertainment, but the type that we strangely seem to be watching from a distance.