2012 Movie #26 - Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011) After the pleasant surprise of the first Guy Ritchie Sherlock Holmes film, I was looking forward to the next film in the franchise. The high points continue to be the chemistry between Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law and moments of visual brilliance. Unfortunately the movie quickly devolves into “stuff happening” for the majority of its run-time, as the many visual flourishes often distract from the key information and character beats needed to engage in the story. It’s dangerous to focus so heavily on style over story with a film like this, as it’s easy to lose the audience involvement when you rely so heavily on unseen mysterious machinations to drive the plot. What I’ll take away: slow-motion is a dangerous thing. If you use it well, it can be thrilling and beautiful. If you use it poorly, it can distance the audience, ruin the storytelling pace, and lose focus on the important elements of a scene. High-res

2012 Movie #26 - Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011)

After the pleasant surprise of the first Guy Ritchie Sherlock Holmes film, I was looking forward to the next film in the franchise. The high points continue to be the chemistry between Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law and moments of visual brilliance. Unfortunately the movie quickly devolves into “stuff happening” for the majority of its run-time, as the many visual flourishes often distract from the key information and character beats needed to engage in the story. It’s dangerous to focus so heavily on style over story with a film like this, as it’s easy to lose the audience involvement when you rely so heavily on unseen mysterious machinations to drive the plot.

What I’ll take away: slow-motion is a dangerous thing. If you use it well, it can be thrilling and beautiful. If you use it poorly, it can distance the audience, ruin the storytelling pace, and lose focus on the important elements of a scene.

Overheard at the Baker Street tube station.


Two American tourist-girls look at the tiles on the subway wall illustrated with the silhouette of Sherlock Holmes.

Tourist Girl 1:
Look! Charles Dickens!

Tourist Girl 2:
I think it's Sherlock Holmes.

Tourist Girl 1:
Yeah, duh, Dickens wrote Sherlock Holmes.

Tourist Girl 2:
Dickens isn't a writer, he's a painter.

Tourist Girl 1:
Whatever, painted Sherlock Holmes.


It sounds fake, but this conversation is real. I overheard it about 5 years ago, and it's the basis by which I judge stupidity.