Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows [Blu-Ray]

The immediate reaction one has to this Sherlock franchise is that no one involved in the making of it could've come near to reading a single page of the Conan Doyle stories. This is not a matter of literary sour grapes as in, "Oh, but the book was better," or "How dare they turn Holmes into a James Bond action hero!" Actually, much of that action-hero stuff is fun and acceptable in a re-imagining of classic material. No, the problem lies in the fact that the stories had something else other than charm and fun. They were damn good stories. With mysteries that kept you interested right until the final page, where Holmes makes all leaps and bounds of logic to reveal that what seemed impossible was only almost impossible. As Holmes has said, "Once you've eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." The truth about this Game of Shadows and its predecessor is that neither has a story worthy of its hero. The story is not only often improbable, it is often simply impossible to follow.

The Movie:

Now, I must admit that A Game of Shadows does do a better job of spitting out a story. The first film may well have been in written in Pig Latin for all the sense it made moving from scene to scene. This one flows much better in its attempts to mix elements of The Final Problem with gypsies, naked Mycrofts, and political assassinations. Downey Jr. and Jude Law are both well settled in their roles and, in fact, are the primary reason to see the film. They have fun with the characters in a His Girl Friday kind of way, with Holmes acting as a Walter Burns to Watson's Hildy Johnson. Watson hesitantly looks forward to settling down with his bride-to-be (Kelly Reilly) while Holmes tries to convince him that marriage is like purgatory and the only real life is one of excitement and danger.

Somewhere between these scenes of character comedy is a plot involving Professor James Moriarty (Jared Harris). It seems that the "Napoleon of Crime" has lit the fuse on a dastardly plot to start a world war by assassinating the leader of a world power at a peace conference in Switzerland. It's up to Holmes and Watson to stop him, with the aid of a gypsy fortune teller played blandly by the original Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Noomi Rapace. Downey Jr. and Jared Harris play well off each other, with Harris in particular giving a very strong and detailed performance as Moriarty. Rarely has this stock villain role seemed more three-dimensional. When the film was over I felt I understood Moriarty better than I ever had before.

Overall, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows is a major improvement over the previous entry. It's a fast-moving, confident piece of entertainment, well played by its cast and with a great, tongue -in-cheek score by Hans Zimmer.

The Disc:

The Blu-Ray of Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows is presented in 1080p High Definition (with a 2.4:1 aspect ratio), accompanied by English, French and Spanish audio tracks, and includes Blu-ray, DVD and Ultraviolet versions of the film, as well as a free interactive movie app. Thanks, Warners, but I don't really get excited about movie apps, Ultraviolets, or spare DVDs of the same movie. I now have a coaster I can use when watching the film on a hot summer day. The upside is that the image and sound quality is fantastic.

Warner?s Maximum Movie Mode includes the standard array of behind-the-scenes footage and "focus point" featurettes, none of which are particularly informative but have the usual self-congratulatory air that everyone involved was brilliant and nothing you could be doing in your life could be any cooler than to be working on a movie like Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. But then again, if you are like me, sitting here typing this in the dark, then that's probably true.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows [Blu-Ray] DetailsDistributor: Warner Bros. Home EntertainmentStarring: Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Noomi Rapace, Jared Harris, Rachel McAdams, Stephen Fry, Kelly Reilly, Eddie Marsan Produced by: Joel Silver, Lionel Wigham, Susan Downey, Dan LinWritten by: Michelle Mulrooney and Kiernan Mulrooney

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DVD Review - Sherlock Holmes Faces Death

Who doesn't like a taut Sherlock Holmes who-done-it movie?

Of course, we were spoiled by the brilliance of Jeremy Bretts' Holmes on BBC Granada Television in the 80's and 90's, but we must not forget how compelling Basil Rathbone's portrayal of Holmes was in the 1940's, where, except for the first two movies, "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" and "The Hound of the Baskervilles," Holmes' exploits were set in present World War II time time, rather than the Victorian times of the late 1800's, when Arthur Conan Doyle wrote the memorable series. It safe to say, despite the dozen of actors who played the famous sleuth in the past 70 years, both Rathbone and Brett were the definitive Holmes of their period.

Before his acting career began, Rathbone was a officer in the Liverpool Scottish, 2nd Battalion, rising to the rank of Captain. During the first World War, he was an expert at disguising himself, so that he could scout enemy positions during the daylight, rather than at night, which was the custom in those days. This was one trait he shared with the fictitious Holmes, who was a master of disguises. In 1918, Rathbone was award the prestigious Military Cross.

Upon his release from the service, Rathbone embarked on a illustrious stage career, which included playing Shakespeare's Romeo. Switching to the movies, Rathbone distinguished himself by playing swashbuckling villains. He was an especially adept swordsman, and he used his athletic ability to his advantage in several sword fight scenes, in movies like Captain Blood, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Tower of London and Mark of Zorro. He also received two Academy Award nominations for his parts in "Romeo and Juliet" and "If I Were King."

From 1939-46, Rathbone appeared in fourteen Sherlock Holmes movies, with Nigel Bruce playing his bumbling sidekick Dr. Watson. Conan Doyle wrote Watson as a staid and serious character; "stout fellow" as Holmes often called him. Yet Bruce's portrayal of Watson was sometimes comic and always eccentric, which people said was Bruce's real personality anyway. So in effect, when Bruce was playing Watson, he was really playing himself.

Sherlock Holes Faces Death (1943), which is drawn from an old Holmes short story called the Musgrave Ritual, opens in a pub, where a creepy black crow mutters the single, sinister word of "Blood." When he hears the bird's exclamation, a young sailor, played by future Rat Packer Peter Lawford, acting in his first movie, looks looks like he's ready to jump out of his skin.

We cut to a creepy old house named Musgrove Manor, which is being used as a nursing home for several officers who are suffering from shell shock, which we now call posttraumatic stress disorder. Dr. Watson is the temporary live-in physician, and his assistant Dr. Sexton is attacked outside the house and nearly killed. Watson calls in Holmes. When they arrive at Musgrove Manor, they find the owner of the house Geoffrey Musgave dead outside the house under a bed of leaves.

Scotland Yard Inspector Lestrade (Dennis Hoey) is called in, and immediately draws one bad conclusion after another. It makes you wonder how this simpleton ever became a police officer in the first place, let alone an Inspector. For some absurd reason, Lestrade arrests American air force Captain Vickery (Milburn Stone), who is in love with the gorgeous, blond Sally Musgrave (Hillary Brooke). Brooke was later the straight woman, who played foil to Abbott and Costello during their 1950's television shows.

Red herrings are inserted throughout the movie, including a clock that strikes thirteen times instead of twelve, which turns out to mean absolutely nothing. Dead bodies keep turning up and before Sally can receive her inheritance, she must recite a centuries' old ritual, with makes no sense to anyone, except Holmes of course. Holmes realizes that the words in the ritual are clues to locating a treasure hidden centuries before in the basement. Since the upstairs main floor of Musgarve Manor is covered with black and white tiles, Holmes deduces it was meant to be used as a chess board, to indicate the exact spot in the basement below where treasure is hidden. Holmes uses the remaining soldiers and household help as chess pieces, with the Musgrave Ritual's words read by Sally directing their moves.

The rest of the movie is a mad dash for the treasure, while Lestrade, thank God, gets lost in a maze of tunnels set throughout the cavernous estate, as Holmes saves the day and the treasure.

After a slow start, the last half hour of the one hour and ten minute movie rockets by with one suspenseful moment after another. I give Sherlock Holmes Faces Death a solid four stars out of a possible five.

At the movies' end, Holmes tells Watson, "The days of grab and greed are over."

That is, until the next Sherlock Holmes movie.

A Vietnam veteran in the United States Navy, Joseph J. Bruno started out in the newspaper business in the 1970's as a sports columnist for the New York Tribune. During the 70's and 80's, Bruno was an associate editor for Boxing Illustrated and monthly contributor to Ring Magazine. In 1986-1987, Bruno wrote a sports column for the Times Herald Record in Middletown, New York. His articles have also appeared in Penthouse Magazine, Razor Magazine, Boxing Today, Boxing World, International Boxing Digest, Referee Magazine and Inside Boxing. Bruno was elected Vice President of the Boxing Writers of America from 1982-86, and Vice President of the International Boxing Writers from 1980-89. In 2000, Bruno's first novel Angel of Death was published by iUniverse.com. Bruno's second novel, Find Big Fat Fanny Fast, has just been released in ebook form at Scribd.com, Smashwords and Amazon Kindle.