Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011)

Director: Guy Ritchie

Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Noomi Rapace, Jared Harris

Have I Seen It Before: Yep.

Did I Like It: I was a little down on Sherlock Holmes (2009) when I re-watched it recently, feeling like it was taking stray elements of the Doyle Canon and packaging it into an assembly-line action movie. All of the ominous portents of the Moriarty (Harris) to follow in that original film come to pass here. That means this becomes a sausage of typical action movie sequels, filled with bits of the Doyle Canon.

And somehow, I found myself enjoying it more than I did the original. Why? There’s something to be said for those genre films that feel unencumbered by setting things up. There’s a breezy adventure to be had here. It also helps that everything that did work about the original has mostly stayed in place here. Rachel McAdams is tragically underused*, but Downey and Law’s chemistry is still firmly in place, and the rustic score and production design set this apart from other on-screen Holmeses and Watsons.

With a rebound like this, it’s kind of a wonder how this film series hasn’t continued with several more entries up until this point. Even in those uncertain years before Avengers: Endgame (2019) and Oppenheimer (2023), a return to Baker Street might have been a smart move for Downey’s career. There are even whispers of a return trip with this version of the detectives (although who knows if Ritchie will be on board) is still in the offing, but I have a hard time imagining such a film existing without it being primarily about Holmes and Watson being over the hell. That feels less fun, and like it has been done before.

Then again, blanching at the idea of “it’s been done before,” would mean that no one would ever play the detectives again.

*She may be the Paul Winfield of female movie stars tragically underused in franchise sequels. I’m looking in your direction, this film, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022).

Sherlock Holmes (2009)

Director: Guy Ritchie

Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Rachel McAdams, Mark Strong

Have I Seen it Before: Oh, sure. Some of you might have a hard time remembering, but in the late aughts, early twenty-tens, you were actually subject to being charged with a misdemeanor if you missed the theatrical run of a Robert Downey Jr. movie.

Did I Like It: Is the film great, or is it just that hard to screw up an adventure with Holmes and Watson*? Purists may want to blanche at any number of decisions made here. An American playing the detective is the kind of uncertain choice people might harp upon. Other Americans have played the role, to be sure, and while Downey manages to bring his breezy torrent of cool behavior to the role, there’s something in his attempt at an accent that makes one wonder if he ever really shook off the immersion he attempted in Chaplin (1992).

Jamming the stories of Conan Doyle into an almost obsessively paint-by-numbers action movie might draw some complaints as well. It’s fundamentally a buddy-cop movie. We see a big set piece in the early minutes of the film, and sure enough, it is the backdrop for the climax. To remind us all that it is indeed the late 2000s/early-2010s, Mark Strong plays our starter villain, and hints are strewn about that if we all avoided our potential misdemeanors, Holmes and Watson will face off against their rightful villain here in a couple of years.

And yet, it all kind of works. I had a good time then, and I have a good time now. Maybe Downey is really that charming. Maybe—and I really do think this is the answer—it is, indeed, a far loftier challenge to screw up Sherlock Holmes than we might have originally thought.

*Will Ferrell and company managed to get the job done in Holmes & Watson (2018), but the less said about that, the happier we all will be.