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A Game of Shadows

There are some great crime fighting duos in the annals of screened entertainment. Holmes and Watson can hold their own against the best of them, at least Guy Ritchie’s version can. I didn’t think this a few years ago when I left the first Sherlock Holmes so my expectations were low.

Well, as it inevitably happens when I have low expectations, I was pleasantly surprised. It turned out to be an exciting and humorous trip to the theatre on New Year’s Eve to see A Game of Shadows.

By the way, did I tell you that referencing the director when discussing movies increases your pop culture street cred considerably? Often, if you play it right, it could elevate the conversation to high culture.

You want to talk crime fighting duos? I’ll tell you about crime-fighting duos. My generation had:

They were often characterized by one crazy guy and another guy who’s like, “Hey dude, you’re crazy, nooo way, I got a family at home and I gotta feed my fish and what you’re suggesting could be illegal …so you go ahead, and I’ll follow a few steps behind and probably get embroiled in the brouhaha anyhow, but I’m on record as saying ‘this is crazy, this is crazy’.”

Oops, that last part was from Vacation I think. That’s genre-mixing, another surefire way to jack up your pop culture street cred.

Holmes (Downey, Jr.) and Watson (Law) carry on this tradition of crime fighting duos, Holmes being the crazy guy and Watson playing the family man. They team up with Noomi Rapace, of TGWTDT fame. It looks like the original Salander is getting the best of the new Salander for now, based on the Christmas week box office. I don’t think this will last. I think the book fans will keep TGWTDT alive much longer.

A Game of Shadows had some great slow-motion action scenes, a lot of quirky humor from Downey, Jr. and Law, a very villainous villain, and a pretty exciting and inventive ending.

I give it a thumb’s up.