LET THE BATTLE OF THE TITANS COMMENCE : "SHERLOCK HOLMES: A GAME OF SHADOWS"

I have been waiting for this film for SO long. I love the new take on Sherlock Holmes. To be absolutely honest, I believe I do prefer the Benedict Cumberbach version of him better though. You know, the series. Are they doing any more of those by the way? If yes, when? I definitely should check on that. But in the meanwhile, let us return to the film in hand. Now, before, Holmes was the epitome of the old-fashioned hero. Strong, manly, spoke little, went straight to the point when he did and was a complete gentleman in all other ways besides. This Holmes is a brilliant mind and a brilliant detective, however also childish, selfish and possible manic-depressive. I also love the new Watson, who has his own character and personality (albeit he finds it hard to assert them when Holmes is around – but this is understandable). Gone is the bumbling doctor, whose main duty in life was to ask dumb questions at the right time so the reader could grasp the intricacies of the plot. This Watson (especially since he happens to have the body of Jude Law), is a force to be reckoned with.

And Holmes simply cannot do without him.  Watson finds this out much to his distress after his wedding, because even on their honeymoon, Holmes cannot seem to leave them alone.  Not only does he burst in on them, oh no, he brings a foray of disaster and assassins with him. This, however, may be a slightly unfair on Holmes. Not least because he is not so much pestering Watson as saving his life and the life of his bride. The reason they have assassins after them however is because Holmes has finally met his match:  An arch-villain whose intellect and genius may well actually match up to that of Holmes, Professor James Moriarty. And Watson just happens to be Holmes’ Achilles heel.  Moriarty’s aim however, reaches far beyond messing with Holmes and Watson. He has his sights set on the control of all of Europe, possibly the entire world. And Holmes is the only person capable of figuring out that he is behind all these machinations, much less stop him…

I love this series. So much so that even though a purist would say that Holmes should die and stay dead after his fight with Moriarty (oh come on. You knew that. I cannot believe you haven’t actually read the books. Shame on you.  No, really.) Anyway, the point is, I don’t care. You may have figured out by now, I am a sucker for anyone and anything that makes me laugh. Robert Downey Jr. is hilarious. I’m talking belly laughs, clapping and stomping on the floor. His interaction with Watson is perfect (as I outlined a tad in the first paragraph). The action sequences and effects are both spectacular and exciting. And the storyline is both complex and imaginative, just as a Holmes – Moriarty story should be. Oh and if you think about it, you could argue it asks serious political questions about things going on behind the scenes in any given conflict. But it is so well done; you don’t necessarily need to think about it, if you see what I mean. It’s there if you want to. Very unobtrusive yet fully there. Yet, if you just want to watch a funny and brilliant movie and not “think” about anything in particular, well you can do that too. It all depends on what you want from your evening’s entertainment – and this baby pretty much has everything you could need… 

WHEELING AND DEALING FOR THEIR LIVES : "LOCK, STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS"

Yes, another epic / infamous Guy Ritchie – Jason Statham extravaganza. And yes, I know, all this is not actually considered much more than just entertainment. But then again, I reckon we need to be entertained from time to time, right ? And if this entertainment basically comes in the form of a successful, if slightly violent comedy concerning the crime world, well, all the better. On the back of the copy of the film that I watched, the DVD company had opted not to put much of a synopsis, just a lot of visuals and comments from critics. I found this a bit odd but carried on watching the film regardless. It turned out there was a reason for this. Although the film starts off on quite simple premises, it grows and grows, adds in characters left, right and center, strands of the story interweave when you least expect them too, in short it all gets so convoluted and the film is such a comedy of errors that I have actually now written half a paragraph about it without being able to tell you the story itself. So go figure… =) Ok seriously though, here’s my stab at it without giving the plot away. So, 1, 2 3 and 4 are four mates. They make their living in various forms of shady business, 1 shifts stolen goods, 2 cheats in high stakes card games etc. It’s a bit of a risky business but they seem to be basically getting on alright, until that is, 2 (who is not, naturally, the only person cheating at high stakes poker) ends up owing a notoriously ruthless crime boss half a million pounds. Now this involves his three mates as well, as they helped him get the money to join the game together and the crime boss is well aware of this. So the giddy foursome have a week to get the money together or… Er you know. Apart from the obvious, the crime boss has also declared he will take 2’s father’s bar – not exactly a clean slate himself – which complicates matters. Now, it seems pretty straight forward – and a tad boring – up till here. It is precisely at this point that things start to get “complicated”. It all starts, as you can imagine, with a cunning plan – a heist no less – to get the money together. It goes totally AWOL from thereon in. I will say no more, but believe me, it’s absolutely brilliant. Guy Ritchie has two main assets in my book. Firstly, the two films of his that I have seen – Snatch and this one – both contain, clean, snappy editing that is especially well suited to their genres. The editing is also very fast – paced and innovative, keeps you on your toes throughout. Ritchie then couples that with snappy dialogue. It’s a very British thing really, you either like it or you don’t; I personally love it. Snappy, sarcastic, but creative and hilarious with it. Throughout the film, like Snatch, there are a few clichés. But I mean, as long as you’re not looking for anything life-changing you’ll be fine. Ritchie also is very good at getting together an absolute plethora of bizarre characters. They may or may not be clichés, my point is there are so many of them you would never really expect them to work well together. Funnily enough no, everyone has just the right amount of screen time and although they seem disparate they work really, really well together. In short, yes, a very fun and funny movie. Plus, I really cannot over-estimate the success of the script in weaving all manner of bizarre storylines together. I mean if you watched Snatch and thought that was convoluted… You really ain’t seen nothing yet…

FAST LIVING, WHEELING AND DEALING WITH "SNATCH"

I had heard a fair bit about this one. Mainly in connection to Brad Pitt’s Irish accent therein. And, as a side note, said accent is something to be marveled at. Even Irish friends gave it the seal of approval and trust me, they do not approve of every Irish accent going in cinemas these days. Now, I am not, generally speaking, a great fan of Guy Richie. I was actually surprised to see he directed this little number. But what can I tell you, apparently there is an exception to every rule and I just hit mine. Snatch is a fun and fast-paced piece of comedy – action, ideal to brighten up your evening after a tiring day at work…
Turkish (Jason Statham) is a boxing promoter. Only he isn’t a big-shots boxing promoter yet, so he mainly concentrates on illegal bare-knuckle boxing stuff. The whole thing’s a bit iffy ofcourse but Turkish has a few good fighters on so he makes a living. That and the slot-machine arcade. One fine day, however, the whole operation comes into a bit of jeopardy. It all starts with Turkish deciding to buy a new caravan (he lives in a caravan and the old one is… Well… Falling to pieces). Only he decides to buy said caravan from a group of Irish travelers who are passing through the area. This turns out to be a big mistake. What starts as a simple business transaction ends in his best fighter (who is due for a fight with the fighter of the local crime boss in a matter of days by the way. And like most crime bosses, “Bricktop” does not like this kind of nasty surprise) being hospitalized by the Irish Traveller’s equivalent of a bare-knuckle boxing champion (Brad Pitt and his impressive… Accent ;) ). Turkish can only really see one way out of the whole thing, getting the traveler to fight instead. But not only does the traveler not quite perform as he is asked / expected; an 84 carat diamond, three very inept robbers, a dog and a Russian ex-KGB agent enter the mix with alarming speed. It will take all his ingenuity – and possibly a miracle or two – for Turkish to get out of this mess alive…
Ok, so, the thing to remember is, don’t expect this film to actually change your life – if you see what I mean. It is, however, genuinely very good fun. It is classic British humor, one cannot avoid that fact, however it is mixed with a lot of action comedy, some old favorites (like the dumb robbers) and some new, innovative characters (like Brad Pitt’s character – I mean honestly, how often do you see Irish travelers as part of a big-budget movie?). In short, it is in my opinion a very successful mix. I mean, you will, in some places get a bit tired of the clichés; the ex-KGB agent for example. Or any number of Jews and Jewish stereotypes that, as you can imagine, come attached to the 84 carat diamond. And yet they all interact so brilliantly, the dialogue is so witty and the adrenaline flows so freely that, honestly, this film is one of those little numbers where even though there are some obvious little faults here and there, really, they are so easy to overlook… I know IMDB is not considered an “academic” source, but it is composed of people’s votes, which gives it a different sort of value. And if this film made it into the top 250 over there, there definitely is a reason for it… And I can see exactly what it is…