Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

Robert Downey Jr. resumes his role as Arthur Conan Doyle’s supersleuth, with Jude Law again as his loyal helpmate Watson, plus a diabolically pucker-lipped Jarred Harris as mastermind-nemesis Moriarty. With due respect to screenwriters Kieran and Michele Mulroney, you know it’s a Guy Ritchie movie when even the great intellectual rival is depicted as a mouth breather. Fans of Downey’s smartest-guy-in-the-room smarm won’t be disappointed, and will have many chances to gape at flying bullets and fists. Stephen Fry, as Holmes’ older brother, nonchalantly sends up the preposterousness of Ritchie’s enterprise; Noomi Rapace, as a combat-ready gypsy accessory, seems strained by her assigned duty to just look nice. It goes down abrasively, with all the fizz and chemical syrup of soda pop. Then it sits in the gut, passing off heaviness as satisfaction. J.K.