Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

[GeneChing]

Might as well get this one rolling now. Doug got us started with his news on Noomi our Girl with the Dragon Tattoo thread. Here's a redundant article to that from THR:

EXCLUSIVE: 'Dragon' star lands 'Sherlock 2'
First English-language role for Noomi Rapace
By Borys Kit
Sept 11, 2010, 09:24 AM ET

Noomi Rapace, the Swedish star of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," has booked her first English-language role: the plum part of the female lead in Warner Bros.'s "Sherlock Holmes 2."

The sequel reunites most of the team from the original: Robert Downey Jr. as Holmes and Jude Law as Dr. Watson. Guy Ritchie is back as director while Joel Silver, Susan Downey, Lionel Wigram and Dan Lin return as producers.

The logline is being kept under wraps, although it is known Holmes will face off against Moriarty. Also making an appearance will be Holmes' brother, Mycroft.

Rapace's role is shrouded in mystery although sources say the character may be a French Gypsy. It is unclear if the role is romantic in nature.

Warners is looking to start production later this year.

Off the strength of her breakthrough performance in the Swedish-language "Tattoo," Rapace snagged representation with UTA and Magnolia Entertainment. She made a well-publicized trip to LA mid-August, meeting with top producers and directors to discuss making an entry into the American film scene. "Holmes 2" is the first acting gig to come to fruition from those meetings.

For reference, here's the Sherlock Holmes 1 thread.

[GeneChing]

Slated for 12/16/11

[GeneChing]

Owes it all to kung fu. I feel that.

Robert Downey, Jr. Kung Fu Kicks His Drug Habit On His Way Into Marriage!
By GlobalGrind Staff 18 hours 32 min ago

According to a new cover story in the UK's GQ Style, Hollywood star Robert Downey, Jr owes it all to Kung Fu and his marriage to movie producer Susan Levan.

Downey was photographed for the magazine by Dutch photography duo Inez and Vinoodh. Mugler creative director Nicola Formichetti styled the editorial.

It's hard to believe that only a handful of years ago the Iron Man star was a pariah and a law breaker. Troubled with drugs and other personal demons, the actor looked like he was on his way out of the industry. Then all of sudden, Downey, Jr. is commanding top dollar at box offices. How did he do it? Kung Fu & getting hitched!

Robert met his wife while filming Gothika. After meeting her, the Sherlock Holmes actor cleaned up his ways.

Writes GQ Style: not long after they began dating, he walked out to the sea and tossed the last of his drug stash into the waves.

Downey also credits the martial arts for affecting his career in a big way.

I was never thought of as a leading man until Shane Black hired me to star in a film called Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, where I got to shoot guns and hang from a bridge. I could not have pulled that part off without Kung Fu. And I think it was seeing that film which made Jon Favreau believe I could play Iron Man, that I could do action and that I could maybe, just maybe, be a leading man in that way. Without Kung Fu I don't know if I would have been in possession of that self possession that you need to be a leading man.

Get us to a Shaolin temple stat!

GQ Style Autumn/Winter 11
By Oliver Franklin


"Personally I think manhood is about self-awareness, about evolving, about keeping it together, really. Knowing where your car keys are..." As both Sherlock and Iron Man himself, Robert Downey Jr knows more than most about modern masculinity, making him the perfect choice to front the Autumn/Winter issue of GQ Style where he has been photographed by Inez-van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin. Elsewhere in the issue, check out French rugby star Sebastian Chabal shot by Jurgen Teller, True Blood's Joe Manganiello in the rugged outdoors and Walter Van Beirendonck's latest collection as photographed by Nick Knight. As editor Ben Reardon says in the new issue: "If men are allowed to be men, they should be encouraged to dress like men too. The romantic hero, the Marlboro Man, the sports champion, the Hell's Angel, the bruised and scruffed adventurer..."

The Autumn/Winter 2011-2012 issue of GQ Style is out now, priced £6.

[JamesC]

Writes GQ Style: not long after they began dating, he walked out to the sea and tossed the last of his drug stash into the waves.

WTF? Maybe i'm just being my hippy self, but the ocean? How about your toilet?

Also, he's the epitome of modern masulinity? Things are far worse than I thought...

Also, also, it's cool that he does kung fu. I know that was the main point of this post. Just being a *****.

[sanjuro_ronin]

Strange...my time in wing chun almost DROVE me to drugs !
LOL !

[Dragonzbane76]

Strange...my time in wing chun almost DROVE me to drugs !
LOL !

made me lol...

[GeneChing]

'Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows' review
Super sleuths Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law are back in action
By Geoff Berkshire
Metromix
December 12, 2011

Running time: 129 minutes
Rated: PG-13
Cast:
Robert Downey - Sherlock Holmes
Jude Law - Dr. John Watson
Noomi Rapace - Madam Simza Heron
Rachel McAdams - Irene Adler
Jared Harris - Professor James Moriarty
Director: Guy Ritchie
Genre: Action, Adventure, Mystery
Official Movie Web Site: http://sherlockholmes2.warnerbros.com/index.html

Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.) has never faced a challenge like Professor James Moriarty (Jared Harris). A diabolical criminal mastermind masking his sinister intentions with a guise of genteel academia, Moriarty is plotting something very, very, naughty indeed. It’s up to Holmes and his faithful friend Dr. Watson (Jude Law) to figure out exactly what that plan entails, before it’s too late. They’re assisted in the investigation by a mysterious Gypsy fortune teller (Noomi Rapace), Watson’s wary wife Mary (Kelly Reilly) and Sherlock’s pompous brother Mycroft (Stephen Fry).

The buzz: Director Guy Ritchie’s 2009 reboot “Sherlock Holmes” introduced Downey as a scrappier, more physical Holmes—still possessing an incomparable intellect, but also a street fighter’s sensibility to properly support blockbuster-friendly action sequences. The result raked in over half a billion dollars in worldwide box office and earned Downey a Golden Globe for best actor in a musical or comedy. A sequel was immediately fast tracked to reunite Ritchie, Downey, Law and the key creative team.

The verdict: Good news first: There’s a relaxed confidence to this “Holmes” that was desperately missing the first time around. Less good news: The action scenes are still overblown and out of place—though more inventive, memorable and thoughtfully staged—and the star-powered combination of Downey and Law remains a double-edged sword. They’ve settled into the characters and deliver the dialogue with flair, but the banter is rarely sharp enough to entirely justify their time and effort. Once again, the audience is invited to titter at the ways Holmes and Watson’s bromance winks at straight-up romance—Downey dons a dress (for one of the better action set pieces) and the pair bicker over Watson’s decision to tie the knot. Lest anyone get too wrong of an impression, there’s a welcome increase in screen time for Reilly’s Mrs. Watson. Along with Fry, she helps to shore up a supporting cast led by Harris and Rapace that gives the film a stronger human dimension than its predecessor. After the release of the first “Holmes,” BBC broadcast its own fresher, smarter reimagined “Sherlock” (airing on PBS in the U.S.), which brought the detective into contemporary times and found a divine chemistry between perfectly matched stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. The breezy ease of that competitively creative effort still shows up the expensive fireworks in Ritchie’s bombastic production. But as the continuation of a flashy fast-moving Hollywood franchise, “Game of Shadows” steps up its own game just enough to squeak by as disposable fun.

Did you know? Holmes’ martial arts skills come naturally for Downey, who has trained in Wing Chun Kung Fu for years with Eric Oram—a man Downey credits with helping to overcome the drug habit that nearly derailed his life and career.

I saw the screener on Monday and will have an official KFM review for you on Friday.

[Fa Xing]

I saw the screener on Monday and will have an official KFM review for you on Friday.

Cool, my wife are forward to this after my finals are over.

[mickey]

Greetings,

I would have believed him if he flushed his stuff down the toiler. When you throw stuff out in the tide, it is just a matter of time before the tide brings it back to you. I believe he waited.


mickey

[GeneChing]

Meanwhile, here's some others (only martial ones, mind you)

December 16, 2011
Spelling counts in Sherlock Holmes bartitsu mystery
By Bob Minzesheimer, USA TODAY


By the Keystone Academy of Dueling and Swordsmanship
Spelling counts.

Just ask Sherlock Holmes readers and scholars who have long puzzled over the difference between bartitsu and baritsu.

As members of The Bartitsu Club of New York City, who are staging a demonstration and lessons Sunday, can tell you, bartitsu is an all-but-forgotten mixed martial art, briefly popular more than a century ago.

It was invented in about 1898 by a British engineer, Edward Barton-Wright, who had lived in Japan. He created what he called a "new art of self defence" by combing elements of Japanese ju jutsu, British boxing and a French stick defense called "savate."

Holmes' creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, apparently knew about it.

No one is sure why or how he dropped a "t."

In The Adventure of the Empty House, Doyle had Holmes explain how he had triumphed - by his knowledge "of baritsu, or the Japanese system of wrestling, which has more than once been very useful to me."

For decades, the missing "t" stumped Holmes fans who thought that "baritsu" may have been something Doyle invented. Then scholars found articles written by Barton-Wright, who had named bartitsu out of a combination of Barton and jujitsu.

Mark Donnelly, 42, an author and TV producer with an interest in historic martial arts, came across a reference to bartitsu about 13 years ago, and now teaches what he calls a "gentlemanly art of self-defense."

In June, Rachel Klingberg, 39, a webmaster with a passion for the 19th century, organized The Bartitsu Club of New York. On Sunday, it's offering lessons at the Society for Martial Arts Instruction in Manhattan.

Klingberg, who thinks of Holmes as a "Victorian superhero," says she was pleased to see a version of bartitsu enacted in Sherlock Holmes, the 2009 movie staring Robert Downey Jr. The sequel, also with Downey, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, opens today.

Earlier movies, she notes, depicted Holmes as "less physical, more cerebral." But in Doyle's stories and novel, she adds, "his keen intellect was matched by manly athleticism and combative skill."

Sherlock Holmes more interested in martial arts than sleuthing in 'Game of Shadows'

129 minutes
PG-13; intense violence and action, drug material
Grade: C

By Carol Cling
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Posted: Dec. 16, 2011 | 2:02 a.m.

What's in a name?

When the name is "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows," the answer to that question is, not surprisingly, more of the same.

Fans of 2009's "Sherlock Holmes" will, no doubt, greet this sequel with jubilant hosannas.

Alas, I can't count myself among them.

You see, I have known, and loved, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes since my beloved Uncle Jody gave me "The Complete Sherlock Holmes" -- all four novels and 56 adventures -- for my 10th birthday. (I celebrated my 57th birthday last week, so you know how long I've been a devotee.)

And the smirky, insouciant Holmes who returns in "A Game of Shadows" -- embodied once again by Robert Downey Jr. -- bears frustratingly limited resemblance to Doyle's indelible literary creation.

Oh, he has his moments, to be sure. And many of those who know only Holmes' name, and fame, from these movies may find his action-packed adventures wildly diverting.

But it's as if somebody decided to make a Tarzan movie and outfitted the title character in a tutu before sending him tooling around the jungle on a Harley.

In short, I fail to see the point of making a movie about an established literary character that trashes its inspiration so thoroughly.

Perhaps if I liked the movie better, I wouldn't mind (so much) the liberties it takes with Sherlock Holmes or his Victorian-era environs. But I doubt it.

The "Pirates of the Caribbean" folks had a much better approach: borrow the trappings of past pirate adventures, then create a new hero to romp about as he (and they) pleased.

Yet even those who adore Downey's Holmes may find the movie's cat-and-rat games too convoluted to bother following.

Which seems perfectly acceptable, considering how little interest the filmmakers have in constructing a coherent storyline in the first place.

At least they have a better villain this time around: that nefarious "Napoleon of Crime," Professor James Moriarty (smilingly arrogant Jared Harris), a distinguished Oxford mathematician whose mind is at least as facile as Holmes' own.

Having infiltrated high government circles, the well-connected Moriarty is busy behind the scenes, stirring up trouble all across Europe with the eager, if unwitting, assistance of assorted anarchists and revolutionaries.

Meanwhile, back in 1891 London, Holmes has a more pressing concern: distracting his faithful companion Dr. John Watson (Jude Law) from his rapidly approaching marriage to the fetching Mary (a feisty Kelly Reilly).

Indeed, the bromantic banter between Holmes and Watson -- and the lengths to which Holmes will go to drag Watson on one last adventure -- assume (too) much importance as director Guy Ritchie cranks "Game of Shadows" into gear.

Then again, that's what audiences have come to see.

Forget about tracking suspects or analyzing clues or any of that other deductive-reasoning detective nonsense that Doyle's Holmes used to practice so expertly; this Holmes prefers to demonstrate his martial-arts prowess, play master of disguise in a succession of humorously outlandish costumes and conduct avant-garde scientific experiments, at least one of which is destined to influence the denizens of "Pulp Fiction" a century later. (Such is life in the movie-centric universe this Holmes inhabits.)

Eventually, as it must, the game finally gets afoot, embroiling Holmes and Watson with enigmatic gypsy Simza Heron (Noomi Rapace , star of the original Swedish "Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" and its sequels), who's searching for her rabble-rousing revolutionary of a brother. Who just might be connected to Moriarty and his sharp-shooting chief enforcer, Col. Sebastian Moran (British TV veteran Paul Anderson).

Speaking of brothers, Holmes' brainy brother Mycroft (the delightfully deadpan Stephen Fry) reappears to advise the dynamic Holmes-Watson duo as they globe-trot from London to Paris and beyond, trading quips and dodging bullets (along with much higher-caliber weaponry) while Ritchie and screenwriters Kieran and Michele Mulroney put them through their paces.

True to form, Ritchie punctuates the proceedings with rapid-fire, slice-and-dice action, concentrating on deploying maximum special-effects firepower while Downey and Law trade rapid-fire ripostes en route to the final confrontation between Holmes and Moriarty.

That climax includes some at-long-last mental gymnastics that prove how well-matched these adversaries truly are -- or would be, if the rest of the movie had bothered to focus on their eventual clash-of-the-titans showdown.

But that would be too much like Conan Doyle's original Sherlock Holmes for comfort.

As "Game of Shadows" makes all too clear, that Holmes isn't the guy this movie's about -- more's the pity.

[Fa Xing]

French "stick" fighting is called Le Canne, not Savate, although traditional Savate guys do le canne techniques.

Savate means "old shoe" btw.

[GeneChing]

SHERLOCK HOLMES: A GAME OF SHADOWS: Elementary Wing Chun, Elementary

We respect Downey for all he does for wing chun. As for this film...

[doug maverick]

loved it...hands down better then the first, amazing action pieces...if you took, mission impossible, james bond, batman, and lethal weapon(or for this sites purposes rush hour) mixed them into a film and set in the late 1800s what you get is the wonderful world of sherlock holmes. i enjoyed it thoroughly... it even gives a nod to hero toward the end of the film. which i really liked and thought it was **** perfect for the characters involved.

[Zenshiite]

Doug, it's cool that you mention Batman.... especially since Holmes was a major influence on Bob Kane creating Batman and the original purpose of Robin was to be Watson to Batman's Holmes(I'm sure they made him a kid so readers could put themselves in his shoes more readily). Personally, I want a Batman film that showcases his intellectual, detective side a bit and I'd love for it to have some of the Holmes-o-vision. Especially since that is something that happens in the comics so often.

Anyway, I can't wait to see this movie... and of course the added bonus of the theatrical trailer for The Dark Knight Rises with it. I'll be going to see it next week when the wife and I can relinquish the care of our kids to my parents for a couple hours.

I may be checking out Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol in IMAX(the real deal, not digital) today primarily for the prologue to The Dark Knight Rises, but I hear that MI4 is actually really good.

[doug maverick]

mi4 was shot in 70mm imax with actual imax camera the movie could be called tom cruise takes a **** and itll still be good, visually..lol