The gayness homosexual undertones, I mean.

Earlier this week, my friends from work and I agreed to stay after shift and suffer one full work night of puyat (sleepiness) so we could watch Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.

I’m probably not the most objective source for these types of things because I am pretty much biased for all things Robert Downey Jr., but I can confidently say that the second movie of the franchise is worth the puyat and I deem it to be far better than the first one.  Personally I didn’t like Sherlock Holmes (2009) because as a whole I found it to bee too messy—the plot, the plot twists and as much as I love and adore RDJ, I could not, for the life of me, understand what it was he was saying.  Not that his British accent in the second movie is anymore intelligible, but he did speak fewer lines in this one and when he did deliver them, they were spoken very, very slowly, which made all the difference.

Anyway, enough with the bloody accent.  A Game of Shadows picked up where the first one left off: Rachel McAdams’ Irene Adler is still in the mysterious Dr. James Moriarty’s employ and Sherlock Holmes is still persistently and annoyingly on her tail.  He’s alone, we come to find, because Jude Law’s sidekick extraordinaire Dr. John Watson is currently preoccupied with ironing out wedding plans.  The movie also picks up from the first Holmes’ general annoyance at the impending nuptial but his antics and schemes for being cumbersome and generally being an ass are definitely more subdued in this film.  It is later revealed that the evil Moriarty is a genius warmonger-slash-professor hell-bent on igniting a world war so he can profit from the damages.   Throw in Stephen Fry into the mix, playing Sherlock’s older brother Mycroft, and add some gypsies into the mix and you pretty much have the movie.

The plot is fairly predictable and easy to follow since everybody’s clearly marked; all good guys are relatively good looking while the baddies (with the exception of Jared Harris’ Moriarty) have been made to look grotesque in one way or form.  I think that this kind of simplicity works extremely well with Guy Ritchie’s directing styles; the loud explosions and the extreme slow motion that have become his trademark just do not work with a lot of dialogue and a complicated plot.  I find that he can tell a story extremely well, as long as the story is extremely simple.

But the thing that bugged me most about both films, but more so in this one actually, is the seemingly irresolvable sexual tension between Holmes and Watson.  I know that tons of parodies and literature are out there referencing these two as lovers but part of me still can’t believe that Guy Ritchie played it up that much—Holmes’ cross dressing, him throwing out Watson’s wife out of a speeding train (and seeming to enjoy every moment of it), his older brother calling him Sherly of all things.  While the scenes were enjoyable, it did feel like I was left hanging since the tension and chemistry was not resolved in any way.  Not that I want them to end up together.  Or do I?

Rating: 7.8/10 stars

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Week two was a success!  Not only did I get to catch a movie, I got to catch up with old movie buddies, which of course always feels fantastic.  Also most plans have pushed through which recreated bonding moments with long-missed friends.  Go for No Pressure 2012 J