Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows (2011)

After the prior Robert Downey Jr.- Guy Ritchie Sherlock Holmes earned a staggering $524 million globally, you didn't have to be the world's greatest detective to know a sequel would be on the way. Turning Arthur Conan Doyle's classic literary tales of detection and deception into a high-speed film with plenty of action, speed-ramped camera techniques and and quick, quippy cleverness.  A Game of Shadows follows the same plan as the original. Only this time, bigger and better.

As a spate of Antichrist bombings rips through Europe, Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.) intercepts a letter that leads him to a mysterious gypsy girl (Noomi Rapace) and the brilliant professor Moriaty (Jared Harris) Meanwhile Dr. Watson (Jude Law) is trying desperately to get married.

There is very little sense in personal growth in Holmes' latest case. Director Guy Ritchie unapologetically sticks to the same formula. The set-pieces are bigger, with a good mix of marvel and overkill: the film keeps introducing bigger and bigger guns to up the ante somewhat. What has changed however, is the villain.

Make no mistake about it; Moriaty is Sherlock's Joker: a crook as indomitable as the hero. Far from lurking in the background, Moriaty takes centre stage. Through a series of confrontations, Holmes and his nemesis play a literal and metaphorical game of chess. Jared Harris was an excellent choice as Moriaty. He creates a Moriaty of diabolic grace - as poised as his opponent is jittery.

A Game of Shadows contains a number of standout action sequences, including a four-on-one encounter between Holmes and some thugs, a chase-and-escape at Watson's bachelor party, fireworks on a train, a torturous sequence involving a meat hook, and an artillery-impeded race through a forest. There are also plenty of explosions and secondary fights, all of which gel to make this latest adventure bigger then any other told so far. Holmes does not wear his deerstalker hat nor utter the word 'elementary', but he smokes pipes upon occasion and dresses up like both an elderly lady and the upholstery of a chair.

Ritchie's signature style is in evidence, but is not as overpowering as in the first movie. He uses slow-motion shots to detail Holmes' advance mental choreography of fights. The most inventive instance of this occurs when Holmes and Moriaty square off.

Noomi Rapace is the only character that's a non-starter. It's not her fault, Noomi is a fabulous actress and I'm sure she'll have a more meaty role in Ridley Scott's Prometheus. But here, her gypsy girl is neither feisty nor particularly sympathetic, and doesn't even have a romance sub-plot. Watson is proving to be a great character for Jude Law. he's able to squeeze a touch of sensitivity to the tension of a sensible man fighting the irresistible lure of adventure. Downey Jr. has grown into the role. He seems far more relaxed; he's found his rhythm as Holmes. If you're a fan of Ritche and of the series, you'll love this movie.

A Game Of Shadows trumps Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes. Its a confident sequel that does everything better.

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Hugo (2011)

The magical nature of cinema is explored in Martin Scorsese's thoughtful family blockbuster. Largely enchanting and spellbinding throughout, Hugo's alternating and heartbreaking nature is the result of a poignant narrative, super direction from Martin and a truly superb multi-generational cast.

Paris, 1931. Young Hugo (Asa Butterfield) maintains the clocks of a great railway station while avoiding the guard (Sacha Baron Cohen) intent on sending him to an orphanage. Aided by Isabelle (Chloe Mortez), Hugo gets an Automaton left by his late father (Jude Law) working. It draws a picture which prompts the children to delve into the mystery of the unhappy shopkeeper (Sir Ben Kinglsey).

Surprisingly this is the first Scorsese film built entirely around the dominant passion in his life - cinema itself. Hugo finds Scorsese - the most heavyweight director to make a 3D movie - wholly embracing the possibilities of contemporary technology in the way Melies did in his day. The movie is assembled with an obsessive delight in a combination of magic and mechanics, which unites his young and old heroes, a stage conjurer-turned filmmaker and a lad with an inherited knack of fixing clockwork contraptions.

Scorsese frames the story within a luscious depiction of Paris, using that canvas to deploy some technical brilliance. The extended opening shot swoops through the rooftops and into the steampunk station before scurrying through the dark recesses to encounter Hugo's sorrowful image. The sequence immerses us in the environment. Similarly, fantastic use of 3D - enhances rather than detracts from the narrative.

You could argue that Asa Butterfield and Chloe Moretz  lack experience, but are never out of their depth. The former imbues streetwise Hugo with a mournful sense of innocence and wonder, while Moretz possess a disarming sweetness, bandying about words of a more sweeter nature than she did in Kick-Ass. At the movies' core is a mesmerising turn from Sir Ben Kingsley, who adds so much depth to a man who has closed the door on a painful past. In a similar role, Helen McCory also shines, while the imposing figure of Sir Christopher Lee lends dramatic weight as a bookshop owner.


Hugo's personal story features serial-like scrapes, and dream sequences in which the boy becomes a clockwork cyborg or causes a spectacular train smash. It gets round to a dramatisation of the pre-War world of cinema, which is also an endearing love story. Hugo has some sequences that will make anyone interested in film go misty-eyed as we witness the creation of  movies.

Hugo is a powerful reminder of the magic of cinema and the effect it has on so many lives. It offers excitement and enchantment in equal measure and will surely become a lasting favourite.

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Contagion (2011)

For those of you who aren't already freaked out by the idea of a global pandemic-Steven Soderbergh's latest film should do the trick. The film is cold, almost clinical presentation of a virus that quickly spreads out of control across the World.

Contagion makes you think about how many times a day you touch your face. Like most people, it's not something you would've considered before. It's perfectly normal to touch your face, rub your eyes, stroke your chin. But, what if someone (Gwyneth Paltrow is the first to contract the virus) could pass the virus very easily just by touching something or someone? What if you touched an object that had the virus, mortally unaware, and then 48 hours be foaming at the mouth. Then, once the doctors opened you up to find out what the hell caused your death-they had absolutely no idea.

Contagion is frighteningly plausible. Soderbergh and screenwriter Scott Z. Burns go to great lengths to make it so, to show you exactly how a hybrid bat/pig virus might unfold in minutes. You'll never be so aware of how many things you handle that thousands of other people have touched after you watch this film. A doorknob, a chair, a pint glass. The mere thought is enough to make everyone get out their fresh supply of hand sanitiser, and the number of possibilities is endless. It's not science fiction - but it is the nearest Soderbergh has come to making a horror film. It certainly is up there as one of the scariest films of the year.

Each scene is laden with dread as Soderbergh's camera lingers on a recently touched door handle, a lift button or a bowl of mixed nuts. The killer is unseen, ready to violently strike at any moment. The deaths aren't spectacularly inventive like most films these days. This bad boy just wants to give you the flu - then 48 hours later, put you on your knees.

The actual plot of Contagion is a series of intersecting stories that give a human face to the spread of the virus. A husband and Step-Father (Matt Damon) whose wife may have been patient Zero; a collection of CDC employees that range from doctors (Laurence Fishburne, Jennifer Ehle and Kate Winslet), all trying to figure out how to cope. We also have a Homeland security agent (Enrico Colantoni), a military man (Bryan Cranston), a member of the World Health Organisation (Marion Cotillard) and a internet talk-show host/Blogger (Jude Law) who may be trying to help find a cure or just make loads of money.

Law is the nearest thing the movie has to a villain, with a dodgy Australian accent and really bad teeth. But in his character's campaign to have people reject the vaccination and instead try his untested methods, Soderbergh introduces a story that is similar to the MMR controversy, but this is a movie where science comes out to save the day.

Most of the intersecting stories are well-played out apart from Cotillard's. Her story should be the most dramatic, but she disappears for most of the film, leaving the audience with a slight pay-off when it comes to the ending. But, to Soderbergh's credit, he keeps things cinematic and immediate. Just try not to cough in the cinema.

This is a well-made ensemble drama that, while not a traditional horror film, is still one of the scariest films of the year.

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