Certainly, Robert Downey Jr. is a good actor, but when you are given roles as flattering as this, you don't really have to try very hard. Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes is a flamboyant genius, infallible in every way, maniacally efficient in everything that he does, even his shortcomings, such as they are, come off as brilliant and comically endearing. If he falters at all, the c.g. is right there to pick up the slack. It's loud and bom(b)bastic, diametrically opposed to the cool, eloquent composure characteristic of A.C. Doyle's equally infallible Victorian/Edwardian hero. It goes to show that a person may be preternaturally intelligent and live at 221b Baker Street, he may have a friend named Dr. Watson and he may even be engaged in mortal combat with a Professor James Moriarty and that person still may not be Sherlock Holmes - and yet the film remains thoroughly unrepentant about what it is, and that is just fine. It's all good fun. A Game of Shadows is nowhere near as subtle as the title would lead you to believe, but it is well edited and full of kinetic energy that drives strong visual sequences. I think I like it better than than Ritchie's first attempt, it feels slightly less like a music video.

Oh, and by the way, that Underwood typewriter is a glaring anachronism in this film... just say'n.