Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
Warner Bros. Pictures | Release Date: December 16, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
48
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 38 Critic Reviews
Positive:
10
Mixed:
23
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertDec 14, 2011
Set aside your memories of the Conan Doyle stories, save them to savor on a night this winter and enjoy this movie as a high-caliber entertainment. Read full review
83
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallDec 14, 2011
Ritchie stages plenty of gunfights and beatdowns to satisfy action fans, pausing to consider the beauty of violence before resuming speed and piling on more. Read full review
80
EmpireIan NathanDec 12, 2011
A sequel confident in what it's about - bigger, better, funnier, without stretching the joke. Read full review
75
MovielineJen YamatoDec 15, 2011
It's BFF and hetero life partner Dr. Watson who forms the tale's real love triangle with Holmes - escalating the first film's bromantic undercurrent of mutual admiration and "circumstantial homosexuality" to overt, unabashed man-love and dangerous attraction - with tantalizingly evil interloper Professor James Moriarty. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliDec 13, 2011
A Game of Shadows is a stronger, better realized movie that builds upon the strengths of the original and jettisons some of the weaknesses. Read full review
70
SalonAndrew O'HehirDec 15, 2011
Occasionally thrilling, sometimes hilarious and mostly absolute claptrap. Think of it as a lot like drinking a fourth cup of holiday eggnog: Not really a good idea at all, but you might have fun. Read full review
70
VarietyBrian LowryDec 8, 2011
While director Guy Ritchie's excesses and modern concessions -- among them a lot of explosions -- remain intact, the parts of this second "Sherlock Holmes" are considerably more rewarding. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianM. E. RussellDec 15, 2011
The sequel has all the merits and demerits of its predecessor, only with a less-snarly antagonist, a more thoughtful final showdown and broader Holmes/Watson relationship jokes. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanDec 15, 2011
Yet here, as before, part of the movie's perversely cheeky design is that it throws away its own cleverness. Read full review
63
Washington PostMark JenkinsDec 15, 2011
This sequel is just as profligate as its 2009 predecessor with explosions, anachronisms and quick cuts. But the dialogue is a little sharper, and Holmes gets a worthy opponent in Professor Moriarty. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierDec 16, 2011
The result ends up like an "SNL" skit: knowingly over-the-top but still fun. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyDec 15, 2011
A few shades brighter than its predecessor, and the action bits certainly closer to the full-throttle "Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels" mode director Guy Ritchie didn't quite capture the first time. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzDec 14, 2011
Ultimately, the best relationship in the movie remains that of Holmes and Watson, which is to say, Downey and Law. Their pairing is what makes the movie; the explosions and bells and whistles Ritchie employs are mere distractions. Read full review
60
Time OutDavid FearDec 13, 2011
Shadows still functions as a study in superior sequel-itude, building a fine showcase for a reimagined character and the compelling, twitchy dynamo playing him. Should Ritchie ever learn to be elementary instead of epileptically overwrought, he may one day do proper justice to both. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyDec 8, 2011
After quite a few tedious detours and distractions, when the film finally gets down to the business of a climax at a gathering of elite European diplomats in a precariously perched Swiss mountain castle, it becomes not half-bad. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldConnie OgleDec 19, 2011
Something of an overlong, overblown, disorganized mess, despite being slightly better than its predecessor. Read full review
50
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottDec 16, 2011
Ritchie is simply trying to buy a good movie here -- and forgetting that a little brainpower is also required to complete the job. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter TraversDec 16, 2011
So the sequel, A Game of Shadows, is more of the stupid same. It wouldn't matter so much if Downey and Jude Law, as the bromantic Dr. Watson, didn't look so ready to turn on the cerebral dazzle. Instead, Ritchie treats them like action goons out of his "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" basement. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenDec 15, 2011
This movie wants to be a horse but, even measured in box-office millions, it's just another nag. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaDec 15, 2011
Virtually every set-up and set-piece in this extravagantly tedious adventure is misleading, or worse, irrelevant. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia PuigDec 15, 2011
Simultaneously brash and dull - hardly a combustible combination. Read full review
50
The New York TimesA.O. ScottDec 15, 2011
There is a plot, but no real intrigue, mystery or suspense, and no inkling of anything at stake beyond a childish and belligerent idea of fun. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy BurrDec 15, 2011
It's an enjoyably demented meta-finale, the rivals showing what they could do if they ever bothered to actually do it. Read full review
50
TimeRichard CorlissDec 15, 2011
Fresh inspiration is sparse here; the sequel is less an extension than a remake. Holmes says of one of his lamer disguises, "It's so overt, it's covert." And the shadow in this game is the imposing penumbra of Ritchie's very satisfying 2009 film. It's overt and overwhelming. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJ.R. JonesDec 15, 2011
I found this sequel more tolerable than Sherlock Holmes (2009), though I'm not sure whether it's actually better or I've just accepted the putrid idea of turning Arthur Conan Doyle's brainy detective into just another quipping action hero. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovDec 15, 2011
The final 30 odd minutes of this revisionist Holmes explodathon are downright thrilling, and it should go without saying but we'll restate it for the record: Downey Jr. inhabits the role of Sherlock Holmes to a near-molecular level. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubKeith PhippsDec 14, 2011
Ritchie has made a film that's so busy, it starts to become boring. Read full review
50
Boxoffice MagazineJames RocchiDec 14, 2011
Director Guy Ritchie is like a Heismann-winning football player cast in a ballet stage-perfectly talented, but wrong for the circumstance. Read full review
50
Village VoiceNick PinkertonDec 13, 2011
Lackluster screenwriting and the absence of actorly communion are breezed past with monotonous banter, as is the fleetingly visible plot. Read full review
42
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerDec 16, 2011
What this film really celebrates is crunch-and-thud video-game-style action, not especially well choreographed by director Guy Ritchie. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinDec 27, 2011
The only reason to put yourself through Guy Ritchie's overblown, inelegant Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows is to see Jared Harris, who plays Professor Moriarty, in a chilling low key. Read full review
40
NPRAndrew LapinDec 16, 2011
Though the film features Holmes' fiercest villain and a plot partially cribbed from "The Final Problem," one of Conan Doyle's most beloved stories, the sense of mystery has gone missing. A most heinous crime has taken place. The fun, too, is nowhere in evidence. Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternDec 15, 2011
Now the two men are back, along with Irene. But she vanishes all too soon in this overproduced, self-enchanted sequel, and so does the spirit of bright invention that made the previous film such a pleasant surprise. Read full review
38
New York PostKyle SmithDec 16, 2011
So moron-friendly they should have called it "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Checkers." The skill level in the script is elementary school, my dear Watson. Read full review
38
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsDec 15, 2011
As in the first "Sherlock Holmes" movie, there are plenty of pratfalls and bare-knuckle brawls but no sleuthing for us to share. Read full review
25
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsDec 15, 2011
Certainly Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's creations have suffered permanent damage thanks to Ritchie's films. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineNick SchagerDec 14, 2011
Wither the rollicking verve and whip-crack humor in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows? Read full review
0
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleDec 15, 2011
There's nothing here but wreckage. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows is so ineptly made that the story is advanced solely through announcements. Read full review
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