Happy anniversary

So for our anniversary, I took my wife to see two films at the cinema. Sherlock Holmes 2 and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Which effectively breaks down as scenes of homoeroticism and scenes of anal rape.

How romantic.

I touched on SH2 yesterday, so won't cover that again. With regards, to TGWTDT, I'm a big fan of the books and have seen the original Swedish version. How did this compare? Well, for one Fincher is a masterful director. The film is clearly set up to be part of a trilogy, hence he makes more of Berger than the Swedish version did, and she's much more important in later books. It's a long film, but I never once checked my watch, which suggests that I was gripped throughout.

I'm not sure if I would have got as much out of it if I hadn't read the books, but obviously that's difficult for me to judge.

Overall, worth a watch, if you can get past the (frankly harrowing) rape scenes and the weird fetish James Bond-esque credits.  

The Shadow Game

So, "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows".


It's billed as being bigger, better, louder than the first film. It's certainly louder.


Now I'm a big fan of the first Sherlock Holmes not least because:
a) Robert Downey-Jr is brilliant
b) It's the only film where I don't want to punch Jude Law in the face (including films he's not in)
c) It's was a remarkable return to form for Guy Ritchie, who, despite what anyone says, made some good films. "Lock, Stock" is great - it just fell apart when he got to "Revolver". And the less said about "Swept Away" the better


Anyway, SH2 didn't disappoint. I didn't think it was as good as the first, but it did have the welcome addition of Stephen Fry as Mycroft. 


Cons: Lestrad wasn't in it enough. Noomi Rapace was completely underused.
Pros: Jared Harris made an excellent Moriarty. And there was lots of camp banter between Holmes and Watson, which was thoroughly entertaining. The "fight" scene at the end was also very well done. 


All in all, a fun popcorn film and a worthy sequel.

Bon Anniversaire

No posts over the weekend due to spending a quiet celebratory few days with my wife. We've been together for eight years and have been married for three, and as the two anniversaries are within days of each other we like to stretch out the celebrations as long as possible. 


This weekend we did a cine-double of the super romantic Girl with the Dragon Tattoo followed by Sherlock Holmes 2.


I will review both soon, but first I know I've been keeping people on tenterhooks for my film of 2011 (or at least the two people who care).


You'll have to be patient one more day though...