December 16, 2011 | 12:46 pm

Two Jews on Film: ‘Sherlock Holmes: Game Of Shadows’ review

Posted by Joan Alperin-Schwartz (video by Joan and John Schwartz)

Follow JewishJournal.com on

The year is 1891. The place is England…And something really, really bad is about to happen throughout the land….Well to be precise, France and Germany…And there’s only one man that can stop this very, very bad thing…Actually, one man plus several helpers.

Anyway, the man of course is Sir Conan Doyle’s famous detective, Sherlock Holmes.

Okay…So we have anarchists setting off bombs… and people are getting tense. Can you blame them?

Then the Crown Prince Of Austria is found dead and the evidence points to suicide. But Sherlock (Robert Downey Jr.) deduces that the Prince has been the victim of murder…And that his murder is just a small piece of a much larger puzzle, that eventually will lead to war between France and Germany.

And the man behind the bombings and the Prince’s murder…None other than the very diabolical, very brilliant, and very evil, Professor Moriarty (Jared Allen) aka Sherlock Holmes nemesis and arch enemy.

Of course, Holmes is the only man, clever enough to stop the Professor, from carrying out his masterplan and luckily, he doesn’t have to do it alone.

That’s right, his trusted bff and sidekick, Dr. Watson (Jude Law) is with him every step of the way…Despite the fact, that he’s on his honeymoon, having just married the lovely Mary (Kelly Reilly) and he’s own his . .

Story continues after the jump.

Along with this dynamic duo, director Guy Ritchie has given the boys a beautiful gypsy fortune teller, Madam Simza (Noomi Rapace-the original ‘Girl With The Dragon Tattoo’) and Sherlock’s bro, (the very funny Stephen Fry) to help them along.

Rachel McAdams also makes a brief but noteworthy appearance in the beginning of the film.

‘Sherlock Holmes: Game Of Shadows’, written by Kiernan and Michelle Mulroney, is a perfect blend of humor, mystery and action…

Downey, as always gives it his all. He’s in practically every scene and you can’t help but smile as you watch him ham it up…(but never too much).

I gave ‘Sherlock Holmes: Game Of Shadows’ 3 1/2 bagels out of 5. Check out our video to see what the other half of ‘Two Jews On Film’ thought of this sequel…

The film opens in theaters Friday, December 16, 2011.