With the release of Paul Greengrass’ new film starring Matt Damon, Green Zone, here are the TOP TEN ONE MAN ARMIES in film. Read the full story

Guy Ritchie’s comedic action film Sherlock Holmes may have divided critics but its worldwide box office success of $470 million has Warner Brothers scrambling for a sequel. It seemed inevitable that it would happen but in an interview with ComingSoon, Jude Law has all but confirmed the green light on Sherlock Holmes 2:

“I think we are probably going to make another one. I haven’t been given the absolute… it’s not like next week but I think it’s sometime this year is what I get.”

Sherlock Holmes was adapted from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s 19th Century detective novels. He wrote fifteen in the Holmes series, giving Warner Brothers ample sources for more than just one sequel should Sherlock Holmes 2 repeat its predecessors success. Law played the part of Sherlock Holmes’ (Robert Downey Jr.) sidekick Dr. Watson for which he is excited to reprise:

“Because of our enthusiasm for the project, once we knew it was doing well financially, we all started throwing in our ideas of where it could go and what should happen next. Mine of course involved Sherlock Holmes being locked in a box and Dr. Watson…”

Law’s name has also been mentioned recently as part of the cast of Steven Soderbergh’s virus outbreak thriller Contagion.  Starring alongside him are Matt Damon, Kate Winslet and Marion Cotillard. In the same interview he describes the premise of the film and his role as an online blogger:

“‘Contagion’ is not until the end of the year and I’m one of a large number of people in a big ensemble, so I’m doing like 10 days on that, in San Francisco, I think. Well, the subject matter is really interesting, it’s very current. It’s about a contagious disease spreading across the world and how it affects different elements. Be it the public, the medical services, the emergency services, politicians. I play someone online, a blogger, who is kind of a fearmonger. And I just like the part, I really like the part, and I just love Steven Soderbergh films. I think he’s a great talent.” (ComingSoon)

Law put in a likable, decent performance in Sherlock Holmes and if  Downey Jr. reprises his role the film will benefit again from their great onscreen chemistry. Hopefully, however, something is done to create a better screenplay as the first seemed to suffer from messy exposition that particularly ruins the ending of the film.

Would you go to see Sherlock Holmes 2 or Contagion?

Jon Favreau (@Jon_Favreau) and Paramount Pictures/Marvel Entertainment have finally premiered the second trailer to the wildly successful comic book franchise Iron Man 2 on the Jimmy Kimmel Live show after the Academy Awards tonight. The trailer shows extended versions of cuts already released including some great footage of Whiplash (Mickey Rourke), the Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson).

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Paramount Pictures have sent Coming Soon a new photo from the highly anticipated sequel Iron Man 2. The picture continues the series of photos released from the scene at the Grand Prix race track, where Tony Stark first encounters Whiplash, played by Mickey Rourke. This shows Downey Jr., as Stark, in his vehicle before the inevitable attack. The picture can be viewed below (click for hi-res): Read the full story

Director Jon Favreau is keeping busy after the May release of Iron Man 2 with his next project, Cowboys and Aliens also starring Robert Downey, Jr. Kim Masters from The Daily Beast reports that the film will shoot in July and quite possibly in 3D, thanks to the incredible success of James Cameron’s Avatar. This isn’t the only film though. Robin Hood and Clash of the Titans are each in talks of getting a 3D conversion. Not too mention, the highly anticipated Cabin in the Woods getting delayed an entire year for the conversion. Of course, Favreau’s next project will be a quite different, as they have 3D in mind beforehand. Read the full story

Warner Brothers | USA/UK/Australia | 128 min

Sherlock Holmes isn’t quite what everyone is expecting. It’s not a dumb fun action romp, it’s not a bro-mantic comedy and it is certainly not a nonstop adrenaline fueled action picture. Most importantly, this isn’t the god-awful unintentional Sherlock Holmes parody that the ads implied. This is a fun pulpy mystery that is rather faithful to the nature of Holmes and his stories.

Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.)  is the best private detective in all of London and the same goes for his partner/sidekick Watson (Jude Law). They’re the perfect duo who can solve any case. Now they’re thrown into the ultimate mystery when Lord Blackwood enters the picture. After they break up his weekly voodoo session and the murdering of an innocent woman, everything seems cherry. Blackwood is thrown in jail and is even hanged to death. Things couldn’t be going better, up until Blackwood “apparently” resurrects from the dead. As he previously warned Holmes: the world you know is about to change. Blackwood seems to be paranormal and unworldly with all his black magic. Now Holmes and Watson have to put aside their differences and stop Blackwood from continuing his murderous rampage.

The greatest part about this reinvention is that it’s not just another origin story. There’s never any meandering or unneeded back stories provided. Once the film begins, Holmes is a detective and Watson is his partner/sidekick. There’s no annoyingly cliche set up. While many have worried that this was going to be just another formulaic action picture; it’s not. This is still a mystery where problems are solved by higher thinking and not gunshots. Nearly every situation is resolved by Holmes outsmarting everyone else. The set up of the mystery at task is portrayed perfectly without any pit stops for heavy exposition or murky plotting. The same goes for the second act that moves along with a brisk pace.

The third act is where it becomes annoyingly generic with the foreseeable climax, but it still manages to entertain and doesn’t hurt the film too much. The real disappoint lies within the last ten minutes. That’s where the film divulges into pandering scooby-doo exposition where Holmes explains everything. This is heavy handed exposition that is catering to the audience. It also doesn’t help that the needless set up for an inevitable sequel is drawn out in a rather hammy way. While it does leave one excited about about the future adventures of Holmes and Watson, it’s unneeded and laughable.

For a few of the early moments, it takes a little time to warm up to Robert Downey Jr.’s accent and take on Holmes. After that, he fully embodies the classical character everyone loves. This isn’t what most would label the “typical” Downey performance — i.e just being sarcastic and witty. While that generally works perfectly, here he delivers a more toned down performance. He still delivers a few funny moments of wit, but more importantly he still crafts Holmes as the thinking man’s hero. That’s the way he should be and Downey never forgets that even during the action scenes. Law also holds his own making making Watson the perfect counterpart. The film plays heavily on their very odd couple relationship and luckily they both share perfect chemistry to make those moments work. Their relationship never comes off too goofy, unfunny or unbelievable.

Another standout is Mark Strong whose Blackwood is a menacing and worthy opponent. While his inevitable loss to Holmes is predictable, he makes it not feel utterly contrived like most studio blockbusters. Strong has enough of a dark onscreen presence to make one forget the annoying villain preconception — that they always lose. Unfortunately, the always watchable Rachel McAdams is completely wasted as Holmes’s love interest Irene. McAdams is fine, but she’s stuck to playing an unneeded and underdeveloped character. All her moments come off short winded and forgettable. It also doesn’t help that she’s severely underwritten.

With RocknRolla and now Sherlock Holmes, Guy Ritchie has finally made up for both Revolver and Swept Away. This is a whole new direction for Ritchie and it’s a welcoming one. Yes, his overuse of slow motion is present as always but besides that this feels fresh and different. He presents a bleak and yet lush visual aesthetic filled with some fantastically composed shots. Some shots, even with a few questionable CG shots, are wonderfully shot. Ritchie also frames action scenes perfectly never without a sense of geography. There’s no frantic fast cutting like his previous films causing a feeling of incomprehensibility.

This is a surprisingly highly enjoyable franchise starter that isn’t just another hollow and vacant adventure film. It’s a mystery first and foremost. Similar to this year’s Star Trek, it reignites a famous brand with a modern day outlook. This surely could have been much better if the final moments weren’t cringe inducing and McAdams wasn’t completely wasted, but at least it’s not the mediocre piece of popcorn trash that it easily could have been. This isn’t exactly brawny or smart entertainment, but it never crosses the point of pure stupidity.

7.5 out of 10

What did you think of Sherlock Holmes?

Although the initial viewings of the first trailer for Jon Favreau’s highly anticipated sequel Iron Man 2 weren’t supposed to be until Sherlock Holmes came out, Apple decided to release the trailer early. Film School Rejects was kind enough to post an embeddable version: Read the full story

A slew of posters have hit the internet in the last few days. I’ve gathered all of them here. Some highlights include Jon Favreau’s Iron Man 2 International poster, a character poster for Matthew Vaughn’s Kick-Ass, as well as the first poster for the Ryan Reynolds solo gig Buried. Check them all out below. Read the full story

After the much debated decision to remake the Jimmy Stewart film Harvey with Robert Downey Jr. in the lead role, director Steven Spielberg is apparently now abandoning the project, so says Variety (via IGN). Sources seem to indicate that the main reason for the departure was due to creative differences between Spielberg and Downey Jr. over the direction the script should take, with the star apparently already having rewritten portions of the film. Because of this, Spielberg decided to call off the film, and is likely to pursue one of his other pending projects. Read the full story

Paramount Pictures has released four new images for Jon Favreau’s Iron Man 2. If you haven’t had the chance yet, check out the poster that was released yesterday. These new images feature Robert Downey Jr., Mickey Rourke as Whiplash, and Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow. The first trailer for the film is still rumored to be coming with Sherlock Holmes this Christmas. Check out the rest of the images below and click for hi-res. Read the full story