Laura's screening with Laura Weaser

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. Directed by Guy Richie.

When Guy Richie signed up to do the first Sherlock Holmes I couldn't think of anyone better to revamp the Victorian era detective series.

The dynamic duo (and their token female prop) escape certain death from machine gun.

Packing the punch of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (without the cockney accents), along with the wit and twists of Snatch, Richie had brought Sherlock out of his dark study and running around London, searching for the criminal masterminds behind insane terrorist attacks.

With A Game of Shadows, I had high expectations. I loved the first movie, and I am a long-time Richie fan, particularly for the way he shoots action sequences using ‘speed-ramping' (Film nerd alert: see here used extensively in the first movie – the slowing down, then speeding up of action)

The basis of the film is around a cat-and-mouse game between uber-bad guy Professor Moriarty (played with the most evil of undertones by Englishman Jared Harris) and Sherlock (Robert Downey Jr or RDJ for short).

Taking them across Europe, always one step behind Moriarty's trail, Sherlock drags Watson away from his honeymoon and back on the case to stop him from starting a world war.

In terms of the way the game is played, ‘Shadows' didn't quite add up.

The basic cat-and-mouse premise becomes confused between trying to be deceptive without leaving the audience lost.

Unfortunately, that is what happens.

It is difficult to say something without saying too much, but simply put the twists and turns that lead Sherlock along the trail seem to come out of left-field, which left me sitting there going, ‘you what now?'.

The Game wasn't played logically, and definitely threw in too many unnecessary curve balls.

The saving graces of this film are two things: the Watson-Holmes banter, and the filming style.

Jude Law and RDJ are back, and like a married couple, they can't stop their squabbling. Nothing much has changed; Holmes still disapproves of Watson's marriage and gambling problem, and Watson still thinks Holmes is clinically insane. But like the first, it works.

Another mention must go to Jared Harris for Moriarty.

There is something so evil underneath his university professor exterior that sends shivers down your spine, particularly as he savours ways to hurt Holmes and the ones he loves.

The thought that Holmes may have met his match to a criminal so insane is not a comfortable one.

Graphically, this movie takes the cues of the first (see ramping earlier) and ups the ante. Every fight is ramped to the extreme, racing through buildings, streets and on trains.

Even a one-sided machine-fuelled fight through a snow-covered forest looks like a scene from Band of Brothers on acid.

Reel moments

The crowd pleaser: The banter between Jude Law and Robert Downey Jr. The great thing about this is it carries onto real life as well, like the best of friends. See them here on The Graham Norton Show: www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNgenV82wLY&feature=related

(about 17 minutes in)

The stage dive: Noomi Rapace's Simza. I honestly don't know what her purpose was, and to prove that I didn't know where to put her in the review. She was a backdrop of brooding and mystical presence, but ends up being pointless. Bring back Rachel McAdams' wit and charm!

Final curtain call? Like a shadow, we were kept in the dark and led on a blind journey through Europe searching for answers that revealed themselves in the most ridiculous and random ways. Not as good as the first (although as I have said, my expectations were high), but still proving good laughs, excellent fight scenes and sinister Victorian settings.