Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
dir. Guy Ritchie (2011)
Robert Downey Jr’s Holmes hides his genius behind a facade of extemporised buffoonery. Jude Law’s Watson is less idolising, more exasperated, than in the original stories. Their dynamic nevertheless works, carrying the more stylised mayhem as Ritchie’s treatment walks its fine line.
RocknRolla
dir. Guy Ritchie (2008)
The usual Ritchie blend of half-sinister, half-hapless gangsters carrying on their respective operations and out-scheming one another. Apart from some impossible-to-kill Russians, a bit light on the humour necessary to elevate its Gordian plot knot above intricately self-absorbed and style-heavy dicking about.
Sherlock Holmes
dir. Guy Ritchie (2009)
Ritchie’s interpretation of Sherlock Holmes works on several levels—as a dark and detailed period piece, as character comedy, and as a buddy film. Jude Law (Watson) and Robert Downey Jr (Holmes) have an edgy dynamic. Rachel McAdams scintillates as Irene Adler.
Snatch
dir. Guy Ritchie (2000)
This spiritual sequel to black crime comedy Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels punches hard and fast through the convolutions of London’s underworld, scoring points from its protagonists’ interconnectedness and bouts of ineptness. Brad Pitt stands out as Irish ‘pikey’ Mickey O’Neil.
The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
dir. Guy Ritchie (2015)
Over-stylised, over-scored, under-scripted and sometimes under the pacing-geist of its 1960s forerunner, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. nevertheless compares favourably to many of the Bond films: less action, less slick, a less charismatic lead (Henry Cavill), yet buoyed by some truly uproarious sequences.