New trailer: Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

Sherlock Holmes and his partner in crime, Dr. John Watson are back to solve the latest mystery to hit 221B Baker Street. After the positive praise of the 2009 box office smash, it comes to no surprise that Guy Ritchie has directed another action packed performance, loosely based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic short story: The Final Problem. The anticipated sequel sees Robert Downey, Jr. reprise his role as the charming, eccentric detective and is joined by Jude Law portraying his close companion, Dr. Watson. The latest instalment also sees the English speaking début of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’s leading lady, Noomi Rapace playing a Gypsy fortune teller, Sim, and Stephen Fry…

Carmen in 3D

Regardless of how it’s sold, opera is an acquired taste, and to see any such production suggests an initial glimmer of interest from the start. This is both the fascinating experiment of Julian Napier’s ‘RealD’ (3D)-shot film of the Royal Opera House’s production of Carmen and its Achilles’ Heel. It poses a vicious cycle to break, to rouse the interest of the average, non-opera-participant and cinema buff to pay to see it on the big screen. But Carmen in 3D should not be dismissed off hand as a ‘lost big screen cause’ as it offers awe-inspiring and striking depth of vision and perspective that really places the viewer in on the action on stage, helped…

Justin Bieber: Never Say Never

How do you review a Justin Bieber film? If you’re a fan, it doesn’t make a blind bit of difference what critics write – you’ve got the screening time, the date and the cinema ticket already. So, this is aimed at the non-fan, the curious, and those yet unaffected by ‘Bieber fever’. Is it worth seeing? It certainly builds a better picture of this social media phenomenon, even if feels a little tightly edited and controlled by Bieber’s machine (hardly surprising), namely overbearing mentor/producer Scooter Braun, a failed child star, if ever there was one, we suspect. It basically follows the days leading up to Bieber’s sell-out concert at New York’s Madison Square Garden, the…