Two years back Guy Richie and Robert Downey Jr brought us a revamped version of Sherlock that was oddly enough much closer to the gallivanting, disgruntled, drug-addled misanthrope of the short stories than the previous movie incarnations that churned out a prim and proper version of Sherlock who foiled Nazis (due to budgetary restrictions rather than place Sherlock in his proper time period they placed him in the "now") and saved the day without breaking a sweat.

The sequel pits Holmes against Moriarty, Holmes' most well-known antagonist even though he only actually appeared in two stories (he was introduced as a character intended to kill off Sherlock, but when financial problems and public pressure forced Doyle to bring Sherlock back a prequel story of the two was written and he was added in to additional prequel stories as a background force in the underworld).

The story is very much inspired by The Final Problem and people familiar with the stories (and that one in particular most likely) will immediacy recognize a number of details throughout the movie that are direct references to Doyle's writings.

Sherlock Holmes brother, Mycroft, also makes an appearance played by the scene stealing charm of Stephen Fry.  Fun fact, Stephen Fry used to be part of a comedy duo with Hugh Laurie who now plays House M.D. a character created to be a modernized take on Sherlock Holmes.

There are quite a few surprises that take place in the movie, especially so early in what one would assume Warner Brothers intends as a long running franchise, but the movie re-affirms that Holmes and Watson are the characters who we'll be following throughout this series and everyone else is just window dressing for their adventures.  The bottom line is if you liked the first one then you'll like this one.

I rate this movie a 2.88 out of 3.14