Review: (Sher)locked On

Y ou’ve gotta wonder if people are thinking clearly when green lights are given to make sequels of successful movies. Like Caddyshack 2 or Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls or how about Speed 2: Cruise Control ? But you need not worry about this follow-up to the 2009 megahit Sherlock Holmes . That dazzling reintroduction to Conan Doyle’s crafty detective had stylized, big-budget-worthy direction from British indie darling Guy Ritchie, and a career-high performance by Robert Downey Jr. (well, maybe it slips in right behind what he did in Tropic Thunder ). This one opens the action in 1891, with a political bombing attributed to anarchists, followed quickly by a fast-paced four-on- Holmes fistfight, and then by a couple of mysteries involving a missing Gypsy terrorist and Holmes’ arch-enemy, Professor Moriarty (Jared Harris). The film takes everything that was done right in the first one and makes it wilder, darker, and funnier/ Ed Symkus , Inlander. More here. (AP file photo: Robert Downey Jr., left, and Jude Law star in “Sherlock Holmes”)

Question: Which Arthur Conan Doyle story of Sherlock Holmes is your favorite?