A game of … salesmanship?

It’s not often that a movie ad shocks me. Or even surprises me. I’ve long ago given up on ads that trumpet the opinions of no-name movie commentators who, clearly, are more inteterested in extolling the virtues of the latest Hollywood flavor of the week than in offering anything close to an honest and forthright appraisal.

When an ad calls, say, “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows” “one of the year’s best films,” you know that the author’s year-end list also includes “Zookeeper ” and “Jack and Jill.” Enough said.

But the shock I received came from the ad that mentioned that “A Game of Shadows” was only the second installment in the series directed by Guy Ritchie and starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law. I thought, considering how familiar the film felt, there had been at least a half dozen of them.

Fun, yeah. Entertaining, no doubt. But original? Hardly. One of the year’s best? Please.