Director Guy Ritchie has done it again. In an act of criminal negligence, he's wasted Robert Downey Jr. – an actor with the perfect verbal dexterity to play Sherlock Holmes – in a sequel that eliminates smarts in favor relentless headbanging. 2009's Sherlock Holmes was lousy, but it was also a big hit. So the sequel, A Game of Shadows, is more of the stupid same. It wouldn't matter so much if Downey and Jude Law, as the bromantic Dr. Watson,  didn't look so ready to turn on the cerebral dazzle. Instead, Ritchie treats them like action goons out of his Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels basement.  On the plus side, the great Jared Harris takes his sweet, quiet time with the devil inside Professor Moriarty, who wants to start a war to make his name in the weapons business. And Noomi Rapace, who played the Goth heroine in the Swedish film version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, gives her gypsy character genuine soul. But the grace notes are soon drowned out by Ritchie's incessant need to obliterate thought and feeling.

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“Ambling Alp”

The "Ambling Alp" was the nickname of the six-and-a-half-foot-tall Primo Carnera. Though the song is named after the Italian-born 1930s heavyweight champion, Yeasayer are actually paying tribute to boxing legend Joe Louis with this first-person psychedelic dance-rock tune. “I was always interested in writing a song that had boxing mythology in it,” Yeasayer’s Chris Keating said. “It’s pretty fascinating: There were so many amazing characters, and it was so closely entwined with 20th century history.” Yeaseyer also invokes German champ Max Schmeling and hints at the historical significance placed on the historic bouts between the Nazi-era boxer and the African-American Louis.