Robert Downey Jr. has had a pretty amazing resurgence in his career in the past few years. Mostly due to Favreau’s excellent use of him in both Iron Man and Iron Man 2, but an unrelated film is what put Downey at the top of people’s tongues for time after that. That film starred the once Hollywood bad boy as the world’s first detective, Sherlock Holmes.

The film blew up across the globe, pulling in over $500 million worldwide, and warranting a brand new sequel, that we’re now getting the first look at. Titled “A Game of Shadows, the film looks to give us a pretty awesome rivalry between Sherlock and Moriarty, the shadowy villain from the first film. Here’s the official premise.

Sherlock Holmes has always been the smartest man in the room…until now. There is a new criminal mastermind at large–Professor Moriarty (Jared Harris)–and not only is he Holmes’ intellectual equal, but his capacity for evil, coupled with a complete lack of conscience, may actually give him an advantage over the renowned detective.

Check out the first full trailer for the film (which will likely be attached to prints of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 this weekend) and be sure to catch Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows in theaters on December 15th.

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The Disappearance of Alice Creed is a twisty, provocative British thriller featuring a breakout performance from Gemma Arterton. You may have caught her in the recent popcorn flicks Prince of Persia or Clash of the Titans, two movies in which she is largely relegated to arm candy for the leading men.

It is refreshing to see the sultry actress show us the  range of her acting prowess. As Alice Creed, she gives a gritty, brave performance  that you won’t soon forget.

The film begins with two men meticulously preparing a room to serve as a temporary housing for a kidnapping victim.  It seems that every tiny detail has been addressed.  The room is soundproofed and padded, the bed is bolted to the floor, and the room has been stripped bare of anything that could be used as weaponry.

The two men don masks and drive an outfitted van to their victim, a one Alice Creed.  Soon, she is shackled to the bed and stripped naked.  It’s a difficult scene to watch, and horribly degrading.

It would be very easy to write off the movie at this early juncture as being yet another torture-porn genre film, but don’t be so quick to judge.  That graphic and frightening scene sets up some interesting plot points for later, and makes better sense after you have the context  of the whole movie behind it.

Fortunately, it is quickly apparent that the men have no interest in Alice sexually.  They cloth her in a jogging suit they provide, and don’t seem to have much interest in actually harming her.  Instead, they want to extort some money from her wealthy father, by making him pay a kidnap ransom.

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