Angels and Demons ***

Cast: Tom Hanks, Ewan McGregor, Ayelet Zurer, Stellan Skarsgård, Pierfrancesco Favino, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Thure Lindhardt
Director: Ron Howard
Running Length: 2:14
MPAA Classification: PG-13

The mourning over the death of the pope has ended in the Vatican, and the time has come to choose a new leader for the Catholic Church. Unfortunately, the four leading candidates have been kidnapped by people claiming to be the Illuminati, an underground society bent on taking down the Church. They threaten to kill the candidates and then blow up Rome with an antimatter bomb stolen from the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Enter Robert Langdon (Hanks), an expert on the Illuminati and Vittoria Vetra (Zurer), one of the scientists who created the antimatter. With the support of Commander Richter (Skarsgård), head of the Swiss Guard and Camerlengo Patrick McKenna (McGregor), they set out to solve the clues left behind to stop the Illuminati.

“Angels & Demons” is the sequel to “The DaVinci Code”, and provides more action and less talking than its predecessor. It is also marginally better (unlike the book which is far superior). Hanks is once again slipping into Langdon’s shoes, and seems comfortable there. (Rumor has it they are already planning an adaptation of the new Langdon novel). The story is entertaining despite being a little on the unbelievable side. The ideas presented are compelling though, and that soothes the more outrageous moments. “Angels & Demons” is definitely worth your time, especially if you enjoyed “The DaVinci Code.”

Vantage Point **
Cast: Dennis Quaid, William Hurt, Matthew Fox, Forest Whitaker, Eduardo Noriega, Edgar Ramirez, Said Taghmaoui, Ayelet Zurer, Sigourney Weaver
Director: Pete Travis
Running Length: 1:30
MPAA Classification: PG-13

At an anti-terrorism summit in Spain, an assassination attempt is made on President Ashton (Hurt). After the president is shot, chaos reigns. During the pandemonium, there is a distant explosion followed by one in the arena. Secret service agent Thomas Barnes (Quaid) must find the assassin before its too late.

The movie’s hook is that is shows the events from multiple points of view. First, through the eyes of a news broadcast, then through Barnes’ eyes. Next is a police officer’s (Noriega) point of view, a tourist’s (Whitaker), and then the President’s. There is backtracking to show perspectives from the same starting point, and each point of view takes the story a little further into the future.

“Vantage Point” has two large drawbacks. First, the very nature of the film reduces all the roles to extended cameos. None of the characters feel like the focus of the film, and none have any real development. Quaid and Hurt do what they can, but they aren’t given much to work with. The other problem is that for a movie built around the novelty of seeing the characters’ point of view, they abandon that approach in the last 30 minutes, reverting back to a “normal” movie. What does work is the level of intensity that is maintained through much of the film. There is enough action to make one forget about some of the absurdities of the plot as well. Overall, this was a movie that could have been better with some tweaking.