HOT: Angels & Demons

As I said in my Da Vinci Code review, I did not read this book. I really enjoyed seeing Da Vinci Code when I first saw it - so I was really looking forward to this sequel (prequel?).

But, when I first saw Angels & Demons in the theater I felt it as a bit of a let down. I was looking for more hidden clues like in Da Vinci Code and it just wasn't there. In fact, although I always wanted to re-check it out, it wasn't until this Hanks-O-Thon that I was finally able to.

On a second viewing, I must say I enjoyed it a lot more. Tom Hanks reprises his role as Robert Langdon, a symbologist that had helped solve Da Vinci's code to track down the final resting place of Mary Magdalene, and discover the last scion.

Although Angels & Demons was written before Da Vinci Code because of the popularity of the latter, it was turned into a film first by Ron Howard. And, when making Angels & Demons he decided to make it as a sequel instead of a prequel.

Here Langdon is summoned to the Vatican after the pope has died and a member of the CERN team is killed after creating three vials of antimatter, which one is stolen. The Vatican, while most of the cardinals are voting to to elect a new pope, someone has kidnapped four 'preferiti' - or the top options to become the new pope. It is sensed that this individual is part of a once thought extinct Illuminati.

Of course, clues are left - some many, many years ago - that can help lead Langdon to the four spots where the cardinals are being left to die.

This time, Langdon is helped by a member of CERN, Vittoria Vetra (Ayelet Zurer), that helped create the missing antimatter that is being used to threaten to blow up the Vatican. Ewan McGregor also stars as the Pope's Camerlengo Patrick McKenna, a boy that was adopted by the pope and raised inside the Vatican.

Head of the Vatrican police is Commander Maximilian Richter (Stellan Skarsgård), who doesn't readily accept the help of Langdon and Vetra in tracking down the missing cardinals - especially after Langdon leads them to the wrong spot the first time.

So, this time around the pair aren't being chased by everyone as in Da Vinci Code - here it is a race against time to find the missing cardinals before they are all killed, and find the missing antimatter before it is used to blow up the Vatican.

As I said to start, I liked it when I first saw it - but I wasn't in love with it. What I fell in love with during Da Vinci Code and a lot of films like it is the clues and codes that are used to move onto the next code or clue. Here there just wasn't as many - there are still some good ones - but not as much as I would have liked.

On repeat viewing, though, I believe I enjoyed it much more. I still enjoy the first movie more, and I definitely enjoyed Audrey Tatou more than Zurer as Langdon's sidekick.

However, after watching both of these films a few weeks apart - definitely looking forward to them coming out with more. Lost Symbol has been out for over three years now, and it appears to be in development - can't wait to check that one out.

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Quick Shots 5

Title: Untraceable.

Starring: Diane Lane, Colin Hanks, Billy Burke, Joseph Cross, Peter Lewis.

Brief Synopsis: A deranged murderer is not only killing his victims, but is allowing the entire country to view it - and with each viewer the victim is killed just a little quicker. In a world where everyone is fascinated and curious, one killer uses that as his advantage and hooks up each of his victims - in a series of gruesome deaths - to die depending on the amount of viewers on his website. With each new viewer the death is sped up. FBI agent Jennifer Marsh (Lane) is tipped off about the site and tries to persuade her company to find this man before things get even worse.

Opinion: This may have been done before, but I haven't seen it. I thought that it was a pretty interesting way to not only show the sickness of the murderer, but also how many people in this world would actually log on to see someone killed. It's baffling, and pretty darn sad. I thought the ending was going to be a little predictable, but they changed it up a bit which made it all the more entertaining. My only downgrade of the movie is the killing of an animal, which always tends to tick me off.

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Title: Fired Up!

Starring: Eric Christian Olsen, Nicholas D'Agosto, Sarah Roemer, Molly Sims, Juliette Goglia, John Michael Higgins.

Brief Synopsis: Two standout high school football players Shawn (D'Agosto) and Nick (Olsen) decide to skip out on football training camp and head to cheerleading camp instead, so that they can score with the opposing high school's cheerleaders.

Opinion: Pretty predictable, but the way you get there is downright hilarious. I laughed pretty hard during this movie and felt Olsen and D'Agosto had terrific chemistry together. The music was another story - it had me rolling with some of the songs that were flowed in through the movie. A pretty common story among teen movies, but done rather well which made it very enjoyable.

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Title: He's Just Not That Into You.

Starring: Kevin Connolly, Ginnifer Goodwin, Scarlett Johansson, Ben Affleck, Jennifer Connelly, Jennifer Aniston, Drew Barrymore, Justin Long, Bradley Cooper.

Brief Synopsis: Gigi (Goodwin) is looking for love - hard. She is the quintessential girl that does everything wrong and drives guys away. Alex (Long) meanwhile doesn't sugar coat anything and gives Gigi straight advice in love - which of course ends up making her fall for him. Ben (Cooper) is married to Janine (Connelly), but is secretly having an affair with Anna (Johansson). Conor (Connolly), meanwhile, is totally head over heels in love with Anna. All the while, the perfect couple Neil (Affleck) and Beth (Aniston) break up because Neil doesn't believe in marriage.

Opinion: Did you get all of that? Everyone sort of meshes together somehow. This is a pretty big chick flick, which I tend to watch with my wife every so often. Most of the storylines end up pretty much the way you would think they do, however, a few curves are thrown in to make you stay interested.

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Title: Angels & Demons.

Starring: Tom Hanks, Ewan McGregor, Ayelet Zurer, Stellan Skarsgard.

Brief Synopsis: Symoblogist Robert Langdon (Hanks) returns to use his skills to help track down four missing cardinals. After the pope has died, the Illuminati have kidnapped the four cardinals that would be next in line to become pope. Not only that, but they have also stolen an antimatter container and hidden somewhere in the Vatican. Starting at 8 p.m. and on every hour, a cardinal is to be assassinated until midnight when the bomb is to explode.

Opinion: A pretty fun ride. I enjoy almost everything Tom Hanks does, with only a few exceptions. I have to say I think I liked the first one more as the codes and symbols were a little more interesting. I also basically had figured out the ending midway through the film, which I never enjoy doing. But, it was a decent follow-up to the first film. My issue may be that everything was done very quickly in this one, where there was no real race in the first. But, still pretty enjoyable.

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