Angels & Demons (Thumb UP)
This week’s movie was Ron Howard’s “Angels & Demons,” starring Tom Hanks, Ewan McGregor, Stellan Skarsgård, Armin Mueller-Stahl, and a whole bunch of other people you probably don’t recognize, including Ronny’s own dad, Rance Howard.
I haven’t read the book, so don’t ask me how it compares. My girlfriend tells me they left a lot out. But what they included makes for a good, rousing, fast-paced scavenger hunt through Rome and the Vatican, and hundreds-of-years old art treasures. Basically, somebody has wired up the Vatican to explode at midnight, and Harvard Professor of Symbology Hanks thinks he can find the bomb. How? Well, a secret society knows as The Illuminati has taken credit for the upcoming explosion, so Hanks (playing a combination of Sherlock Holmes and Indiana Jones) follows historical clues to try to track down their secret lair. Along the way, we face chase scenes, gun fights, priceless historical artwork, high-energy particle physics, political backbiting between Vatican officials, and a severed eyeball. Something for the whole family!
I’ve never been a huge fan of Ron Howard’s directing; he has a tendency to be too sappy and sentimental for me. Not this time! This movie goes for broke with non-stop action, violence, and grim determination.
One caveat: Don’t think about the story TOO hard, or, like cotton candy, it starts to fall apart. But as I gulped it down by the sweet mouthful, I couldn’t help but enjoy it.
My one quibble: I’ve been to Rome, and it is very beautiful, in a decadent, decaying, tumbling down ruins kind of way. I was hoping for some beautiful photography to take me back. No such luck. The camera work virtually ignored all the beauty and fallen majesty, and focused on the action. On the other hand, if they had lingered lovingly on every statue and tapestry, that might have slowed it down too much and I’d still be bitching. Oh well!!
