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New on DVD

By: Randall King

26/11/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

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Tom Hanks stars in Columbia Pictures' suspense thriller Angels & Demons. (COLUMBIA PICTURES)

Angels & Demons

(Two-Disc Extended Edition)

"WHAT a relief. The symbologist is here."

So says the shifty Swiss Guard commander (Stellan Skarsgard) to symbology prof Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) in this movie's funniest line of dialogue.

Overall, this is a better, more vigorous outing than its predecessor, The Da Vinci Code, when it comes to putting the intrepid Langdon through his paces as he races against time to save the Vatican. This time, the threat comes not from the Church but from a pervasive secret organization known as the Illuminati, who apparently intend to blow the Catholic country to kingdom come with a vial of anti-matter.

Complicating matters, the pope has died and a conclave to choose the new head of the Catholic Church is underway. But the Illuminati-affiliated terrorist has kidnapped four cardinals and threatens to kill one of them every hour on the hour, saving the most destructive act for the grand finale.

In Langdon's corner: a conveniently beautiful scientist (Ayelet Zurer), who is the only one capable of defusing the anti-matter device, and Camerlengo Patrick McKenna (Ewan McGregor), an earnest priest who represents the pope's office until a new pontiff is chosen.

Director Ron Howard avoids the kind of slavish devotion to a book's narrative that made The Da Vinci Code such a slog. Here, Howard tends to cut to the chase. That relentless pace, some exotic murders and a series of beautiful Rome locales make Angels & Demons a diverting big-budget thriller, undercut by a preposterous denouement, and a serious lack of engaging characters.

Evidently, someone believed that hiring Tom Hanks to play Langdon would give the character some innate charm and texture, instead of being a Basil Exposition delivery system for Dan Brown's historical research.

But even with Hanks playing the role, Langdon must be one of the most boring heroes of modern fiction.

The filmmakers were not allowed to film in the Vatican and the second-disc docs show how the illusions of location shooting were painstakingly achieved. 3 stars

SHORTS

CHRIS Rock's love for his kids paid off with the illuminating doc Good Hair.

Robert Rodriguez's love for his kids results in this comparatively gruelling, shapeless comedy-fantasy.

As with the hard-to-watch Shark Boy and Lava Girl, Rodriguez recruited his five offspring to come up with the multiple storylines of Shorts, mostly revolving around a "Rainbow Rock" that grants its owner anything they desire.

Hence, the movie feels very much like the twisty off-the-cuff invention of an imaginative pre-pubescent -- filled with attendant boogers and creatures and booger-creatures -- as the rock makes its way through the citizenry of Black Falls, Texas.

James Spader, Leslie Mann, William H. Macy and Jon Cryer are among the adults obliged to flesh out the fantasies of the Rodriguez brood. That should get them on a Christmas card list, but it won't do anything for their résumés. 2 stars

Top 10 DVD Rentals

1. Star Trek

2. Up

3. My Sister's Keeper

4. The Ugly Truth

5. The Taking Of Pelham 1 2 3

6. The Goods

7. Bruno

8. G.I. Joe: The Rise Of Cobra

9. The Proposal

10. The Line

-- Rogers Video, week ending Nov. 22

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition November 26, 2009 E4

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