A pope dies, a physicist is murdered and four preferitti cardinals in line for the papal throne are kidnapped, leading symbolist Robert Langdon into a race to save the cardinals and the Vatican. The terrorist secret brotherhood The Illuminati vow to kill the cardinals one by one every hour, then blow up the Vatican with stolen antimatter by midnight.

This prequel novel to The Da Vinci Code has a number of twists to the plot and plenty of action with less script than the original movie. Personally I liked the extreme dialogue of Da Vinci Code but there was a lack of action in the film. Angels and Demons manages to captivate with a good screenplay and action sequences, holding the audience’s attention. The lush art production is amazing, combining location shots, extreme sets and computer generated backgrounds all combined, very impressive.

The craftsmanship of this movie is excellent, led by direction of Ron Howard. Fine performances by Hanks, McGregor, Vetra, Richter and Mueller-Stahl elevate the action aspect of the movie. Ewan McGregor is particularly effective here in his role and drives the movie with his performance. Tom Hanks is always worth watching and Ron Howard is a great filmmaker. This is a good action thriller film to add to your DVD list.

2009. Directed by Ron Howard. Starring Tom Hanks, Ewan McGregor, Ayelet Zurer, Stellan Skarsgård, Pierfrancesco Favino, Nikolaj Lie Kaas and Armin Mueller-Stahl.

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