Angels & Demons (2009)
Directed by Ron Howard
Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is recruited by the Vatican to investigate the apparent return of the Illuminati – a secret, underground organization – after four cardinals are kidnapped on the night of the papal conclave.
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16 films that influenced Angels & Demons
What critics say influenced Angels & Demons
If Angels and Demons reminds one of any Hitchcock film, it's Topaz (1969), Hitch's mediocre adaptation of the novel by Leon Uris.
He had better hurry up and stop talking, though; time is running out.Barely more than a subpar rehash of " The Da Vinci Code ," "Angels & Demons," this time, also reminds of the silly " National Treasure " series.
What remains is a far-fetched but watchable thriller mixed with a enough history to make it interesting but not compelling (you know, like National Treasure , but without Nicolas Cage).
“Angels & Demons,” in its relentless drive to occupy middlebrow, mainstream “National Treasure” territory, is more concerned with generating busy, frenetic activity without considering its cost.
Think “National Treasure” without the snarky comedy asides and a richer locale but equally artificial in its attempts at suspense and surprise.
Considering that "Angels & Demons" is a film with menacing clerics, skull-lined catacombs, branding irons, ancient cults (the Illuminati) and the gimmicky serial murder of four Roman Catholic cardinals through methods inspired by the Greek elements of Earth, Air, Fire and Water, a filmmaker like Argento -- who dispatched priest Udo Kier with multiple cleaver chops to the dome in his most recent film, "Mother of Tears" -- might have been right at ghoulish home.
And the screenwriters seem to have their own private jokes, having one dour cardinal echo lines from "Tea and Sympathy," of all things.
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At times, composer Hans Zimmer seems to be quoting from the score of the Italian director's 1977 horror masterpiece, "Suspiria."
(In fact, she's so forgettable that all I kept wondering was whether Brown had been thinking of Victoria Vetri, the B-movie star of "When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth.")
The Piazzas, facades, statues, the Sistine Chapel, and even the Trevi Fountain of Fellini's "La Dolce Vita" provide a magnificent backdrop to what is essentially a grand scale chase movie.
The first film felt like a heavy-handed stab in the direction of Raiders of the Lost Ark, but this time the filmmakers seem to expect that certain scenes may remind us of Indy's torch-lit descents into dark passages.
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Even with a Hans Zimmer score that seems to think it's underscoring "The Greatest Story Ever Told" on steroids, and all too much dark-lit flesh rending, it's difficult not to get caught up in the high-toned tomfoolery of it all.
It’s almost like watching an elementary school production of Little Shop of Horrors.