ANGELS AND DEMONS

Directed by Ron Howard

in theatres

(**)

After stunning audiences and confounding critics with his superb Frost/ Nixon (2008), which earned five Academy Award nominations, Ron Howard slips back into the sort of film we have known him for. A solid action thriller, with a strong leading man, that is slick, well done, but leaves you wanting something ... more, something with greater depth.

It's not that Howard cannot do it, he can and has with Apollo 13 (1995) and the extraordinary western that nobody saw, The Missing (2003). But more often than not he chooses the easy way out and makes a Hollywood picture.

And Tom Hanks? The two-time Academy Award-winning best actor, once one of the more daring actors in the business? My God, what is the man doing? His work in the '90s was astonishing, silencing critics with a powerful performance as a man dying of AIDS in Philadelphia (1993) and a year later giving a wonderful performance in Forrest Gump (1994), winning Oscars for both and actually surpassing both of those performances in Saving Private Ryan (1998) and his finest work, Cast Away (2000), for which he won the New York Film Critics Award for best actor. Subsequent work in Road to Perdition (2002) and Catch Me If You Can (2002) should have earned him Oscar attention, which led to The Da Vinci Code (2007) and now this. Hanks is far too good an actor to be stuck in an action thriller. This is Nicolas Cage territory and we all know how that has played out.

That said, Howard at least gets the film right, crafting a fine thriller that easily outdoes The Da Vinci Code, which was merely tiresome. In Angels and Demons, the pope is dead and the Catholic Church is preparing to choose a new one. Robert Langdon (Hanks) is taken to the Vatican, where he encounters the four men who are in the running to be pope and learns that a bomb is ticking inside the Vatican somewhere, counting down to blow the place to bits. An old religious sect from the 17th century has reared its ugly head and it becomes Langdon's task to figure out the mystery before it is too late and the Vatican is blown away.

Hanks is fine, he is too fine an actor not to be, but it is sort of sad seeing him in such a formulaic Hollywood film rather unchallenged by his task. Howard's direction is very good as he manages to set up sequences inside the Vatican and handles some great chase sequences with blazing skill. Still, with two great artists at work here, you expect a better movie. Howard and Hanks should equal something incredible, like Apollo 13 did. Not this one folks. Sorry.

THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON (2008)

On DVD

(****)

The first time I saw this exquisitely-filmed movie, I loved it, but I must confess that I struggled to remain interested the second time. Could be many things, but understand I have no trouble pulling The Godfather Part II (1974) off the shelf and being interested after seeing the film countless times. Perhaps it was my mood, or where I am in my life right now, but I did not enjoy this film as much the second time through. The skill that went into the cinematography and visual effects remains impressive, and both Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett are incredible in their roles, but I found the story a tad chilly and remote this time through. It is a love story, and without heat from the two lovers, you have no movie. I am going to watch it again today and see if it was just the mood I was in, and I hope it was because my memory of seeing this for the first time is a good one. My God, I picked it as one of the best of 2008, so I know I liked it a lot!

Thirteen Oscar nominations went to the film and it won three.

John Foote, director of the Toronto Film School, is a nationally known film historian/critic and a Port Perry resident. Get more reviews at www.footeonfilm.com. Contact him at jhfoote@xplornet.com.