Ayelet Zurer and Tom Hanks in "Angels and Demons"
courtesy of Sony Home Entertainment
“Tom, Ron and Dan”

Tom, Ron and Dan try to make movie magic one more time in “Angels and Demons” and the results are now available on DVD. “The Da Vinci Code” team of actor Tom Hanks, director Ron Howard and novelist Dan Brown team up for a second effort with the film adaptation of Brown’s novel “Angels & Demons.” The result is a film better than “The Da Vinci Code” but still not a runaway hit. 

Tom Hanks stars as Robert Langdon, a Harvard symbologist, who is summoned to Vatican City by the Catholic Church to help respond to a threat from a group known as “the illuminati.” They have threatened to kill four Cardinals and then blow up Rome.

A team is assembled which consists of Langdon, a scientist named Vittoria Vetra (Ayelet Zurer), Commander Richter (Stellan Skarsgard), and Camerlengo Patrick McKenna (Ewan McGregor). Richter puts little trust in Langdon’s ability to find the four places where the Cardinals are to be murdered, but McKenna does seem to trust him. McKenna is the acting head of the Vatican since the Pope has died and the new election of a Pope has not yet taken place.

The murders are scheduled to take place at 8, 9, 10 and 11 at night with the bomb going off at midnight. Therefore the film is a race against the clock over and over again. Langdon and his crew always seem to arrive at the site of the dangers with only minutes to spare. This keeps the audience eager for the film to move forward and involved in the action, but once the movie has ended the whole plot just seems wildly ridiculous.

Hanks just doesn’t make the best action hero. If Harrison Ford or Liam Neeson had played Langdon the movie would probably have been much improved. At least Hanks has gotten a decent haircut for this film and that is a big plus.

Zurer adds nothing in her role of Vittoria. The movie just needed a female presence and this she is. McGregor is also a little dull in his role as McKenna. When he gives a lecture to the Cardinals on science vs. religion in the middle of the movie, everything comes to a halt. 

“Angels & Demons” is not a waste of time by any means but it is definitely not a riveting drama. The action keeps the audience entertained but the absurdity of the plot and also the superhuman strength of certain characters mar the reality of it all. One character gets branded, beaten and buffeted against buildings but still walks away in great shape. 

Plans are already being made to turn Dan Brown’s next book THE LOST SYMBOL into a movie. If Howard and Hanks return for it, let’s hope they have learned from the mistakes of the first two adaptations.

I honestly thought this next movie had been out on DVD for ages but I guess they were saving it for the holiday season. The title is “Four Christmases” and in it Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn teach us a valuable lesson. In a romantic comedy like this one chemistry between the leads is everything, and in this movie these two just don’t have it. They don’t seem to really care about each other and as a result the audience doesn’t care about either of them.

In the film Brad (Vaughn) and Kate (Witherspoon) have lived together for several years. At Christmastime instead of going to see family they invent a fictitious charitable event they are doing. Then they go off and vacation somewhere exotic.

This Christmas however they are planning to go to Fiji but find all the flights are cancelled. A TV interviewer spots them in the airport and asks how this is affecting their plans. Their parents see them on TV then call and ask why they aren’t off on their charitable adventure. With no real answer available, they agree to visit all four parents on Christmas Day. The number of parents’ homes is four because both sets of parents are divorced. 

At each household there seems to be one horrible event after another. But even worse, after the day is over the lives of these two people seem no better than when they started out on renewing their relationships with their families. Could it be that Brad and Kate are the problems and not the family members?

As stated Witherspoon and Vaughn have zero chemistry between them. They each have a few funny moments but the emotional payoff that is expected and needed never materializes. Witherspoon is especially disappointing as she has been so good in other movies. Here her character is cold, distant and self centered.

Kristin Chenowith is a bright spot in the film as Witherspoon’s sister, and Jon Favreau provides some laughs as Brad’s brother Denver. Tim McGraw is barely recognizable as Brad’s other brother Dallas. Adding to the country music star roster is Dwight Yoakum as Pastor Phil.

If you are looking for a DVD full of Christmas cheer, you had best look elsewhere. This movie is about the dark side of Christmas where all your relatives are dumb and dumber and the other aspects of the holiday are nowhere to be found.

The fact is director Robert Rodriguez is capable of making good movies for adults and good movies aimed at children. He showed this in the past with films like “Desperado” and “Spy Kids.” With his latest effort, which is now out on DVD, he satisfies neither children nor adults and that means failure. “Shorts” is a movie aimed at kids that will force tedium on the adults who watch it with them. In short it is not short enough!

“Shorts” is a story about a magic rock that appears in a neighborhood and grants wishes. Of course kids are the ones who find it and they use it to try to make the neighborhood a better and safer place. It is when it gets into hands of adults that real problems arise.

The central focus of the film is on Toe Thompson (Jimmy Bennett). He lives with his parents in a community that is run and controlled by Mr. Black (James Spader). Mr. Black owns all rights to the “black box” and the company that makes this product is also located in the community. Toe’s parents (Leslie Mann and Jon Cryer) work for Mr. Black. 

At one time or another the rock falls into the hands of Nose Noseworthy (Jake Short) who lives with his father (William H Macy) in a germ free house. Another kid who gets the rock in his hands is Loogie (Trevor Gagnon). 

The girls in the movie are either indifferent like Toe’s older sister Stacey (Kat Dennings) or evil like Mr. Black’s daughter Helvetica (Jolie Vanier). The parents for the most part are so involved in their own lives that they can’t listen to the complaints of their kids.

When you have a cast in a film of the caliber of Macy, Spader, Cryer, Mann, and Dennings it is embarrassing to watch them try to make characters such as these believable. Meryl Streep and Anthony Hopkins couldn’t make these characters believable.

If the film had played out in a linear way it might have improved some, but it jumps back and forth in time to tell its story in “short” episodes that are out of order. Rodriguez must have had a reason for doing this but it escaped me.

“Shorts” is a movie that would have made a good short subject, or at least a better short subject. It certainly didn’t need to be made into a full length motion picture.

Finally we have “Far Cry,” another movie based on a videgame. In the film Til Schwiger plays a retired military man who is hired to accompany a journalist (Emmanuelle Vaugier) to an island off the coast of the Pacific Northwest. The island is controlled by a scientist (Udo Kier) who doesn’t want anyone snooping around.

As the military man and the journalist pursue their investigation they unleash some horrific happenings. It all makes for an action packed movie that might be a little intense for some viewers. Still for those who like horror/thrillers this is a good one.
 

 

 

 

 

©2009 Jackie K. Cooper

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