Product Details

• Studio: Sony Pictures
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0018CMJOY

Product Description

Amazon.com

If the devil is in the details, there's a lot of wicked fun in Angels & Demons, the sequel (originally a prequel) to The Da Vinci Code. Director Ron Howard delivers edge-of-your-pew thrills all over the Vatican, the City of Rome, and the deepest, dankest catacombs. Tom Hanks is dependably watchable in his reprised role as Professor Robert Langdon, summoned urgently to Rome on a matter of utmost urgency--which happens to coincide with the death of the Pope, meaning the Vatican is teeming with cardinals and Rome is teeming with the faithful. A religious offshoot group, calling themselves the Illuminati, which protested the Catholic Church's prosecution of scientists 400 years ago, has resurfaced and is making extreme, and gruesome, terrorist demands. The film zooms around the city, as Langdon follows clues embedded in art, architecture, and the very bone structure of the Vatican. The cast is terrific, including Ewan McGregor, who is memorable as a young protégé of the late pontiff, and who seems to challenge the common wisdom of the Conclave just by being 40 years younger than his fellows when he lectures for church reform. Stellan Skarsgard is excellent as a gruff commander of the Swiss Guard, who may or may not have thrown in with the Illuminati. But the real star of the film is Rome, and its High Church gorgeousness, with lush cinematography by Salvatore Totino, who renders the real sky above the Vatican, in a cataclysmic event, with the detail and majesty of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. --A.T. Hurley

Stills from Angels & Demons (click for larger image)

Product Description

The team behind the global phenomenon The Da Vinci Code returns for the highly anticipated Angels & Demons, based upon the bestselling novel by Dan Brown. Tom Hanks reprises his role as Harvard religious expert Robert Langdon, who once again finds that forces with ancient roots are willing to stop at nothing, even murder, to advance their goals. Ron Howard again directs the film, which is produced by Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, and John Calley. The screenplay is by Akiva Goldsman and David Koepp.

When Langdon discovers evidence of the resurgence of an ancient secret brotherhood known as the Illuminati—the most powerful underground organization in history—he also faces a deadly threat to the existence of the secret organization’s most despised enemy: the Catholic Church. When Langdon learns that the clock is ticking on an unstoppable Illuminati time bomb, he jets to Rome, where he joins forces with Vittoria Vetra, a beautiful and enigmatic Italian scientist. Embarking on a nonstop, action-packed hunt through sealed crypts, dangerous catacombs, deserted cathedrals, and even to the heart of the most secretive vault on earth, Langdon and Vetra will follow a 400-year-old trail of ancient symbols that mark the Vatican’s only hope for survival.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good adaptation, your imagination while you read the book is still the best storyteller, May 21, 2009

By	Ricardo Mendoza "rjmendoza77" (Nicaragua) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I liked it, another reviewer said it better "while not faithful, doesnt deviate from the main story". Some important characters were removed, but it didnt seem to affect the story. However, many things were unexplained and it feels that the team were in a hurry to finish this movie. The chase, the race against time, the way the cardinals die, its all there. I was amazed at some of the changes though. In the book,the assasin was portrayed as a powerful man, a bloodthirsty and lustful man. In this movie i saw a nerdy guy whose motives were not clear. The scene i hated the most was when he let them go telling them he wasnt hired to kill them, if you read the book you know there was a climatic fight to save Vittoria. Maybe they didnt want people to see the heroes killing the bad guy. And the cardinals at the end, when they find out the truth about the camerlengo, it seemed that they all decided to lynch him....and the four prefiriti die in the book, but they decided to let the last one live and become the new pope. Why they decided to do this is beyond me. It was a very decent adaptaion, but i couldnt feel the excitement that i felt reading the book, i couldnt put it down until the end. If you havent read the book, do it, all lose ends are dealt with precisely. The story of the camerlengo in the book makes you understand why he did what he had to do.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars BETTER THAN "THE DA VINCI CODE"..., May 20, 2009

By	Lawyeraau (Balmoral Castle) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

In this film, Tom Hanks reprises his role of Harvard professor and symbols expert, Robert Langdon. Thankfully, he has lost the hideous and laughable bad hair day look that plagued him in "The Da Vinci Code" and is looking quite spiffy. The Vatican now seeks his assistance and expertise in symbols in solving a problem that has erupted following the death of a Pope and the kidnapping of four cardinals from the conclave of cardinals that is to select the new Pope. The kidnapper has left a calling card indicating that an ancient secret society, known to the cognoscenti as the Illuminati, has re-surfaced after a long period of dormancy. An Italian physicist, Vittoria Vetra, has also been summoned to the Vatican, as her project, involving the creation of anti-matter, figures prominently in the situation that has developed in the Vatican. There they meet with and receive their instructions from the dead Pope's assistant, the Camerlengo.

As Professor Landon and Ms. Vetra follow the clues that lead them on a merry chase throughout Rome, the viewer will be mightily entertained as they try to unravel the clues inherent in the symbols with which they are presented. At the heart of their quest are the lives of the four cardinals, as well as the anti-matter created by Ms. Vetra. Along the way, the viewer will be treated to views of gorgeous antiquities, non stop action, secret plots and subplots, a mysterious assassin, and a series of ancient symbols that hold the key to their success and the film's stunning climax.

Excellent performances are given by the entire cast, but special kudos go to Ewan McGregor for imbuing the role of the fascinating Camerlengo with great depth. Tom Hanks reprises the role of Robert Landon with great aplomb and low-keyed humor, while Ayelet Zurer capably plays the role of the physicist. Director Ron Howard also plays a large part in making this film work on a number of levels.

As a film, "Angels and Demons" is superior to "The Da Vinci Code", as it is more of an action film that moves at a steady clip and is accompanied by an excellent score. Overall, the film is a good adaptation of the book, though it is not totally faithful to it. Some of the changes are even an improvement, such as losing the romance between Vittoria Vetra and Robert Langdon. The screenplay is, in fact, quite an intelligent adaptation of the book, and the changes made are consistent with providing a tight visual vehicle for the silver screen, as well as a plot line that allows the story to unfold in a cohesive fashion given the time constraints. The changes made have not detracted but, rather, enhanced the transition from book to film.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Return of Professor Robert Langdon, May 23, 2009

By	Galina (Virginia, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

Angels & Demons (2009) is an adaptation of Dan Brown's bestselling mystery-thriller novel of the same title that is based on the dark secrets in the history of Catholicism and the fight of the Catholic Church against the underground societies and their influence. There is a lot to like in the new film: the pace is very fast and appropriately so, the views of Rome and its historical and art treasures are gorgeous, as well as the look into Vatican chambers, passages, and catacombs. The lecture which was given by Ewan McGregor (who looked very appealing as a young priest) about history of struggle between Catholic Church and mysterious powerful secret society of "Illuminati" over the Church's prosecution of scientists 400 years, or the religion against the science, was quite insightful and illuminating. Tom Hanks who reprised the role of the Harvard Professor Robert Langdon with the obvious gift for solving tricky puzzles and finding the meaning of secret symbols was once again on hand to provide the solution for yet another Catholic Church serious crisis that threatens the very existence of Vatican City and the college of cardinals who gathered from all over the world to elect the new Pope . I should admit that I liked Hanks in this movie much better than in the first adaptation of Dan Brown's historic-religious mystery "Da Vinci Code". I also found Angels & Demons much more fun to watch, maybe because in the new film, its creators concentrate on the crime/mystery/thriller/action elements and did not try to add much drama to it. The best and to the point description of the film belongs to the official Vatican.newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, which wrote it is a "harmless entertainment which hardly affects the genius and mystery of Christianity". I can't agree more.