Hanks returns as Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon who is jetted off to the Vatican to solve the mystery of four kidnapped cardinals, all of which are in the running to become the next Pope and all of which will be publicly executed on the hour, every hour, until the bell tolls at midnight. Not only that, but a bomb of anti-matter has been stolen and will explode at the same time, destroying the city. Theories abound as to who is behind it and clues give the nod to The Illuminati, a secret society dedicated to science and determined to take revenge on the church for its persecution of its members centuries before. Helping Langdon solve the clues are physicist and eye candy Vittoria Vetra (Zurer) and Camerlengo Patrick McKenna (McGregor), a young Vatican priest in charge while the cardinals are in conclave voting on the next Pope, but time is running out…   For the first hour-and-a-half, Angels And Demons rights the wrongs that damned The Da Vinci Code. Gone are the heavy exposition scenes, where everything slowed down to tell the audience what is going on (and then stalled completely to make sure everyone ‘got’ it). Gone too are the dodgy ‘Get me to a library. Fast!’ lines. Unburdened by its heavy plot of searching for Jesus’s ancestor for a more streamlined ‘believable’ thriller, this sequel moves more freely and seems to enjoy itself. It can be also quite gruesome with the Illuminati’s assassin indulging in Se7en-like executions. The performances are somewhat better, too. All of this is good.

Angels and Demons Cast and Crew Genre: Drama, ThrillerDirector: Ron HowardCast: Tom Hanks, Ewan McGregor, Ayelet Zurer, Stellan Skarsgård, Pierfrancesco Favino Screenwriter: David Koepp, Akiva GoldsmanProducer: Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, John CalleyComposer: Hans ZimmerStudio: Columbia Pictures