Angels and Demons Review

Ron Howard's follow up film of Dan Brown's book Angels and Demons reunites us with Symbologist Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) who has to save Rome from Biblical annihilation in 8 Hours.  No Problem.  A&D has all the usual bells and whistles.  It's a fun ride and the energy from newcomer Vittoria Vetra (Ayelet Zuer) is refreshing.  If your looking for anything other than summer popcorn fun you might be disappointed.  But,  ease expectation and you'll have a fun ride.  This film swells in all the right places and has many fun twists and turns that remind you of a James Bond film.

It has more of a National Treasure feeling when it comes to Biblical fact compared to the first film.  The Da Vinci Code dealt with a much more volatile subject.  This version steers clear of any such potential conflicts and takes a safe road of a straight thriller.

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Hancock Movie Review

Hancock (played by Will Smith) is a bold, daring movie taking a shot at our present super hero culture. It takes a complicated hero and tries to rehabilitate him to what should be his natural sober state. People want to love Hancock, but his drunken blunders just seems to make everything worst. Peter Berg does a great job in directing this cast with Charlize Theron and Jason Bateman. At the end of the day Hancock leaves you wanting more. The flaw is in the script. The film can't decide if it wants to be a Super Hero Flick or a Love Story. We all know that underneath all super hero films is a love story, but Hancock gets confused by it's brilliant opening and does a sloppy job ending the film.

Spoiler - Cover your eyes. The 2nd half of the film is similar to Cast Away when Tom Hanks character comes home after he was considered dead. We discover that Smith and Theron both have super powers and we're married prior. Smith lost his memory following an injury and Theron settled into a normal life with Bateman leaving Smith to fend for himself. That part is fine and a great twist, but at the end of the film our hero ends up with nothing. When Hanks character in Cast Away is standing at the crossroads and not sure which direction to go. Hope drives by with the wings on the back of the truck similar to the package that kept him alive all those years. We see that the hand of fate was there all along. Giving our hero a shot at love after all. That's is missing in Hancock. Smith ends up with a bird and making hearts on the moon. He does not get the girl or any girl.

Hancock is still worth seeing, even though it's not the great film it could have been.

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