Sky Movies Reviews - Angels and Demons & The Wolfman

ANGELS AND DEMONS

Stars: Tom Hanks, Ewan McGregor, Ayelet Zurer, Stellan Skarsgard | Written by David Koepp and Akiva Goldsman | Directed by Ron Howard

Science and religion go head-to-head in a one-on-one, winner take all smackdown in Ron Howard’s sequel to The Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons. Tom Hanks returns as the man with the made up job, ‘symbologist’ Robert Langdon, who, as in all of Dan Brown’s novels (actually, I’ve not had the ‘pleasure’ of reading his latest, so I could be wrong…), has a matter of hours to solve clues and uncover a mystery whilst evading a cold-blooded assassin. This time, Langdon is helping out the Vatican, under threat by the Illuminati, who have an anti-matter bomb, developed, in a timely fashion, at CERN.

Angels and Demons provides old school thrills and spills and boasts two incredibly watchable stars in Hanks and Ewan McGregor – as a helicopter flying priest, no less. Whilst the ideological battle at the heart of the film is unlikely to trouble your brain cells too much, this carefree caper will entertain in a harmless and inoffensive manner. Despite its many flaws – particularly amusing is the character’s persistent habit of dumping large chunks of exposition on each other and attempting to pass it off as dialogue – Angels and Demons crucially never takes itself too seriously and for maximum enjoyment, neither should you.

Angels and Demons is now showing on Sky Movies and is also available on Sky Player.

THE WOLFMAN

Stars: Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt | Written by Andrew Kevin Walker and David Self | Directed by Joe Johnston

Also to be filed under ‘frothy but fun popcorn fodder’ is The Wolfman, in which Benicio Del Toro is bitten by the titular beast and consequently develops anger management problems and bad hair days once a month. Co-starring are Anthony Hopkins as Del Toro’s weirdo dad, Emily Blunt as recently bereaved love-interest and the magnificent Hugo Weaving as the policeman on Del Toro’s tail.

There are some wonderfully cheap and cheerful gore effects that are amusingly OTT. The film has a fun penchant for the off-beat, as dalliances with gypsies and larks in a lunatic asylum belie. The only really troubling flaws are Hopkins’ strangely crap performance and the scattershot plotting. I would have also mentioned the delightfully naff make-up effects, but they’re more a source of amusement than derision and still better than Twilight’s appalling CGI werewolves.

The Wolfman is now showing on Sky Box Office.

http://www.blogomatic3000.com/2010/07/04/sky-movies-review-angels-and-demons-the-wolfman/