Angels and Demons

Rating:

* * *

Verdict:

Talk about mass entertainment.

While it's only a little shorter, it's much faster than the laborious

The Da Vinci Code

, a movie which somehow managed to turn a history-hokum page-turner into the longest movie ever made.

Still, driven by the popularity of Dan Brown's cryptic mix of art history and theology, a fair few people went along to see it, some of whom stayed awake all the way.

Hence this relatively rip-roaring sequel - a prequel in print - which has Tom Hanks returning as Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon, who, having got a far better haircut, is roped into help when there's a crisis at the Vatican.

The Pope's dead and possibly murdered, four cardinals gathered for the papal election have been kidnapped and are likely to be brutally murdered and there's a ticking time bomb of anti-matter somewhere nearby, which in a few hours risks giving all those gathered awaiting the white smoke signal a demonstration of the Big Bang Theory instead.

The growing body count and the clues point to the Illuminati - well one does say "Illuminati" in big red letters - a secret society formed eons ago in response to the Catholic's Church's attitude to science.

Apparently the sect want to end the old feud in spectacular fashion but have left enough clues for Langdon and Italian particle physicist Vittoria Vetra (Zurer) - his sexy sidekick and sounding board - to spend that countdown whizzing about the marbled corridors of the Vatican and streets of Rome trying to figure it all out, which they do while encountering alarming amounts of gore and more famous historical Italian names than a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles convention.

And whizz it does, thankfully, from one marbled lavish historic location to another, backed by a score that makes the usual Gregorian chant overkill sound like a barbershop quartet.

It does get stuck in its own maze in its final 30 minutes and considering the deadline it's up against, it sure finds time to make some very dull points about science vs religion. But it extracts itself rather well from its stall with a finale that is as ridiculous as it is spectacular.

It may contain as much conspiracy theory twaddle as the previous Langdon treasure hunt but here the hokum just flies by. That it isn't as boring as its predecessor is in itself a minor miracle.

Russell Baillie

Cast:

Tom Hanks, Ewan McGregor, Ayelet Zurer, Stellan Skarsgard, Armin Mueller-Stahl

Director:

Ron Howard

Rating:

M (violence)

Running time:

138mins