2009 (Ron Howard) 14A, 139 min
Starring: Aylet Zurer, Ewan McGregor, Tom Hanks

Angels and Demons “is a horse race,” according to its star Tom Hanks, who reprises his role of Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon from The Da Vinci Code. “It’s loaded with subjects.” The thriller revolves around a small vial of antimatter planted in the Vatican. It was apparently stolen from the CERN particle physics lab in Geneva by the Illuminati, a secret society of freethinkers, persecuted by the church in the past and back for vengeance. Meanwhile, a pope is dead, four cardinals have disappeared, and Hanks, helped by a beautiful scientist (Zurer), is following clues, racing to find the antimatter and avert a devastating explosion. Says Roger Ebert: “All of this happens at breakneck speed, with little subtlety, but with fabulous production values.” And some wheeling science. CERN has created antimatter, but as a researcher said, “If we could assemble all of the antimatter we have made and annihilate it with matter, we would have enough energy to light a single electric light bulb for a few minutes.”