CINEMASCENE- May 15th, 2009

May 15th, 2009

Angels and Demons   Reviewed by Andrew Johnson

More deep dark secrets of the Vatican, and Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) again is in the midst of it all. If you thought “THE DA VINCI CODE” was good, “ANGELS & DEMONS” is far superior. It’s a masterpiece of a thriller! Langdon, is this time invited by the Vatican security force to unravel a plot that may well be a destructive force against the Vatican and Catholicism. These forces that have their roots in the time of Galileo will stop at nothing, including murder, to advance their agenda.
Stolen is an anti-matter device from an Italian scientific facility. Four cardinals in Rome, the leading candidates who arrived for the conclave to pick the new Pope after the old Pope dies, are missing, supposedly kidnapped. It has been determined that the Pope had died under mysterious circumstances.   Reluctantly, Langdon goes to Rome and joins forces with Vittoria Vetri, a beautiful enigmatic scientist who worked with her late father on the anti-matter device. This device when detonated, which will happen when the battery runs odown and fails, could well destroy all of the Vatican and kill tens of thousands in the entire area.
The people there are in the faithful and have come to St. Peter’s Square to await the decision on the new Pope. Together, Langdon and Vetri race against time to decode a series of ancient clues that will lead them to the weapon and the missing cardinals. They have been hidden by “The Illuminati,” as the terrorists are known - an ancient brotherhood subculture of the church. Sealed crypts, dangerous catacombs, deserted cathedrals, and the most secretive vault on earth are part of the challenging journey as Langdon deciphers each and every clue of the group whose most despised enemy is the Catholic Church.

Beautifully filmed and marvelously making use of all those landmarks in Rome and the Vatican, “ANGELS & DEMONS,” based on the best seller of novelist Dan Brown (who also wrote “THE DA VINCI CODE”), has a pulsating musical score holding your interest riveted to the screen. And just when you think the film has come to an end with a logical resolution, it takes a brilliant twist in plot making for an entirely different resolution and one that satisfies even more in its outcome. Moving along at a break-neck pace, you as the viewer is figuratively out of breath in this well spun yarn. A number of liberties are taken with church protocol, but there are good explanations, especially in the method of selecting a new Pope and the reasons given for the way things are done. These become quite enlightening to those whose roots are not in Catholicism.   Special effects and cinematography are outstanding. Acting is superb and made most believable which, in addition to Tom Hanks, has in its fine cast, Ewan McGregor, Ayelot Zurer, Stellan Skarsgård, Pierfrancisco Favino, Nikolaj Lie Kass, and Armin Mueller-Stahl. Outstanding is Ron Howard’s direction with the screenplay well written by David Koepp and Akiva Goldsman. Worth mentioning too is the work of photographer Salvatore Totino and of visual effects supervisor Angus Bickerton, as well as Hans Zimmer’s musical score which further enhances the piece as well.   “ANGELS & DEMONS” is in short, a great film, and one to watch for at next year’s Oscars. It’s that good, a must-see for the movie-goer.

The Players: Tom Hanks, Ewan McGregor, Ayelet Zurer, Stellan Skarsgård, Pierfrancisco Favino, Nikolaj Lie Kass, Armin Mueller-Stahl

The Filmmakers:
Directed by Ron Howard
Screenplay by David Koepp and Akiva Goldsman
From the novel by Dan Brown
Director of Photography: Salvatore Totino
Music by Hans Zimmer
A Columbia Picture

Big Man Japan Reviewed by CJ Henderson

I’m going to be honest; I don’t know who this film is for. "Big Man Japan" is one of the absolute strangest movies ever to be made for actual movie theaters. I mean, it seems as if the filmmakers that produced this oddity actually did intend for people to plunk down their cash, go inside, watch their film, and then act happy about it. Oh well, people intend all sorts of wacky stuff in this world.

The story: It is the Japan of giant monster invasions and giant-sized defenders. The title character, Big Man Japan, is a fellow who comes from a long line of superheroes. We only hear about his grandfather (referred to as "the Fourth") and his father (who never gets much of a name at all). Most of the time they’re all just normal guys. But, connect them to a transformer and run a few million volts through them and suddenly they grow to an enormous height. So, as you might be able to guess, whenever a monster shows up to threaten Japan, the government sends for Big Man, they feed him the juice, and then send him out to fight the good fight. Oddly enough, they only provide him with a big piece of pipe with which to do that fighting. Worse yet, no one works very hard to keep Big Man sober, either. And to make things completely awful, he’s pretty much a lackluster battler, and somewhat of a coward. Now, all of the above might have made a fairly good film, if someone had thought to add a story. No such luck. Nothing in this one makes much sense. Big Man does fight, he does win, and he does stop monsters who do seem to be causing a lot of damage. But, for some reason, the public seems to hate him. He is a joke to some, despised by others. And yet, these people would be dead without him.

Big Man has an estranged wife and a daughter. He is allowed to see his daughter only twice a year, and neither his wife nor his daughter wants to see him any more than that. Big Man wishes his daughter could continue the family business, and yet all he does is complain that his father made him do so. There is much, much more one could comment on here, but it isn’t worth the time. Perhaps it’s merely a cultural thing, and if I was Japanese I would understand what the filmmakers were trying to do. Having been a big anime fan in my time, I did understand the anime references and jokes throughout (many of which are quite funny). But, I simply could not follow the movie’s overall intent. It starts out as a pseudo-documentary. Indeed, most of the film consists of Big Man talking to the documentary filmmakers out to capture his life as they film him riding the train, eating in diners, et cetera. Then, suddenly, the documentary angle just disappears. Worse yet, at what should be the high point of the movie, it suddenly turns into a cartoonish parody of itself. Anyway, for those who are interested, "Big Man Japan" is made up of dozens of swell bits which sadly don’t add up to anything. The special effects are at least interesting and sometimes actually border on generating excitement. But, ultimately this one is a head-scratcher. Why was it made? Who thought this was a good idea? How much money did they lose?
Our final word: 2 stars out of 5.

The Players: Hitoshi Matsumoto, Riki Takeuchi and Ua

The Filmmakers:
Directed by Hitoshi Matsumoto
Screenplay by Hitoshi Matsumoto
Released by Magnet Releasing