Product Description
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In Ron Howard's thrilling follow-up to The Da Vinci
Code, expert symbologist Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) pursues
ancient clues on a heart-racing hunt through Rome to find the
four Cardinals kipped by a deadly secret society, the
Illuminati. With the Cardinals' lives on the line, and the
Camerlengo (Ewan McGregor) desperate for help, Langdon embarks on
a nonstop, action-packed race through sealed crypts, dangerous
catacombs, and the most secret vault on Earth!
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If the devil is in the details, there's a lot of wicked
fun in Angels & Demons, the sequel (originally a prequel) to The
Da Vinci Code. Director Ron Howard delivers edge-of-your-pew
thrills all over the Vatican, the City of Rome, and the deepest,
dankest catacombs. Tom Hanks is dependably watchable in his
reprised role as Professor Robert Langdon, summoned urgently to
Rome on a matter of utmost urgency--which happens to coincide
with the death of the Pope, meaning the Vatican is teeming with
cardinals and Rome is teeming with the faithful. A religious
offshoot group, calling themselves the Illuminati, which
protested the Catholic Church's prosecution of scientists 400
years ago, has resurfaced and is making extreme, and gruesome,
terrorist demands. The film zooms around the city, as Langdon
follows clues embedded in art, architecture, and the very
structure of the Vatican. The cast is terrific, including Ewan
McGregor, who is memorable as a young protégé of the late
pontiff, and who seems to challenge the common wisdom of the
Conclave just by being 40 years younger than his fellows when he
lectures for church reform. Stellan Skarsgard is excellent as a
gruff commander of the Swiss Guard, who may or may not have
thrown in with the Illuminati. But the real star of the film is
Rome, and its High Church gorgeousness, with lush cinematography
by Salvatore Totino, who renders the real sky above the Vatican,
in a cataclysmic event, with the detail and majesty of the
ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. --A.T. Hurley
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Set Contains:
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The extended edition of Angels & Demons provides enough
extras to fill the Sistine Chapel--all of them fascinating. "The
Full Story" is the complete behind-the-scenes story of making the
film, with great interviews with director Ron Howard, star Tom
Hanks (who acts as host), and writer Dan Brown, who worked
closely with Howard on the set. The sections on filming on
location in Rome and Vatican City alone are highlight
enough--imagine navigating a huge film crew through the nooks and
crannies of Rome's cobblestone streets. And the re-creation of
the Vatican's interiors--done, amazingly, on sound stages in
Glendale, California--is a masterpiece of detailed work by set
designers, prop managers, and costume designers. There's a whole
section just on Ewan McGregor's priestly vestments and their
fabrics. Other great extras include "Characters in Search of the
True Story," in which Brown and the film's screenwriters talk
about bringing such a well-known novel to life onscreen. And the
short documentary "This Is an Ambigram" is a captivating look at
written symbols that read the same upside down--as does the word
Illuminati in Angels & Demons. The artist who studies ambigrams
is named John Langdon--the same last name as Hanks's character in
the film. Coincidence? Fans of Dan Brown and Angels & Demons know
there is no such thing. --A.T. Hurley
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