Angels & Demons (2009)

After the death of the Pope, the Catholic church begins a papal conclave to elect a new Pope. But four cardinals who are considered front runners for the papal position are kidnapped. A man claiming to represent the Illuminati states a cardinal will be killed every hour until midnight when a massive explosion will then destroy the Vatican. Based on the novel by Dan Brown (THE DA VINCI CODE) and directed by Ron Howard (COCOON). This is the second entry in the Robert Langdon (played by Tom Hanks) three film franchise. Despite its huge budget and convoluted narrative, it's a potboiler. An entertaining one but still a potboiler nonetheless. I don't know a lot about the interworking of the Catholic church or the Illuminati as to the accuracy of this movie but the plot is incredibly farfetched and the Catholic church doesn't come off looking very good. It's a fast paced thriller and on that level, it succeeds but I suspect its preposterous plot (some major changes from the book) wouldn't bear up under scrutiny. With Ewan McGregor, Stellan Skarsgard, Armin Mueller Stahl, Nikolaj Lie Kaas and Ayelet Zurer.