Movie Review for 5/15/09

Angels and Demons released 5/15/09
Stars - Tom Hanks, Ayelet Zurer
Director- Ron Howard
Studio - Sony

Angels and Demons re-teams director Ron Howard and star Tom Hanks for the sequel to their international blockbuster adaptation of Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code. Although the book Angels and Demons was written before the novel The Da Vinci Code, the movie transpires after the events of the earlier movie. Hanks stars as professor Robert Langdon, the most respected symbologist in the United States, who uses his knowledge in order to decode a symbol on the skin of a murder victim. The clues put him on the trail of an international conspiracy involving the Catholic Church. Ewan McGregor and Ayelet Zurer also star in the Sony Pictures production.

I must admit even though I was not impressed with The Da Vinci Code I was really looking forward to this movie. This is one of those movies that if someone asked you how it was you would just say "It was OK" and leave it at that. Dan Brown's novel which I loved turned out to be to complicated to transfer to screen. Tom Hanks turned more into a tour guide to this story rather than a character, stopping throughout the movie in these very long and momentum killing explanations of what he was seeing. Ayelet Zurer eventhough sexy, the costume design and look did not match what the book described and to fit this movie in a time frame cut out some great and important scenes from the book. Overall as a movie standing alone from the book this movie was just to complicated and did not flow the way a good thriller should.


Management released 5/15/09
Stars - Jennifer Aniston, Steve Zahn
Director - Stephen Belber
Studio - MGM

After a one-night fling, a motel manager (Steve Zahn) impulsively follows a small-time art dealer (Jennifer Aniston) across the country in this romantic comedy from playwright-turned-director Stephen Belber. Woody Harrelson co-stars as Aniston's wealthy boyfriend in the MGM production.


The first 15 minutes of this movie started off promising but then headed down hill quickly. Steve Zahn was suppose to be a quirky and loveable stalker turned out to be awkward and scary. Jennifer Aniston who I love actually was just kind of ho-hum in this movie but then again was never given the tools to succeed here. Playwright Stephen Belber did some good things here with imagery but just failed to bring the movie together. Swing and miss here. I know it sounds like I really don't like any movies but really I do, I actually love most movies but so far we are off to a horrible start.