Angels & Demons (3-Disc Set) 2 Blu-rays + Digital Copy (2009)
Starring: Tom Hanks, Ewan McGregor, Stellan Skarsgard, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Ayelet Zurer
Directed by: Ron Howard
Studio: Columbia Pictures
Video: 2.40:1 anamorphic/enhance for 16:9 1080p HD
Audio: English and French Dolby DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, English, French
Extras: Separate extended and theatrical versions of the film; “Rome Was Not Built in a Day” featurette; “Writing ‘Angels & Demons’” featurette; “Characters in Search of the True Story”; “CERN: Pushing the Frontiers of Knowledge”; “Handling Props”; “‘Angels & Demons’: The Full Story”; “This is an Ambigram”; “The Path of Illumination”; preview trailers; cinechat; movieIQ; BD-Live; digital copy Length: 138 minutes
Movie Rating: **** Video Rating: ****1/2 Audio Rating: ****
When the four leading cardinals to replace the recently deceased Pope are kidnapped, expert symbologist Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) is hurriedly summoned to the Vatican. A group calling themselves the Illuminati has claimed responsibility for the kidnappings. The Illuminati have threatened to kill one of these cardinals every hour starting at 8 PM and thereafter detonate an explosive device within Vatican City at midnight. Langdon summons his knowledge of religious history and symbols to try and uncover clues to where each of the cardinals may be executed and where the explosive device may be hidden. With precious little time to rescue the cardinals and save thousands of worshippers from a deadly explosion, Langdon’s action-packed search through Rome takes him to ancient churches, hidden crypts and secret vaults.
“Angels & Demons” is kind of a mixture of “National Treasure” meets “Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade” meets the TV series “24”. In my mind, that’s a pretty fun ride and that’s just what this movie delivered. Despite a feature running time that clocks in at over two hours, I never found myself looking at the time as the movie moves briskly and features a fair amount of action. While he’s no Indiana Jones, Tom Hanks nevertheless delivers yet another top-notch acting performance and his supporting cast is excellent too. An engaging storyline with a great twist ending makes “Angels & Demons” an easy recommendation for me.
The overall high definition video quality of this Blu-ray is excellent. Images are immaculate with exquisite detail. Black levels are silky smooth throughout the movie. Colors are rich and warm with fully-saturated hues. Picture defect mastering is admirable with no major flaws or compression artifacts. The overall audio quality is very good with the English DTS 5.1 track. The soundtrack actively incorporates all of the discrete channels into its mix. Dialogue is crisp, natural sounding and securely anchored in the center channel. The surround channels are moderately utilized for the ambient sound effects and the Hans Zimmer music score, plus include a handful of split rear effects. The low frequency effects channel enjoys a fair amount of use and is robust when utilized.
— Calvin Harding Jr.
