Playing the ‘Angels’

Harvard symbologist and Da Vinci “decoder” Robert Langdon is hardly the Catholic Church’s BFF, but when the pope dies and the four preferred successors are kidnapped and the entire Vatican City threatened with a annihilation, he is summoned in a last ditch effort to avoid disaster in Ron Howard’s The Da Vinci Code prequel-turned-sequel Angels & Demons, out now on DVD. Tom Hanks portrays Langdon again with an analytical, if book nerdy, confidence, and he is joined in the hunt for answers by Israeli actress Ayetet Zurer, as the daughter of a brilliant scientist who was also murdered in connection with the plot that could be masterminded by The Illuminati, a secret society bent on revenge against the church that persecuted its members for Centuries. Ewan McGregor and Stellan Skarsgard co-star in roles that reveal the inner workings of the Vatican during transitions of power from one pope to the next. Rated PG-13.