Angels & Demons

The Dan Brown conspiracy industry continues unabated in this follow-up to "The Da Vinci Code," which involves kidnapping cardinals from the Vatican, an antimatter bomb, and the hand of the ancient secret society Illuminati. It's up to historical symbologist Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) to solve the puzzle in a scavenger hunt through Vatican City. Once again directed by Ron Howard, it's brisk, colorful, full of wondrous locations and magnificent art, and utterly ridiculous. Once you start pulling at the frayed plot threads the whole absurd conspiracy thing unravels. Only the breathless direction and the everyman conviction of Hanks hold the film together.

The single-disc edition includes the original theatrical cut and standard featurettes on the production, adapting the novel (Howard had to call up author Brown to come up with a more convincing clue at one point), the characters and more. The "Two-Disc Extended Edition" features a longer cut (by about eight minutes) and three brief bonus featurettes, including a portrait of real-life ambigram artist John Langdon. The Blu-ray offers both cuts and features "The Path of Illumination" (basically an interactive time-waster for adults), BD-Live supplements and a digital copy of the film for portable media players.