Angels and Demons, Dan Brown’s best-seller, finds disaster on the eve of conclave (an important Catholic ceremony) when four key cardinals are kidnapped by an ancient secret society along with a ticking time bomb from a top-secret lab. The threat? At midnight, the Vatican will be reduced to rubble. The connection? The four cardinals must be found first in order to discover the location of the bomb. This macabre scavenger hunt around Rome for dying holy men keeps moviegoers on the edge of their seats, and though at times plodding and preachy, Angels and Demons redeems the Dan Brown franchise after the Da Vinci disaster. Also, Tom Hanks successfully reprises his role as super symboligist Robert Landon complete with Mickey Mouse watch, better hair (thank god!), and dark-haired foreign babe, Vittoria Vetra played by Israeli actress Ayelet Zurer. It is Ewan McGregor however that shines as Father Patrick McKenna, a liberal young priest struggling between moral responsibility and ancient tradition. Add supporting actor Pierfrancesco Favino as devote and rude Commander Richter, and you have a powerful cast worthy of a big summer blockbuster and an even bigger bestseller. Plus with controversy out of the way, Angels and Demons has time to have fun. Maybe a little too much time. At points the film teeters on tedium, but harrowing adrenaline-surging moments due to its budget, its brutal terrorist, and its superior direction by Ron Howard, Angels and Demons manages to stay afloat despite the lengthy dialogue threatening to drag it down to Da Vinci depths. More emphasis should be placed on Ron Howard who gave us a look into the innards of Rome, and delightfully blended the factual with the fictional in a believable and exciting fashion. There is even some impressive CGI, but we’re not saying when.   Angels and Demons is far gentler to the Catholic Church than the Da Vinci Code, and as they say you catch more flies with honey than water, and boy were we hooked! At times, the script overcorrects into realm of the bureaucratic politically correct with flowery speeches about science and religion, but luckily is quickly interrupted again by action and flows on. As in the book, we’ve got someone to root for and no one to trust.   It’s film that the Dan Brown fanbase can be proud of, or at least maintain consciousness through.