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MANAGEMENT

Starring: Jennifer Aniston, Steve Zahn, Woody Harrelson, Fred Ward and Margo Martindale

Directed by: Stephen Belber

Rated R for language

By John Delia

There is a very quirky romantic comedy on the screen called Management and I liked it a lot. The characters are charming, interesting and real (even a little crazy and pathetic). The film treats with a sense of imagination that we sometimes forget that exists.

The movie centers on Mike Cranshaw (Zahn) and Sue Claussen (Aniston) who have a chance meeting when Sue on a sales trip to Arizona takes a room at a hotel owned by Mike’s parents. On a lark or complete desperation to meet someone, Mike brings a bottle of wine to Sue’s room. A little frightened at first, Sue feels Mike means well and the two strike up a conversation brining out their enigmatic desires they did not realize existed. When Mike takes a trip to Maryland where Sue works, his stalking charm puts a damper on their relationship and Mikes dream. But that only triggers Mike’s determination to conquer love.

I love the acting by Aniston and Zahn and the chemistry between them, even though their characters are questionable at times. You just have to let your imagination prevail on this one so you can enjoy the strange romantic relationship between the two. Zahn takes Cranshaw and shows how oppressed the man is by parents that never let him see the world. Having no notion of how to find a true love and then grasping at straws to make it happen is moving yet bizarre. In return we get a great performance from Aniston as a woman who has been stripped of her sense of purpose and we find Claussen falling for this weird and wonderful man.

The direction by Belber makes the film work by taking the bizarre story and making his two stars provide us with this couple that becomes entwined on a chance meeting. He makes his camera work for him with angles that give us a closer look into the sole of the couple. Although there are some abrupt scene changes, the damage that they do is not enough to dispel the believability of the storyline.

The film has been rated R for language, but also has brief sexuality so take this into consideration when deciding to take immature youngsters to see the film.

FINAL ANALYSIS: A good date flick that should create a lot of dinner talk following it. (3.5 of 5 stars)

ANGELS & DEMONS

Starring Tom Hanks, Ayelet Zurer, Ewan McGregor, Stellan Skarsgard, Armin Mueller-Stahl

Directed by: Ron Howard

Rated PG-13 for sequences of violence, disturbing images and thematic material.

By John Delia

If you are going to see Angels & Demons and have read the book, maybe you will have some trepidation, but the film is so good you may never feel being cheated. The production can be considered a stand-alone thriller, not a prequel, as I needn’t have seen The Da Vinci Code to enjoy this film. I liked the film very much for it’s acting, directing, cinematography, intrigue and twists.

Following the death of his holiness the Pope of the Catholic Church, the cardinals are in a quandary as to who will be their next leader. More so, a shroud of darkness falls upon the group when they discover that it may be murder and involve the ancient order of the Illuminati the most powerful underground organization in history and the most despised enemy of the church. When four cardinals who are in contention for the throne get kidnapped by the illuminati, Dr.Robert Langdon (Hanks) a symbologist and religious expert is called in to aid Vittoria Vetra (Zurer), an Italian scientist, to follow clues that may lead them to the perpetrators.

The film has a thriller base that leads the audience on a scamper around Vatican City to several churches and the inter-sanctum of the holy city itself. I love the way Howard sucked me into the intrigue as he moves each crime scene from one end of the city to the other with each location being a key to the final stand off. His keen ability of exciting storyline delivery makes the film captivating and hypnotic.

Angels & Demons was taken from Dan Brown’s first book that introduced Robert Langdon, but in this film it becomes the sequel as the production company saw fit to go with The Da Vinci Code first. To tell you the truth, Angels & Demons stands alone as a movie in it’s own right and is more exciting and challenging than the producers first try. Keeping the action within the confines of Rome rather than taking it around the world in what seamed days (The Da Vinci Code) Demons makes for a more credible story.

The acting and cinematography are equally good and I especially liked Zurer in the role of the Italian scientist who helps Langdon. Her screen presence really shines and producers around the world should notice her acting ability.

Just as a note, the character of Robert Langdon may be loosely based on John Langdon a professor of typography at Drexel University who has been creating ambigrams (words that can be read from left to right, upside down or from multiple viewpoints) since the 1970’s. He is also the author of Wordplay. He met Dan Brown, author of the book Angels & Demons; prior to Brown publishing it and his illuminati ambigram was placed on the cover. John is the guy who created the illuminati, earth, wind, fire and water ambigrams that are used in the film.

The film is rated PG-13 for sequences of violence, disturbing images and thematic material, but I believe the MPAA may have missed on this one. Please be extremely cautious in letting immature teens or pre-teens for that matter view this film particularly due to the gore and extreme violence in the film.

FINAL ANALYSIS: A very good film that should make thrill seekers hungry for more. (4 of 5 Palm Trees)