INFERNO 2.5***
Inferno is the third film based on a Dan Brown
book, Tom Hanks once more comes back as Robert Langdon, a highly acclaimed
professor of Cambridge University., and Ron Howard is back to direct. He also
was the director of the previous two movies, The Da Vinci Code (2006) and
Angels & Demons (2009). Inferno is the least captivating of them all.
The usual formula for the cat-and-mouse
thriller consists of bad guys chasing good guys who keep escaping, with the
cycle repeated several times until the movie ends. There are many variations of
course, and the premise for Inferno is based on a deadly toxin being
released capable of mass deaths. Set in fabulously exotic locations , the film
doubles as a beautiful travelogue in case the plot line fails. And fail it does.
At the beginning we meet the battered Professor Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) in an amnesiac condition on a hospital bed, confused about everything except his attractive doctor, Sienna Brooks (Felicity Jones). When an assassin tries to finish him off, the couple head off on a kind of tourist speed- dating journey that takes in the best views of Florence, Venice and Istanbul. A deranged but gifted billionaire calculates that overpopulation will destroy the planet and wants to release a nasty gas that can kill half of humanity (roughly 4 billion, give or take a few). The World Health Organization, several gendarme platoons and various evil exploiters out for a fast buck all chase Hanks and Jones and each other franticly for about two hours until the closing credits produce relief.
For me it all comes down to the director, Ron Howard. He's made some masterpieces over the years, but he's not consistent and he fails here. It feels like no one's heart was in this movie.. It ticked off all the boxes for a big action thriller, but didn't really seem to try to be anything more than that. Although it's fairly entertaining, it is nonetheless confusing and somewhat cold. It feels like it's trying to say something important, but never gets around to it.
At the beginning we meet the battered Professor Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) in an amnesiac condition on a hospital bed, confused about everything except his attractive doctor, Sienna Brooks (Felicity Jones). When an assassin tries to finish him off, the couple head off on a kind of tourist speed- dating journey that takes in the best views of Florence, Venice and Istanbul. A deranged but gifted billionaire calculates that overpopulation will destroy the planet and wants to release a nasty gas that can kill half of humanity (roughly 4 billion, give or take a few). The World Health Organization, several gendarme platoons and various evil exploiters out for a fast buck all chase Hanks and Jones and each other franticly for about two hours until the closing credits produce relief.
For me it all comes down to the director, Ron Howard. He's made some masterpieces over the years, but he's not consistent and he fails here. It feels like no one's heart was in this movie.. It ticked off all the boxes for a big action thriller, but didn't really seem to try to be anything more than that. Although it's fairly entertaining, it is nonetheless confusing and somewhat cold. It feels like it's trying to say something important, but never gets around to it.
Rated PG-13 for sequences of action and
violence.
Clark
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