SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Tom Hanks and Ayelet Zurer in "Angels & Demons"

Professor Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) is once again being called upon to solve the kidnapping of four Cardinals from the Vatican City and a possible bomb threat.

Langdon believes it’s the work of the Illuminati, based on his expert interpretation on the events. Dr. Vittoria Vetra (Ayelet Zurer) is also being called upon to help the investigation as the anti-matter stolen from the LHC project is from her lab. Vetra makes known that the bomb can wipe out an entire Vatican City and even part of Rome. The secret Illuminati has warned to kill each of the Cardinals every hour from 8pm. And when the clock struck at midnight, the bomb will go off.

While Langdon and Vetra, together with the Vatican City police travel around Rome to find clues in churches, Father Simeon and other followers stay put inside Vatican City. Unlike Da Vinci Code, in Angels & Demons, Langdon seems to be the one who’s asking questions and the only person who’s able to answer them as well.

Overall, the movie lacks actual dialogs like it’s in a hurry to get to the conclusion. Angels & Demons also lacks the inquisitive and thrill of a mystery and crime-solving film. The actors are not convincing enough with the exception of Ewan McGregor whom plays a priest, Camerlengo Patrick McKenna, of whom his father was the previous Pope. Camerlengo is young but intuitive and wise and looks innocent until the very end of the movie where the truth unfolds. Like The Mummy and National Treasure franchises, it gets boring and loses its appeal when the sequels are made.

My ratings: 6 out of 10.

SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Nicolas Cage and Rose Byrne in "Knowing"

The movie begins with the year 1959 where a competition is held between the students of an elementary school. The winning idea from a student called Lucinda Embry is to bury a time-capsule of all the students drawing of the future they can imagine to be opened 50 years later. Instead of drawing pictures, Lucinda writes down numbers but is prevented from finishing them. Later, she goes missing and her teacher finds her in a gym closet, scratching the remaining numbers onto the wooden door.

Five decades later, the time capsule is opened and the drawings are handed over to the children. Caleb Koestler (Chandler Canterbury), the son of John Koestler (Nicolas Cage) receives Lucinda’s envelope. John, an MIT professor and an astrophysicist, initially ignored the numbers but accidentally discovers that the numbers are no coincident but a serial of dates and death tolls of every major disaster in the last 50 years, with three events have not happened.

When John realizes the remaining numbers are the GPS coordinates, he witnesses a tragic plane crash which kills 81 people and he is almost traumatized by it as he has seen people burning before their death. After seeing an unknown man popping outside of his house occasionally, John decides to contact Lucinda’s daughter, Diana (Rose Byrne) to gain more insights, but is turned away.

After the second event John has predicted occurred, Diana and her daughter Abby visit John and Caleb. Both Caleb and Abby are able to hear the "whisper people" just like Lucinda. Initially, John thinks the last event will only kill 33 people but finds out it is actually "EE" backwards. After investigating Lucinda’s mobile trailer, they find out that "EE" stands for "Everyone Else". John then figures out there will be a massive solar flare which will kill everyone else.

Diana tries to get the kids to the cave where she believes could shelter them from the solar flare while John tries to figure out the last numbers scratched by Lucinda on the wooden door. Diana’s impatience makes her drive the kids to the cave without waiting for John. During the stop at the gas station, the "whisper people" hijack Diana’s car with the two children. Diana gives a chase in another car but is killed by a truck at midnight when she runs the red light, just like her mother predicted.

When John returns to Lucinda’s mobile home, he finds out that Caleb and Abby are safe in the hands of the "whisper people" who are revealed as celestial beings who invite the selected children to escape the disaster and help them start all over again in another planet resembling Earth. A solar flare hits Earth and kills every single life on the planet. Caleb and Abby are then seen dressed in all white in a beautiful landscape which has at least two moons, running towards a huge white tree.

Overall, the movie may seem interesting in the first place with the likes of Da Vinci Code, Final Destination, The Armageddon and Eagle Eye merged into one movie. But, with the ending, it seems like the movie which ripped off The Day The Earth Stood Still as well. Somehow, what amazes me is how everything is put together — the mystery of the numbers, the actions from the disasters, the terrifying "whisper people" who turns out to be celestial angel-like beings onto a single film.

My ratings: 7 out of 10.

SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Fox Mulder and Dana Scully in "The X-Files: I Want to Believe"

Even though The X-Files: I Want to Believe is slated as the sequel to the 1998 film, it is easily a standalone movie, despite the relations to the TV series. Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) is a doctor and is no longer an agent. However, Agent Mosley Drummy (Xzibit) finds her in the hospital in order to have her find Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) to assist the FBI to find a lost agent. Back at home, Scully persuades an unshaven Mulder to help the FBI since the FBI will put the case against Mulder behind if he is willing to help. Though Mulder is hesitant at first, he decides to help at last.

The entire movie is about searching for the lost FBI agent who is kidnapped by some Russian mobs. Disappointingly, there is no alien involvement in the movie. Amanda Peet plays Assistant Special Agent in Charge Dakota Whitney in the movie and she is easily overshadowed by the existence of Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully despite the little involvement the latter has. Most of the time, Scully plays a surgeon and her objective is to save her patient while Mulder uncovers the mystery behind the crime.

Mulder believes Father Joseph Crissman who is a psychic as well as a convicted paedophile of seven children. On the other hand, Scully has high doubt on what the Father says and so do the rest of the FBI including Agent Mosley Drummy.

Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) makes a surprise appearance in the end when Scully has no one to turn to. Skinner and Scully help save Mulder and the three of them manage to solve the case of the missing FBI agent.

Overall, I want to believe the movie can be a lot better, but that’s not the truth. Sadly, I believe even The X-Files fan will feel truly disappointed at the movie — mundane plot, predictable scenes and nothing suspenseful.

My ratings: 4 out of 10.

SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Morgan Freeman, Michelle Monaghan and Casey Affleck in "Gone Baby Gone"

When a 4-year-old Amanda goes missing in Boston, the case attracts widespread media attention. Private investigator Kenzie (Casey Affleck) with his partner and girlfriend Angie (Michelle Monaghan) are hired by the child’s aunt, Beatrice ‘Bea’ McCready (Amy Madigan) to find her. Initially, they do not want to take up the case due to the little experience they have with this type of case and the dangers involved. But, after seeing Amanda’s mother, Helene McCready (Amy Ryan), a drug addict who cares very little about her own daughter, Kenzie and Angie decides to open an investigation that will probably risk everything including their lives. Kenzie and Angie bump into Capt. Jack Doyle (Morgan Freeman) while investigating the case. Doyle reveals that his 12-year-old daughter was abducted and killed as the reason he opens up the police’s missing children’s unit. Kenzie and Angie also meet up with Det. Nick Poole (John Ashton) and Det. Remy Bressant (Ed Harris), the detectives investigating the case.

Later on, Kenzie and Angie have discovered that Amanda’s mother, Helene, and her boyfriend, “Skinny Ray”, had stolen $130,000 from a local drug lord named Cheese (Edi Gathegi). Helene reveals the location of the money after Ray is murdered by Cheese. Nick and Remy arrange to trade the money with Cheese for Amanda at a nearby quarry in Quincy. While at the quarry, shots are fired, Cheese ends up dead and it is believed Amanda drowned. Captain Doyle takes full responsibility for the detectives’ actions and goes into early retirement.

A seven-year-old boy is abducted a couple months after Amanda’s death. Kenzie receives information from his buddy, Bubba Rogowski (Slaine) on the whereabouts of a known pedophile, Corwin Earle (Matthew Maher) and his accomplices of two drug addicts in Everett. They go to the house posing as drug dealers in order to find evidence of the presence of Corwin. Once they have, they flee and Kenzie later returns to the house with Nick and Remy. A shoot-out occurs and Nick is shot in the neck while Kenzie daringly enters the house and find one of the accomplices is dead. When ther other accomplice gives him a chase with a shotgun, Kenzie is forced to retreat into the pedophile’s room. Corwin is seen sitting on the floor and telling Kenzie that it was an accident before Kenzie shoots Corwin in the back of his head after he finds the boy’s dead body.

Nick later dies in a hospital. At Nick’s funeral, Kenzie recognizes a police officer Devin (Michael K. Williams) and questions him. Devin tells Kenzie to buy him lunch as a return. Devin tells Kenzie that Remy had been asking about the stolen money before Cheese knew it was missing. Kenzie questions Amanda’s uncle, Lionel (Titus Welliver), and finally discovers that Lionel and Remy have conspired in a fake kidnapping in order to take the money for themselves and to punish Amanda’s mother for her poor parenting.

Lionel speaks to Kenzie in a local bar, telling him that Amanda’s death was an accident and that the phony trade was arranged with the help of the drug lord’s associate. Remy enters the bar and stages a robbery while wearing a latex mask and holding a shotgun in order to kill Lionel before he can confess. Despite the latex mask, Lionel and Kenzie know it was Remy through his blue eyes. Lionel then tells Remy what he has already told Kenzie while Kenzie keeps on shouting “Amanda McCready was taken by Remy Bressant!” daringly. Remy tries to back away, but not before the barkeeper shoots Remy twice in the chest. Remy flees and is pursued by Kenzie to the rooftop of a nearby building. Kenzie asks Remy why he did it. Remy only replies that he loves kids before he dies.

Kenzie is later questioned about Remy’s death only to discover that an earlier call transcript which led to the quarry meeting was forged — this simply means Doyle was also involved in setting up the exchange. He is not satisfied with what he knows about Amanda’s abduction and drives with Angie to Captain Doyle’s home. He discovers Amanda (Madeline O’Brien) is alive and living with Doyle and his wife. Kenzie threatens to call the authorities but Doyle attempts to convince him that Amanda is better off living with them than with her drug-addict mother who couldn’t care less. Kenzie departs to discuss the choice with Angie, who says she will leave him if he calls the police. The police arrive and Doyle is arrested. Amanda is reunited with her mother, but Kenzie and Angie break up. Kenzie later visits Amanda and her mother, Helene, who is just about to leave on a date. He volunteers to watch over Amanda while she is out and they sit on a couch to watch television.

Overall, Ben Affleck’s directional debut is better than expected despite the many twists in the film, the truth in the end is just sad and depressing.

My ratings: 8 out of 10.

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