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Adapted from the Dan Brown novel, the thriller Angels & Demons is the follow-up to The Da Vinci Code, and Tom Hanks reprises his role as Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon, while the director is again Ron Howard. This time around there's nothing controversial as Langdon helps the Catholic Church during a crisis: the Pope has died, and someone has taken the preferred successors hostage and is threatening to blow up the Vatican. Langdon is assisted by a good-looking CERN physicist (Ayelet Zurer), and they must work with the late Pope's closest aide (Ewan McGregor).

Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon star in this holiday movie that starts out as a comedy and gradually turns serious. The supporting cast includes Robert Duvall, Mary Steenburgen, Dwight Yoakam, Kristin Chenoweth and Sissy Spacek. Brad (Vaughn) and Kate (Witherspoon) are a happy unmarried couple who set out to avoid their relatives at Christmas by going to Fiji. But circumstances force a sudden change of plans, and they have a dreadful time as they end up visiting their parents, both sets of whom are divorced, necessitating spending time at four different households.

This is an unsettling, strangely structured drama — but with some laughs — written and directed by Judd Apatow and starring Adam Sandler. The protagonist is George Simmons (Sandler), an unlikable, self-centered, successful standup comic who learns he has a fatal disease. He hires a young assistant (Seth Rogan), an aspiring comedian whose roommates are played by Jason Schwartzman and Jonah Hill. Later in the movie, George gets involved with an old flame, Laura (Leslie Mann, Apatow's wife). But Laura is married and has two kids (played by Apatow's kids).