Inferno (2016)

Directed by Ron Howard. Starring Tom Hanks, Felicity Jones, Ben Foster, Irrfan Khan, Sidse Babett Knudsen, Omar Sy, Ana Ularu, Paul Ritter. [PG-13]

Undistinguished Robert Langdon thriller starts out with Hanks’ scholarly hero waking up in a hospital, a gunshot victim afflicted by amnesia and plagued by visions of fire and blood, with assassin Ularu on her way to “see” him. As suggested by the title, the plot this time is loosely related to Dante’s “Divine Comedy,” and what a dull vision of hell it is. Nearly every minute of Foster’s role is shown in flashback (he does the Nestea plunge off a church tower before the credits finish rolling), but at least he has something approaching screen presence; Hanks looks entirely disengaged with the material, barely capable of finishing his long-winded, jabbering exposition dumps without rolling his eyes. Convoluted, tedious, and very stupid; the periodic attempts to enliven things with generic Bourne-style manhunt intrigue fall flat every time. Judging by the lethargic effort of the involved parties, the drastically-reduced budget, and middling box office returns, no one was particularly interested in this project from conception to completion; goes to show the influence of a recognizable brand over the fog of malaise.

23/100