If you saw Bruce Hornsby Wednesday night, you heard him sing "Levitate," the theme song to Spike Lee's film on Kobe Bryant.

Tuesday, that documentary hits DVD shelves. It's called "Kobe Doin' Work" and it shows the basketball whiz at his best.

More interested in holiday films? You can get "Four Christmases" and "Santa Buddies" before Thanksgiving.

But you could also try to solve the secrets found in "Angels & Demons," the pre-quel to "The Da Vinci Code."

Tom Hanks, the star of both, plays an acclaimed symbols expert who is pressed into service by folks in the Vatican. A secret group -- called the Illuminati -- is attempting to undermine selection of the next pope. Four key players will be killed before a bomb explodes. Hanks just has to connect the dots and figure out where everything is.

While this kind of cat-and-mouse game works in print, it's pretty farfetched on screen. Like an episode of "Amazing Race," it allows no margin for error. If Hanks hesitates on a clue (or gets it wrong), the game is over. Naturally, he comes through each time, deciphering what a statue's placement might mean. (Never mind that someone might have moved it in the intervening centuries.)

To help him through the scientific stuff, an insider (Ayelet Zurer) is sent on the trail. They encounter plenty of symbols and watch as men die pretty horrible deaths. Meanwhile, cardinals are trying to pick a new pope. A go-between -- called the camerlengo -- tries to hold off the vote until the other puzzle can be solved. Played by Ewan McGregor, he's a kindly sort who thinks the splinter group could cause chaos. The leader of the Swiss Guard, however, doesn't want word of the the trouble to leak. They represent opposing sides (another angel and demon) who could help or hinder the ultimate resolution.

Director Ron Howard knows how to pace something like this but he has too much plot for one film. That means Hanks is left delivering an awful lot of exposition. Because most viewers don't have a clue about Catholic tradition, it's just jargon. While some of the sets look great, others have that backlot taint that suggests corners were cut.

The screenplay? That's a whole other problem. To reduce the number of "A plus B equals C" conversations, the writers have embraced cliches from other movies. There's one from "Tea and Sympathy." There's another from an off-Broadway play. Throw in a couple more and "Angels & Demons" falls somewhere below "National Treasure 2." Indeed, that franchise offered accessibility -- we knew the lingo and locations. Here, we're like tourists being led by a generic guide.

Hanks is OK (particularly since he doesn't have the bad hair extensions he boasted in "Da Vinci") and Zurer is a great find. Armin Mueller-Stahl (as one of the cardinals) and Stellan Skarsgard (as the head of the Swiss Guard) do what they're told. McGregor is the wild card and he doesn't disappoint.

Still, with a plot this rich, you wish "Angels & Demons" would bear greater fruit. Often, it's not only forbidden but hidden.