TOM Hanks’ new movie has been torn to shreds by critics with one describing it as “hellish”.

Inferno is the third film in the Dan Brown series after The Da Vinci Code in 2006 and Angels & Demons in 2009.

Hanks once again plays Dr Robert Langdon who this time wakes up in an Italian hospital with amnesia.

Dazed and confused, he teams up with Sienna Brooks (played by Felicity Jones), a doctor he hopes will help him recover his memories, and together they race across Europe in a desperate attempt to foil a deadly global plot.

The film hits cinemas in Australia today but movie critics from around the world are urging people to give Inferno a miss.

Here are some of the not-so-complimentary things they’ve had to say about the movie:

“I kept hoping a Wayans brother would pop in and signal it was all one big genre parody, and when you’re fervently wishing for a Wayans, you know you’re in trouble.” - The Wrap

“If you excised all the shots of people running in Ron Howard’s Inferno, the film’s entire run time would amount to roughly four minutes.” - Little White Lies

“Purgatorio is maybe closer to it — something bad is happening, not the full Inferno, but it could be the gateway to the Paradiso of this fantastically boring film actually coming to an end. After 121 theologically unfathomable minutes ... Once upon a time, this wackiness had some novelty value. Now it’s tedious.” - The Guardian

“‘Nothing changes our behaviour like pain,’ growls Zobrist [the villain] in his opening monologue, and given the difference in global box-office takings between The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons — from $US758 million to $US485 million — he may be on to something. Why anyone would want to return today for a third dose of the same is an enigma perhaps best left to the professional symbologists.” - The Telegraph

“Bodies and blood and fire and hell are all hurled into the mix in the new Dan Brown adaptation, Inferno, but the film is still the most perfect codswallop.” - The Independent

“The first two-thirds, then, of Inferno, are hellishly rote and dull. But then, what should you expect in the equivalent of watching someone solve a Sudoku outside ornate tourist attractions?” - IGN

“‘The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons were just the beginning,’ proclaim the posters — pretty inarguably, since Inferno is nothing if not a continuation of what they started. But there’s a hint of threat in those words too: If you found the first two films soulless and joyless, they imply, prepare for things to have gotten a little bit worse this time. And so it largely proves in the latest instalment of perennially endangered symbologist Robert Langdon’s cryptic-lite adventures.” - Variety

“As a narrative, Inferno doesn’t hold up. As a thriller it doesn’t thrill. What clearly wants to be a highbrow Indiana Jones with a bit of Jason Bourne in the mix plays like watching your boring uncle talk incoherently though holiday snaps of artefacts for two hours. Hellish.” - Digital Spy

Inferno is in cinemas now