Posted on 05/17/2006 10:05:58 AM PDT by siunevada
Posted: Tue., May 16, 2006, 5:40pm PT
The Da Vinci Code A Sony Pictures Entertainment release of a Columbia Pictures and Imagine Entertainment presentation of a Brian Grazer/John Calley production. Produced by Grazer, Calley. Executive producers, Todd Hallowell, Dan Brown. Directed by Ron Howard. Screenplay, Akiva Goldsman, based on the book by Dan Brown.
Robert Langdon - Tom Hanks Sophie Neveu - Audrey Tautou Sir Leigh Teabing - Ian McKellen Captain Bezu Fache - Jean Reno Silas - Paul Bettany Bishop Aringarosa - Alfred Molina Vernet - Jurgen Prochnow Remy Jean - Jean-Yves Berteloot Lt. Collet - Etienne Chicot Jacques Sauniere - Jean-Pierre Marielle Sister Sandrine - Marie-Francoise Audollent
By TODD MCCARTHY
A pulpy page-turner in its original incarnation as a huge international bestseller has become a stodgy, grim thing in the exceedingly literal-minded film version of "The Da Vinci Code." Tackling head-on novelist Dan Brown's controversy-stirring thriller hinging on a subversively revisionist view of Jesus Christ's life, director Ron Howard and screenwriter Akiva Goldsman have conspired to drain any sense of fun out of the melodrama, leaving expectant audiences with an oppressively talky film that isn't exactly dull, but comes as close to it as one could imagine with such provocative material; result is perhaps the best thing the project's critics could have hoped for.
(Excerpt) Read more at variety.com ...
Mega-turkey Alert! Having read the dreadful book, you couldn't pay me to relive my agonizing pain by watching the movie.
As soon as someone knows who jesus's descendant is supposed to be, ( they laughed at it during the film festival) post it, so we can spread it around, insuring that fewer people will go to see it for such a crappy climax.
Pretty anxious to read the book and then see the movie...Form what i have read, the only critics who didn't like it were, either religious or people who didn't read the book, and didn't understand a thing...But as per the critics of the book, the plot seems incredibly interesting.
Best regards.
The book consists of a lot of dialogue. On the page, this is pretty interesting, at least as opposed to pages of dry description. However, when translated to a movie, there is the danger of the story becoming too talky.
Well it's Wednesday...doesn't the film officially release on Friday? I doubt the bad press will do anything to prevent a 75 million dollar opening. All the brainwashed dunces who think this book is so amazing wil flood theaters to see it.
The book was boring in so many ways. I can't imagine the film doing anything to improve on that.
The Steven King Curse. Most of his richly entertaining books became boring movies.
The book is long and too much dialogue and details, even for me. I felt many of them were unnecessary.
I'm with you. Those wacky religious zealots at Cannes make me sick. They want a theocracy, not a democracy. And they own stock in Diebold. And they drowned the passengers of Flight 77 in the Atlantic to cover the Predator drone that slammed into the Pentagon on 9-11....
Yeah, there really isn't much competition. Nothing similar as far as new releases. A slasher and a PG animated. MI III will still be selling some tickets.
In a couple of weeks it will be Memorial Day weekend and the DVC movie will be old news.
Let's post our guesses of Christ's descendant (apparently the last one, a statistical improbablity) alive on earth today. The person is probably French. Is Jaqueline Bisset French? Bridgette Bardot? It couldn't be Jacques Chirac, could it?
Maybe its Oprah.
This review points out some similarities between "Da Vinci Code" and "Protocols of the Elders of Zion".
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NDY0YmNhMjc5YThmZWIxY2VjNmM3MWE0YjU1MDFhYTg=
I tried to read it, but the writing is at the third-grade level.
The fact that it is so popular is because so many people who read it were functionally illiterate and reading a novel for the first time in their lives.
Naturally they would think it was great.
Bears repeating. The lowest common denominator is the winner every time in mass popular culture.
"The lowest common denominator is the winner every time in mass popular culture."
Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public.
- H.L. Mencken
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