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CHRISTOPHER TOOKEY'S VERDICT: So huge is the hype behind this big, bad and extravagantly boring movie that it is bound to cash in on its first weekend. My bet is, though, that even those keenest to see it will end up disappointed and pondering the deepest-mystery that the film has to offer: how on earth could so apparently cinematic a bestselling novel become such ponderous, preposterous poppycock? Like the cheerfully trashy Nicolas Cage hit of two years ago, National Treasure - which was a good deal more exciting - Dan Brown's novel is essentially an intellectual treasure hunt. It leads...

News stories and early reviews have indicated that when "The DaVinci Code" was screened in Cannes recently, movie goers guffawed at the film's revelation of the identity of one of Jesus's modern day descendants. In that spirit and to "honor" the film's release tommorrow, let's speculate as to who the film reveals as Christ's modern day descendant!

CANNES, France (Reuters) - Most critics panned "The Da Vinci Code" on Wednesday ahead of the world premiere of the year's most eagerly awaited movie. Kicking off the annual Cannes film festival, Ron Howard's adaptation of the Dan Brown bestseller was described variously as "grim," "unwieldy" and "plodding," though one reviewer bucked the trend and said "You'll Louvre It!" The cool reception was temporarily forgotten at a glitzy opening ceremony, where screen legend Sidney Poitier and Bollywood star Aishwarya Rai joined Da Vinci Code star Tom Hanks and the normally publicity-shy Brown on the red carpet. Even before its general...

by Mark Finkelstein May 18, 2006 After a couple days in which the only people that the Today show offered the opportunity to comment on the controversy surrounding the Da Vinci Code were the movie's director and cast members, this morning an outside expert and Catholic officials finally got their shot. The result was an oddly ambivalent reaction, in which the movie was simultaneously praised as offering an opportunity to teach about the Church, and condemned as filled with lies. A quick recap on the state of play at Today. Matt Lauer has been "On the Road with the Code"...

 [Editor’s Note: the following unsigned letter came into our hands by accident. We do not sympathize with or take responsibility for its content or the views expressed therein. We are publishing this letter because of the world-wide interest in the opening of the movie The Da Vinci Code, based on Mr. Brown’s book of the same name. If the “Khadijah” story surfaces anywhere else, people will know that it is a hoax, just like to book and movie. The only editing has been the addition of links.]Dear Mr. Brown:You probably won’t have time to read this right away, what with soaring book...

At a screening late on Tuesday in Cannes, members of the audience laughed at the thriller's pivotal moment, and the end of the $125 million picture was greeted with stony silence.

My dear Wormwood, I trust this finds you as miserable and coarse as ever. I am pleased to take a respite from our usual tutorial and venture into something a bit broader, but vastly instructive for our larger purposes. To wit: I shall today croak a paean of praise to a particular work of middlebrow non-fiction. The genre has been particularly good to us, Wormwood! Do you remember The Passover Plot? Or that excellent hoax by Erich von Daniken, In Search of Ancient Astronauts? You may s now, but in its day even that harebrained rant proved helpful to our...

Da Vinci Doubts and Reason’s Rebuke By Karen BorenWords like “blockbuster,” “publishing juggernaut” and “monster hit” are being applied to the book and forthcoming movie, The Da Vinci Code. Author of the book Dan Brown is reputed to have earned $442 million for his work. The book, published in 2003, has sold 46 million copies in 44 languages. The paperback edition sold 6 million copies in just one month.Director Ron Howard’s upcoming movie of the book stars Tom Hanks and reportedly has a marketing budget of upwards of $100 million. The movie opens Friday, May 19th.The startling religious claims...

Religious Leaders Call for Boycott of Sony’s DaVinci Code the Movie:Sony’s Da Vinci Code the Movie… seeks to profit off bigotry, proselytizes paganism, and undermines the dignity of women …,” states prominent Roman Catholic Priest(Front Royal, VA) The Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer, President of Human Life International (HLI), joined Dr. Ted Baehr of Movieguide.org, Don Feder, Austin Ruse of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, Patrick Reilly of the Cardinal Newman Society, and Bob Knight of Concerned Women for America as part of The Interfaith Coalition Against 'The DaVinci Code.'" An address by Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer, President of...

Cannes, France (AHN) - As "The Da Vinci Code" makes its worldwide film debut, opening the Cannes Film Festival, the critics are giving it the thumbs down. The highly anticipated drama was screened Tuesday night at the 59th Cannes Film Festival for hundreds of journalists from around the world against a backdrop of anger from religious groups. The movie is receiving some praise, but most is highly critical. One reviewer even calls Tom Hanks' performance "wooden." Only co-star Ian McKellen was left without criticism. One scene during the film, meant to be serious, elicited prolonged laughter from the audience. There...

Early critics seemed happy to try to break "The Da Vinci Code." Reaction ranged from halfhearted admiration to boredom to derision among journalists at the first press screening of the Ron Howard-Tom Hanks blockbuster in waiting, premiering Wednesday at the Cannes Film Festival and opening worldwide through Friday. "`Da Vinci' never rises to the level of a guilty pleasure. Too much guilt. Not enough pleasure," wrote critic Kirk Honeycutt in the trade paper The Hollywood Reporter.

Movie met with catcalls, jeers at Cannes. Folks, it appears that the DaVinci Code movie is a bomb. According to CNN:At Cannes, one scene during the film, meant to be serious, elicited prolonged laughter from the audience, and when the credits rolled, there was no applause, only a few catcalls and hisses. Things were no better Stateside, where the film screened for critics in New York.Signis, the Catholic communication association in France, declared the movie "A film which, finally, the Church has little to be concerned about." According to the Catholic News Agency:The Catholic association described the film as “simply...

Religious activists call for boycott of Da Vinci Code film WASHINGTON Religious activists are calling for a boycott of "The Da Vinci Code" movie. Three Catholics, two Protestants and a Jew took turns denouncing the film at a news conference in Washington. They called it misleading, blasphemous and deeply insulting to Christians. The Reverend Thomas Euteneuer (EYE'-tun-ow-ur) said that if a movie treated Muhammad and Islam the way "The Da Vinci Code" treats Jesus and Christianity, "the whole world would be up in arms." Ted Baehr of the Christian Film and Television Commission said people don't need to see "The...

Here’s a quick reminder, in case you needed it: Just because an actor portrays a character in a movie you really, really like, and even if he does it really well, it doesn’t mean he’s not an ass. Just so you know. On a related note, Ian McKellen, who played Gandalf in “The Lord of the Rings” and who plays Leah Teabing in “The Da Vinci Code,” replies to demands that move include a disclaimer by saying that the Bible itself should have a disclaimer. In an interview on the “Today Show” as transcribed on the NewsBusters blog, he says:“Well,...

While promoters of "The Da Vinci Code" have tried to downplay the film's challenge to Christianity, actor Ian McKellen took a shot at the Bible in an interview with the "Today" show, saying Scripture should carry a disclaimer that it is "fiction." McKellen, who played Gandalf in "The Lord of the Rings" triology, was responding to a question from host Matt Lauer about the requests by some Christian groups to insert a "fiction" disclaimer at the beginning of the controversial film, which suggests Jesus and Mary Magdalene were man and wife and that the divinity of Jesus was an invention...

'Da Vinci Code' Misses the Mark for Critics http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/film_cannes_da_vinci_code By DAVID GERMAIN, AP Movie Writer Wed May 17, 8:58 AM ET "The Da Vinci Code" drew lukewarm praise, shrugs of indifference, some jeering laughter and a few derisive jabs Tuesday from arguably the world's toughest movie crowd: critics at the Cannes Film Festival. The year's most anticipated movie, "The Da Vinci Code" was a generally faithful adaptation of Dan Brown's monster best seller, spinning a murder thriller that stems from a cover-up of secrets about Christianity's roots. While readers worldwide devoured the novel, reaction from Cannes critics ranged from mild...

If "The Da Vinci Code" was already feeding the flames of controversy with its challenge to the basic tenets of Christianity, actor Ian McKellen managed to pour a refinery tank's worth of gasoline on the fire on this morning's 'Today' show, asserting that the Bible should carry a disclaimer saying that it is "fiction." Video: Windows Media or Real Player, Plus audio MP3 Matt Lauer, in his second day "On The Road With The Code," was in Cannes for the film festival, where the Code will have its debut. It has already been screened to some critics, who have given...

Jeers, hisses and laughter was not "Canned", and what must have been a real disappointment for Tom Hanks who always looks surprised because of his facelift. The movie "The DaVinci Code", which is based upon a fictional story about how Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married and had a child, takes two and a half hours to finish, but only thirty minutes to put a number of the audience to sleep, only to be awakened by laughter, where laughter is not appropriate or planned.According to reports some people walked out during the movie's closing minutes, and when the credits rolled there...

The release Friday of the film version of Dan Brown's book "The Da Vinci Code," and its prophesied status as a "blockbuster," once more brings to the forefront a story line that is a frontal assault upon the central truths of the Christian message. In the course of his story, Mr. Brown enables his readers to "discover" that the doctrine of the deity of Christ emerged, four centuries after his death, as a result of the political invention of the Roman Emperor Constantine, who aimed to create a new religious power he could control.

Catholicism's misunderstood do-gooders Barbara Kay National Post Wednesday, May 17, 2006 Opus Dei, the real-life Catholic fellowship Dan Brown mauls to fictional shreds in his novel The Da Vinci Code, has profited from the public's fascination with the Code phenomenon by opening its "secret" chambers to journalists, revealing the group's benign modern face. A slew of media interviews with candid, urbane numeraries has done much to roll back the negative stereotypes -- not altogether undeserved in the past -- of an inward-dwelling cadre of ultra-conservative spiritual elites. I've been interested in Opus Dei for a while -- not because...