Whether or not you're an avid reader, you certainly had to hear about the book "The DaVinci Code". It was only on the top of the best sellers list for more weeks than one can count. Dan Brown must be one of the richest men in the world right now. And it was a no brainer that somebody was going to turn this masterpiece of a novel into a movie. And what better person to do that than Ron Howard? With past great movies under his belt like "A Beautiful Mind", Howard was sure to produce a work of art. Well, things didn't quite turn out the way he had planned, at least not as far as the critics were concerned. Maybe the biggest problem with this movie was the first problem they encountered before the movie was even cast. Howard wanted Harrison Ford to play the lead role in this film. Ask anybody on the streets and they would have told you that Ford would have been the perfect choice for the part. But he was either not available or didn't want to do it. The reports vary depending on who you ask. So Howard went to his next choice, Tom Hanks. Hanks is certainly an accomplished actor, having turned in some great performances in films like "Apollo 13" and "Philadelphia". But critics literally tore Hanks and his female costar Audrey Tautou to shreds. They called their performances wooden and uninspiring. One critic said the most exciting scene in the movie was when they were in the library discussing the history of Christ. That is pretty sad for what's supposed to be an action movie. Another critic said the movie actually seemed longer than the book. But the worst part of this whole production is that it appears to be so bad that reviews of it are actually posted on rottentomatoes.com. This is a web site that only posts reviews of really bad movies. For this one to appear on this web site is truly a disaster. Some of the comments should make Ron Howard want to hide under his bed. One critic said "Duller than watching DaVinci's paint dry". That's quite a mouthful. But not all the reviews were 100% bad. There were some kudos to Ian McKellen who most critics say turned in a delightful performance and saved the movie from being a total disaster. This should come as no surprise to anyone as McKellen has always been at the top of his game no matter what he does. His performances in "X-Men" and "Lord Of The Rings" should be enough to convince anyone that he is one very talented actor. So just what went wrong with the DaVinci Code? How could such a great novel turn into such a mess of a movie? Some critics say that Howard tried to play it too safe and had too much plodding dialogue which just slowed down the pace. Others said that Hanks was just the wrong person for the role of Langdon. Whatever the reason, the movie and the book are definitely worlds apart in terms of achievement. |
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