A year or two ago I read the Dan Brown book and it was an easy read. It was quick paced and left the reader with a sense of journey through the streets of Europe in an age old conspiracy thriller....good stuff (same with Angels and Demons). Unfortunately, if you read the book then you have already seen the movie as this is literally a direct translation of the book. The movie is done fairly well, but as usual the book is always better than the movie. When reading, you can imagine things the way you want vs. seeing Tom Castaway Hanks as the leading symbologist in the world. Another example, when reading the book at least I always picture Jen as the beautiful, smart heroin vs. some blah Audrey Tautou person...but hey, that's just me (it must be close to valentines day - getting warmed up). Anyway, ultimately there are no surprises in this flick so this one ends up being the cliff notes version of an already easy book to read. Unfortunately for Ron Howard (who also directed Cinderella Man) I often only rate movies high on my scorecard if you can watch it more than once...this is not that type of movie. Heck, I was even bored the first time through...ok, this may have been partly due to the fact I was sick and it was late at night. But in the end, while this is surely a good rendition of a good novel, it does not invoke a deeper understanding of anything and does not leave you wanting more. Alas, not in the Cavitation top ten. But the book is definitely near the top 10 for novels ... and yes - I have read more than 10 novels ;-)
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Oddly, The Mrs. and I watched The Da Vinci Code on Friday. Well, one could more accurately say that I watched the beginning and the end of it, as I fell into a deep and happy sleep in my La-Z-Boy through the middle of it. This movie actually made me re-evaluate my claim that Tom Hanks has never been in a bad moovie. But, in the end, I decided this wasn't a bad moovie. It just wasn't a good moovie.
Oh, and Ms. Jameson usually goes by "Jenna," not by "Jen".
I have a disease...no matter how bad a movie is, I can not fall asleep during the movie. It is particularly frustrating in cases such as The Da Vinci Code.
And as for never being in a bad movie...I would agree with anything from about 1992 onwards...but before that are things like Joe Versus the Volcano and Turner & Hooch...The Terminal was a little sketchy too...
There's nothing like a double bloody mary and a La-Z-Boy to ease you through a less-than-exciting moovie.
Everyone always brings up Joe vs. The Volcano. In my opinion, that was one of the very best of all of his moovies. I've seen it about six times, and every time it got better.
But Turner and Hooch? Come-on...
I also googled Jenna Jameson...nice - all her pictures look like she is a drugged out stripper. You can do better...
Turner & Hooch wasn't a bad moovie. It wasn't his best, but it was eminently watchable.
Claiming a porn star looks like a "drugged out stripper" is quite a revelation.
I actually did not know that she was a porn star although the pole dancer I saw in one photo was a strong clue ;-)
That's your story, and you're sticking to it.
I haven't read the book or seen the movie. (what's wrong with me)?
All of the media coverage (good and bad) put me off.
Maybe I should re-consider?
or not?
Did you enjoy Jeff Goldblum's endless babbling on about chaos theory in Jurassic Park? If so, watch the moovie. If not, don't.
Though both roles perhaps give you a good glimpse of what Hollywood considers to be science.
If you have not read the book it will at least be somewhat entertaining. But I agree, there is a big data dump from Tom Castaway Hanks regarding the conspiracy theory surrounding Opus Dei, Knights Templar, The Church and the Holy Grail...if you don't like that kind of stuff then probably not too interesting
Unless you have a double bloody mary and a La-Z-Boy. Then, even The English Patient is watchable.
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