da vinci code

[brine]

so I went to see the movie on friday, for 2 main reasons:

1) because everyone was boycotting it
2) because the book was too big

Anyone else see it? I really like conspiracy treasure hunt movies (loved national treasure).

brine gives the da Vinci code a thumbs up.

[Sybil]

We went to a matinee this afternoon and were torn between DaVinci and Over the Hedge.

Over the Hedge has Ben Folds songs, and Wanda Sykes as the voice of a skunk.

Maybe I'll see DaVinci Code sometime before it comes out on DVD.

Sybil

[ChrisLovesYou]

I wouldn't worry about the size of the book, what with it being derivative fluff written for the retarded and all.

I'll probably catch the movie, though. The trailer looked neat.

[katie]

The book is great. As long as you keep in mind that it's a work of fiction and not actually happening, you're fine. I loved it, though thought Angels and Demons was a far superior work.

[Rebecca]

I thought the movie was pretty okay. I have a girl-crush on Amelie, so I may be somewhat biased. Some things in the movie were way over-explained, and some things weren't explained enough, or maybe I wasn't paying close enough attention. I thought it was one of Tom Hanks' most forgettable roles. Overall, the movie was engaging and entertaining, and good considering it is a "summer blockbuster" and everything. I certainly did get a kick out of the protesters outside the theater! If only I had automatic windows, I could have yelled something clever at them.

[Steveums]

Can't be arsed, as usual.

[sam]

Can't give an opinion as I haven't read the book or seen the movie as yet. I am appalled at how many people can't quite grasp the concept of "fiction", but at least they are reading, an improvement in general.

I can highly recommend Foucault's Pendulum
by Umberto Eco. It covers very similar terrain in a very intelligent and interesting way.

[Dutch]

I can highly recommend Foucault's Pendulum
by Umberto Eco. It covers very similar terrain in a very intelligent and interesting way.

That book keeps coming up in conversation a lot lately; I'm really going to have to read it.

I loved The Da Vinci Code when I read it. It's entertaining and I love all the topics it deals with and cross-references. It's fast-paced and easy to read and has a great story and characters. But it's still pretty light reading. I wouldn't go so far as to call it "fluff," but it's success is doubtlessly not based on any sort of literary merit. It's appeal lies elsewhere.

The film is terrible, a collasal disappointment. The book was virtually written to be made into a film, and Ron Howard succeeded in capturing absolutely none of it's rhythm or spirit. While Dan Brown may have certainly used simple character "types" as a device to tell his story, Howard whittled them down to no more than cardboard charicatures with no pulse and nothing to make them relatable or likeable. He recast Fache and Sauniere as something positively ugly, fully distorting their roles in the story, and Tom Hanks gives one of the worst, most drab and hackneyed performances of his career. Paul Bettany was pretty good, and Ian McKellan and Audrey Tatou did the best they could with their feeble roles. The speech at the end about faith had no point, and the dialogue that was added for the film was insipid. Some of the plot points were concolidated well, like there being only one cryptex instead of two, and the escape from the Louvre with the keys falling out from being the Madonna of the Rocks, but what didn't make sense at all was to briefly bring up the Hieros Gamos ritual, but change the entire reason for the fight between Sophie and Sauniere. Howard should have either had the courage to tell that part of the story and back it up with fair representation, or leave it out entirely. To show it in passing in such a way with no explanation of it's relevance - paired with the ridiculous incident of Sauneire screaming at the child - paints him as a monster, and then where is the audience to find their compasion for him after his murder, and for Sophie in her grief? And what was the point of making him NOT her grandfather? Stupid. Brown's Sauniere was a tender and loveable mastermind; Howard's, a confused and confusing corpse.

My biggest problem with the movie, though, is that it seems the main point Howard was trying to get across (if any at all other than Controversy!! Ticket Sales!!) was that Jesus was just a man and he and Mary Magdalen married had children - a point he then practically betrays by trying to pacify anyone in the audience who might be offended with his vulgar, childish, and two-faced tiatribes on faith. In Dan Brown's novel, however, the fact (or rather, proposition) of Jesus and Magdalen's union is not the whole point itself, but rather evidence of the book's greater purpose: that the sacred feminine has been devalued and villified in the last [however long, maybe two thousand years] of our human history, particularly in the West through patriachal religions, namely Christianity. It is my supposition, and probably other's, as well, that Brown does this not for the sake of controversy, but to show that if the very foundation of this patriachal vision is based on a misunderstanding, possibly even one that may have been intentionally perpetrated throughout generations, then maybe we need to seriously revist these values as an entire culture, both the pious and the pagan, in favor of not mere feminism or equal rights, but a truly sacred and pervasive union. Derivative or otherwise, naive or practicable, that to me is a beautiful notion, and none of it comes across in the film.

My first instinct when I heard Ron Howard was directing this was that he was totally the wrong person for the job. I should have trusted that impulse and stayed very far away from this disaster of an adaptation.

[brine]

I certainly did get a kick out of the protesters outside the theater! If only I had automatic windows, I could have yelled something clever at them.

"SNAPE KILLS DUMBLEDORE wait wrong movie."
"NOOOO I HATE YOU"

[aquaphase]

I can highly recommend Foucault's Pendulum
by Umberto Eco. It covers very similar terrain in a very intelligent and interesting way.

One of my all-time faves. Right up there with the Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson. Both of those should be required reading for life.

[kip]

the Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson*








































*an amazing read!!!

[Dalya]

Wanda Sykes as the voice of a skunk.

is that supposed to be a good thing?

[Dutch]

Wanda Sykes as the voice of a skunk.

is that supposed to be a good thing?

Don't play like you don't love her.

[mere1975]

I love Wanda and her fiancee Crazy Eyez Killa.

- Mere "from Curb Your Enthusiasm" 1975

P.S.
I laugh everytime she says "Larry" with such contempt!