Constroversory aside... it's a very entertaining movie

Rating: 7/10 (21 May 2006)

I will get this out of the way first. I read the book "The Da Vinci Code" when it was first released some years ago & I thought it was very entertaining. First let me say that I'm not religious & I saw this movie with four devout Christians & one other non-religious person. Out of all of them, I was the only one that had read the book. Upon the movie's completion, we all talked about the movie and everyone liked it, the Christians didn't believe it & that's it. There was no yelling at each other... no screaming... no claim's of 'heresey, etc. We all were able to discuss the movie as a form of ENTERTAINMENT not religious fact. Upon leaving the theater, we were approached by a Christian group asking us, if we had seen the Da Vinci Code, we answered yes & immediately they gave us a pamphlet written by a Pastor about the Da Vinci Code. This movie, will not cause Christian's to loose their faith. I encourage anyone who see's the movie, reads the book or even hears anything about the storyline to do your on research. There is a plethora of books on the subject coming out every few weeks. Now onto my review...
I thought Ron Howard did a fantastic job with directing, some of the cinematography is just beautiful, particularly the scenes inside the Louvre. He kept the movie flowing at a good pace, since if he followed the book, page for page, we would have had to watch a mini-series. Tom Hank's was convincing as 'Robert Langdon', a cryptologist from Harvard who is wanted for murder he didn't commit. Audrey Tautou was also fantastic as Sophie Neveu, a French CSI'Esq member. But the real scene stealer was without a doubt Sir Ian McKellen as Sir Leigh Teabing, an eccentric billionaire Grail fanatic. He played the part perfectly, adding a charm to the film, it would have lacked without him. Paul Bettany & Jean Reno were also convincing in their roles.
Overall, I gave the movie a 7/10, there are a few things they have added, such as dialog (Langdon saying, "I need a library. Fast!) was a little 'overdone.' See the movie, ignore the protester's & just got to be entertained not to be taught a theology lesson.