Nothing really new, one of Howard's weakest films

Rating: 6/10 (19 May 2006)

The Da Vinci Code is based on Dan Brown's popular number one best seller about a murder that occurred in the Lourve mansion and clues in Leonardo Da Vinci's paintings that is being investigated by a Harvard symbologist and a french cryptologist that lead to a religious mystery that could shake the foundations of Christianity. There's not much new to this film, but just Tom Hank's goofy hair and some french accents. I have never really read the book so I had only a little clue what this film was going to be about. I came out of the movie theater with a lot of information, but was still confused on most parts. There is still tons of question that still need to be answered and what I've heard from many fans from the book was, that they were missing some key points in the movie. But there were a few positives. Although Tom Hanks is one of my favorite actors, his performance in this film was pretty dull and could've been a little better.
But it was Paul Bettany and Ian McKellen that made the acting carry the film. There performances were very enjoyable and they played their parts perfect. The screenplay was written really well by former writer of Ron Howard, Akiva Goldsman and had nicely used dialogue. Overall, the film was decent and could've been a lot better. For its 2 and a half hour length, I thought it went way to slow and felt like it was almost 4 hours, but that's just me. I think this is one of Ron Howard's weakest films, compared to his previous ones such as A Beautiful Mind and Apollo 13. But then again, this is my opinion on the film.
Hedeen's Outlook: 5.5/10 ** D+