don't bite off more than you can chew

Rating: 3/10 (22 May 2006)

***potential spoilers*** Ron was presented with a 9 course meal when he wasn't hungry and 7 months later we got the DA Vince code.
Before the camera: Given the chance to emulate Lucas in creating his own Indy, RonH fell face flat at the outset by trying to "langdonize" hanks. Hanks is no Robert, so lets leave all the Indy parallels to rest @ the outset. Hanks was no scene stealer either and was found wanting and misplaced in most of the scenes.
Case in point: Indiana Jones and the last crusade has a scene in the end where Indy has to choose the "true grail" to save his fathers life. RobL is in a eerily similar predicament when Sophie has a gun to her head and hanks has to think on his head to get out of the situation. Compare the scenes, its an open and shut case.
The other main protagonist, Sophie nouveau. We have a lady who in 12 hours(time duration of the plot), learns of her grandfathers death, hasn't talked to him in ages, faces the prospect of getting killed, finds herself having to place her trust, life and grandfathers legacy on a man she barely knows and if the requirements weren't enough, she faced the prospect of being the sole surviver of the man up there. This is a role many "actors" spend a life time searching and Audrey just wasn't equipped to handle it.
The Silas I had in mind when reading the book was an innocent yet tough character. He had unquestionable faith(in Christ, aringarosa and the teacher), he wasn't supposed to react. But Ron's Silas is projected as a man with an agenda. He came across as a doped guy from a crazy cult and the way he "enjoyed" the killing Jacques and the old lady took him further from my Silas
I wont even bother covering Collete, fache and aringarosa. the guys I saw in the movie weren't in the book I read.
the silver lining, and this silver had high luminosity mind you, was without doubt IanMc. He had the right amount of senility, humor, awe, excitement, vulnerability, tact and the lack of it for an aging grail historian with no other aim in life but to uncover the location.
Behind the camera: RonH had a tough act to follow. On the one hand he could have made a docu drama like the ninth gate, on the other he could have made a racy action thriller, a national treasure or a mummy. Turns out he made a very bad decision. The book came with a lot of baggage, not counting the 2000 year old history of the grail, each of the protagonists and antagonists had their own story to tell and the editing needed to be top notch to drive home the point. I will reserve judgment on who takes the most blame for the failure, the screen play or the editing dept, after watching the deleted scenes in the DVD.
There was a lot of french commentary and the subtitles just seemed increase the agitation of the viewers who were already in the middle of a patience test. The team decided to deviate from the book quite a bit and the changes didn't add to the viewing experience IMO. The sensational grail revelation at the château, could have heightened the tension quite a bit but I guess Ron took the safe way out and the viewer was left with a 5 minute grail history 101 lesson.
In the theater My group had both Christians and "pagans" The Christians had the advantage of at least hearing about the gnostic gospels and decided the film was a tame affair low on thrills. The pagans were lost with the proceeding on the screen and had bucket loads of questions
The film fails on all fronts and all were are left with is a 150 minute "im sorry i suck at this" message from Ron