Look back over this guy's filmography, I realise that, out of all his films, I've only ever enjoyed two, which were RANSOM and WILLOW. Sadly, I was left watching a totally lacklustre movie that forgets some of the fundamental rules of film-making for instance, making the storyline interesting, pacy and exciting, all golden elements that director Ron Howard totally bypasses. I was left feeling underwhelmed by Dan Brown's bestselling novel, but nevertheless went to see the film version with high hopes. She conveys an Audrey Hepburn like quality in her role and hopefully this will be a break out film for her. By the way special mention should go to Audrey Tautou. That was a good family values film and it was, I liked it a lot. Ironically the same people who are beating him up over this film were praising him last year over Cinderella Man. Ron Howard will need several Brink's Armored cars to haul away all the profits he will make with The DaVinci Code. In fact at the very beginning of the opening credits it says that the movie is taken from the NOVEL by Dan Brown. It's a work of fiction from an imaginative author, nothing more. But folks it is when all is said and done, a NOVEL. The novel by Dan Brown certainly was well received and sold millions of copies. And there are descendants walking around today. Supposedly she went to France with her child and is in fact buried in France. One of the secrets is that Jesus was in fact a very human soul who did human things such as get married to Mary Magdalene and have a daughter. So what's the protest for? We've got a couple of secret religious societies protecting their secrets and killing a lot of people to do it. You can't buy the kind of publicity that fundamentalist Christians are giving this film.

As is usually the case, they're driving up the box office. Ron Howard has made an entertaining enough film and should put a lot of money in his pocket with all the protests going on. It's not as good as those two, but not bad either. The DaVinci Code is a murder mystery chase very much in the style of such Hitchcock thrillers as North By Northwest and The 39 Steps. The investigating detective, Jean Reno, has another agenda going as he's a member of Opus Dei. Hanks is accused of murdering Tautou's grandfather and she believes him when he says he's innocent. So what's all the fuss about? Tom Hanks is a visiting American professor of Theology in Paris and Audrey Tautou is a cryptologist with the French police. It was cleverly constructed though confusing, and it is nowhere near as bad as people make it out to be. All in all, a good film, though it could have been better. Jean Reno and Paul Bettany are pretty solid, but it is Ian McKellan, who is a great actor and rarely disappoints in anything he's in, who gives the best performance of the film. The acting was pretty decent, though all have given better performances, and this includes Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou in the leads.

But this is compensated by the splendid locations, especially Paris itself, and the music by Hans Zimmer was very nice, if not his best work. The dialogue is a little clunky, the violence like the whipping quite disturbing, and the direction perhaps too leisurely. Though with all the different views on Christianity and the complicated plot, it is confusing and convoluted. My dad loved the book, and he thinks the film did it justice, and at 17 I liked it. This was much better than I expected, and it is far from the worst film ever made.

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