The Da Vinci Code - Articles - Zimbio

The Da Vinci Code (2006, Ron Howard)

Mon, 9 Sep 2008 11:28:09 GMT

posted by thestopbutton

Hans Zimmer did the score for The Da Vinci Code? I hope he apologized to James Horner for all the plagiarisms (particularly from Horner’s two Star Trek scores and then Aliens).

I don’t know where to start with The Da Vinci Code, except maybe to say it’s the finest film of its kind. It’s actually amazing–even to me, someone who tried to watch Bloodsport–but The Da Vinci Code is the most soulless film I’ve ever seen. It’s not even in a bad way. It’s just perfectly clear absolutely no one involved with the film, from Ron Howard cashing his paycheck to Tom Hanks cashing his, cares at all about the motion picture they are making. The cinematographer–Salvatore Totino (whose work I am unfamiliar with)–doesn’t even care if the lighting in an interior (shot on set) scene matches. At the start, I at least thought–as Howard needlessly spun the camera around–the photography would be professional. It is not.

My degree in fiction writing is only at the master’s level; studying the fine work of Dan Brown is, I believe, a select post-doctoral program–possibly involving lots of French actors speaking English (Jean Reno and Audrey Tautou) and British actors doing poor Spanish accents (Paul Bettany and Alfred Molina). In other words, I have no idea if the most interesting aspects of The Da Vinci Code are from the source novel or from Akiva Goldsman’s magic quill. For example, Hanks’s apparent superpowers. He can do some weird thing where letters flash white and rearrange themselves. He can also conjure up holographic representations of the past or faraway objects. Tautou has a similar power, but she can interact with these conjured apparitions. Her powers are different, because she’s the descendent of Jesus. The movie never makes clear where Hanks gets his powers from, but it might have something to do with his hair looking really stupid.

If I were Steven Spielberg and George Lucas–and could pay someone to read the novel to make sure the elements aren’t in there first–I would sue Howard and company. The Da Vinci Code not only borrows full scenes from the third Indiana Jones and lines from the first, Howard and Goldsman go so far as to steal the Force. They steal the Force and give it to Tom Hanks and his bad hair. There’s something wrong about that one.

The film’s notoriety–and the Vatican’s denunciation of it–is misplaced. It’s such an absurdly terrible film, I can’t believe the Vatican didn’t get behind it all the way. Besides it being sacrilegious and all, it’s so stupidly handled, it’s not going to convince anyone of its credulousness.

The film is not, however, intentionally incompetent. It’s just such a giant paycheck for everyone involved (except maybe Goldsman, who did better writing work on his first great epic, Batman & Robin). Ian McKellen, so terrible in all the films he can’t stop lauding, is actually kind of funny here. Almost every delivery is mocking the film and the dialogue–one could really study the dialogue Goldman writes for Hanks… it’s particularly stylized and recognizable and atrocious; McKellen even goes so far as to mock Hanks, whose performance might be the film’s worst (except for Bettany, Tautou, Reno and Molina). Jürgen Prochnow, who has done the made-for-cable tripe Da Vinci belongs with, brings some humor to his performance as well.

I’m not exactly sure how Howard and Hanks, who made Apollo 13 for you know who’s sake, rationalized making this project. They didn’t demand it be good or even attempt to be good. The film moves well-enough, the frequent stupidity and the short scenes keeping up a decent pace, and surely some good screenwriter could have come in and tried to make something enthusiastic out of the material. With all the special effects and the terrible music (Zimmer sets a car chase to some classical movement in an astoundingly incompetent sequence), with Hanks summoning a miniature solar system, it’s bewildering. There’s a lengthy scene with Tautou and Hanks trying to find some hidden secret–the clues are all written in sweat, only visible under black light, all encrypted so only Hanks can decode them. Just to stretch this asinine scene out, there are three different messages. If only Hanks can read them, why not just one? Howard doesn’t even try to disguise the pointless material.

The whole film–given the competency of everyone involved (except Goldsman, who’s always awful)–is something of a mystery. It’s a fine example of the sad state of Hollywood filmmaking. But at least it’s really, really funny. I’ve never had a movie so vehemently refuse to engage my brain–I’m even considering writing a monograph about it, examining the film scene-by-scene.

CREDITS

Directed by Ron Howard; written by Akiva Goldsman, based on the novel by Dan Brown; director of photography, Salvatore Totino; edited by Daniel P. Hanley and Mike Hill; music by Hans Zimmer; production designer, Allan Cameron; produced by Brian Grazer and John Calley; released by Columbia Pictures.

Starring Tom Hanks (Robert Langdon), Audrey Tautou (Sophie Neveu), Ian McKellen (Sir Leigh Teabing), Jürgen Prochnow (Vernet), Paul Bettany (Silas), Jean Reno (Bezu Fache), Alfred Molina (Bishop Aringarosa), Jean-Yves Berteloot (Remy Jean) and Etienne Chicot (Collet).

The Da Vinci Code (2006)

Sat, 7 Sep 2008 03:27:00 GMT

posted by klawedkillerkitten

I can't say I was blown away by The Da Vinci Code - as is often the case, the book was far superior. I generally like Tom Hanks in almost all his roles, however I found that I had such a pre-conception of what Robert Langdon should be, that it took me about half an hour to get used to Hanks occupying this character. Once I settled into it though - it was a thoroughly enjoyable, occasionally slow moving thriller. Having read the book, I did have a knowledge of the various groups and factions involved - I'm not sure how someone who hasn't read the book will fair though. The casting of the movie is surely one of it's stronger points - Paul Bettany is almost unrecognisable and plays the menacing single minded Silas to utter perfection. Sir Ian McKellan too, it totally fantastic, and really steals most scene's he appears in. He delivers some great one liners too - a real character actor playing a real character. Audrey Tautou is as we have come to expect, just lovely, and who else could have played Bezu Fache - Jean Reno was made for the role. As you'd expect from a Ron Howard Production, there is a good amount of cheese, especially towards the end. Langdon's "Godspeed" caused me to awake in the night sweating! I am a fairly harsh marker on the IMDb, so don't be put off by a 6 out of 10 - I did enjoy the movie, but my anticipation was so great with this film, that it could never live up to my expectation.

Author: George Floyd

The Vatican Bans Filming of "Angels & Demons"

Tue, 18 Jun 2008 07:12:00 GMT

posted by starling

The Vatican has banned the makers of a CERN-inspired quantum physics-based prequel to The Da Vinci Code from filming in its grounds or any church in Rome, describing the work as “an offence against God”.

Angels and Demons, the latest Dan Brown thriller to be turned into a film, includes key episodes that take place in the Vatican and Rome’s churches. Archbishop Velasio De Paolis, the head of the Vatican’s Prefecture for Economic Affairs, said that Brown had “turned the gospels upside down to poison the faith”.

The novel introduces the Harvard symbologist, Robert Langdon as he tries to stop what seems to be the Illuminati, a legendary secret society, from destroying the Vatican City with the newly-discovered power of antimatter.

Like the Da Vinci Code, the book opens with a murder when CERN director Maximilian Kohler discovers one of the facility's most respected physicists, Leonardo Vetra, murdered in his own secured, private quarters at the facility -his chest is branded with a symbol — the word "Illuminati", formed as an ambigram, using a hot iron and his eye torn out. Instead of calling the police, Kohler researches the topic on the Internet and finally gains contact with Professor Langdon, an expert on the Illuminati.
It's later revealed that the Illuminati has also stolen a canister containing a quarter of a gram of antimatter — an extremely deadly substance with destructive potential comparable to the most powerful nuclear weapons in existence, a potential unleashed upon contact with any form of normal matter

“It would be unacceptable to transform churches into film sets so that his blasphemous novels can be made into films in the name of business,” he said, adding that Brown’s work “wounds common religious feelings”.

Father Marco Fibbi, a spokesman for the Diocese of Rome, said: “Normally we read the script but this time it was not necessary. The name Dan Brown was enough.”

The Vatican fiercely condemned The Da Vinci Code novel and its film version, which starred Tom Hanks as the Harvard professor Robert Langdon. Hanks is also starring in Angels and Demons, which like The Da Vinci Code, is directed by Ron Howard.

Crucial scenes are set in the Vatican and two Rome churches — Santa Maria del Popolo and Santa Maria della Vittoria. In both churches, cardinals are murdered and mutilated with mysterious marks and symbols. Father Antonio Truda, parish priest at Santa Maria del Popolo, said that there was no question of allowing scenes to be shot there. “It’s bad enough having to put up with tour guides explaining the scene to tourists,” he said.

The production team is set to recreate on a set in Hollywood the interiors of the Rome churches from which they are banned. Vatican officials said they had been unable to prevent the film-makers from shooting exterior shots of St Peter’s and the surrounding medieval streets of the Borgo, with the permission of the borough council.

However, the film-makers are having to use the marble halls and staircases of the former royal palace at Caserta, near Naples, to double for Vatican interiors.

Posted by Jason McManus.

The Prophesied End-Time Revealed!!!

Mon, 8 Jan 2008 19:17:15 GMT

posted by Todesfee

I got adsense recently. Sometimes it comes up with funny stuff which is not related at all to your site, everyone knows that. But, thanks to adsense, i saw this link and had lots of fun. Here are some quotes from the new christian bestseller:

The Prophesied End-Time will challenge readers as they consider catastrophic end-time events that are prophesied to begin very soon. Although many will not take seriously what is written here, they will gradually experience disbelief as the events covered in this book begin to unfold.

dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb ….

Unlike The Da Vinci Code or the Left Behind series, which are fiction, 2008-God’s Final Witness is true and reveals hidden secrets that man has not been able to uncover for thousands of years. Of the three major religions of the world who claim belief in the God of Abraham (Islam, Judaism and Christianity), no one has ever known the prophecies that are revealed in this book, which are beginning to unfold even now.

Poor dude took The Da Vinci Code as a prophecy, so sad…someone said that a man is a symbolic creature - unfortunately some of us don’t realize that. I guess The Da Vinci Code was a big revelation of heresy to the dude, the one he’s never heard of before. Sad.

I’m not going to go on about this matter, since it’s nothing new, i will just say that Idiocracy was a good (and much more prophetic) movie , and no wonder Ronald Weinland doesn’t have a comments-enabled sites.

Yeah and everyone HAS to visit this site, which is a symbol of the impending armageddon for your brain. ( found at Web Pages that Suck as one of the winners )

Top Ten Boring Movies of All Time

Thu, 29 Feb 2008 08:27:00 GMT

posted by mangalamraj

Movies are the best entertaining thing for most of common men or women but what if you go to movie hall to watch movies , find movie very boring and sleep in the theater itself. Here are the Top Ten Most Boring Movies of all time which can make you sleep anywhere , anytime even if you are watching movie with your beautiful girlfriend or wife (exception, in most of cases man sleep while watching good movie also).Interesting to see that most of the boring movies are oscar and academy awards winners.

[ have You Ever Tried Firefox , Not Yet Try for Best Browsing ]

1. LOST IN TRANSLATION

Oscar winnerLost in Translation, starring Bill Murray and Scarlet Johansson has been polled as the most boring film of all times.

2. STAR WARS : THE PHANTOM MENACE

Star Wars: The Phantom Menace was the second most boring movie according to the survey.

3. ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND

Another Oscar winner, Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind, secured the third position in the list with 14 per cent of the respondents saying that the film made them sleep.

4. VANILLA SKY

Tom Cruise starrer Vanilla Sky grabbed the fourth position with 13 per cent votes.

5. A BEAUTIFUL MIND

The fifth spot went to Russell Crowe's A Beautiful Mind with 10 per cent of the total people choosing it as the most boring film of all times.

6. REMAINS OF THE DAY

Remains of The Day was voted as the seventh most boring movie in the survey. The Remains of the Day (1993) is a Merchant Ivory Film adapted by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala from the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro.

7. THE BLACK DAHLIA

The Black Dahlia was voted as the eight most boring movie. The Black Dahlia is an Academy Award-nominated 2006 film directed by Brian De Palma. It is based on the novel of the same name by James Ellroy, which was based on the murder of Elizabeth Short.

8. DA VINCI CODE

The ninth most boring movie was The Da Vinci Code. The film is based on the bestselling 2003 novel The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown.

9. THE ENGLISH PATIENT

It was voted as the tenth most boring movie. Set in North Africa and Italy during the late 1930's and early '40's, The English Patient is an epic drama of two haunting love stories that unfolds against a background of international upheaval.

10. GOLDEN COMPASS

The Golden Compass is an Academy Award-winning fantasy film based upon Northern Lights (also known as The Golden Compass), the first novel in Philip Pullman's trilogy His Dark Materials

Your Ad Here

BOOKMARK

mangalamraj on HubPages

Enter your email address: