okay, I'm up to pop culture speed regarding Da Vinci Code, having absorbed the movie yestreen. before I'd seen/read, I assumed the movie would outstrip the book (having seen the explosion laden trailer) but hafta say otherwise now. we arrived way early, thus sat thru many repetitions of the loop of items on the screen prior to the previews. the something to look at that we early birds needed. to wit, a still from King Kong (did that movie sink or swim? I neve paid attention), a still from Ferris Buehler's Day Off, a still from Ray (did you know Jamie Fox wore eye prosthetics that made him blind for 14 hours a day? can you comprehend any reason why?), a tantalzing picture of an X-Men promotion featuring a limited edition Harley, and then, long tympani roll, a reminder that a snack bar exists in the complex and happy to displace funds from your grasp. each screen shot had different music. it went on and on. we were Da Vinci Code all the way, btw, tho Erin would have opted for X-Men. 2 theatres in the complex were movie-less. praps that's renovation but I feel just spooky enough about the economy to wonder about downturn. of course, why should I worry, I have 15,000,000 shares of Vonage. anyway, the future bodes more movies with explosions, surprisingly enough. personally I'm coocoo for Cocoa Crisps. the new James Bond, you know, whatever. I was struck that it didn't look like a James Bond movie. it had IMAXy breadth and a more frantic pace than earlier renditions, not to say combustion wasn't the co-star. Adam Sandler has a new movie to hate. talk about code, someone break the Sandler code for me. also upcoming a film from M Night Shyamalan. I quite liked that Shyamalan crop circle movie with Mel Gibson. the spookiness is very intimate and personal in it, in the way, somewhat at least, of Lovecraft. this new one, who can tell from previews, but it looked disturbing. something about a female what, ghost? mermaid? in a hotel swimming pool (Erin aptly spoke the phrase 'watery tart'). more definitively Lovecraftian, it would seem. anyway, we stayed to watch the feature too. at least with an Opie/Gump production, money's gonna be spent. and you could see it on the screen. that's enough to satisfy me. it's too hard to boil novels down to 2 hour movies, I knew that from the beginning. Hanks is at the point, careerwise, where he's just too much. the accolades, the niceness, the earnestness, all that overwhelms anything he might do on the screen. he postured some, seemed to be gliding. he should do dinner theatre as a change of pace. I like how in movies, if the lead plays a teacher, especially a prof, when he (always he, I think) shows off his teacherliness in lecture, his audience is always gape-mouthed morons. the arrival of Sophie in both book and movie just don't work. in the movie it is roughly her only pro-active moment. the rest of the way, Hanks does all the sleuthy thinking, which is not the case in the book. the monk Silas is an oddly sympathetic character in both movie and book. he wears his cilice tighter than I do. he should have been shown reading Gerard Manley Hopkins. the creepy side of the Church fascinates me. there were some brief visual evocations of the Crusades and pagan Constantinople that made me wish for a movie based on that. in Coppola's goofy Dracula, there's a short scene that shows the beginning of Vlad's impaling career (for some reason, he wears armour made from corn chips). I'd rather see more of that than the histrionic carnage that FFC served. the escape of the dynamic duo is so usual. you'd think escaping duos would trip over each other. especially when, as in DVC, you got characters (Sophie) driving down a Paris sidewalk backwards. I suspect if you haven't read the book, much would confuse you in the movie. finally, our heroes end up with Sir Leigh, which is to say, Gandalf gets to step centerstage and take a playful turn as a dotty Englishman. Hanks doesn't really let go of the earnest bit so he doesn't get to play along. he's capable but I think Opie believed that with such a serious subject, due resepct must be shown. yawn. things swirl to a finish, in which neither Sophie or Gump die whatesover. but wait, there's more! and this more seems anticlimactic. the final mystery must be broached and, yawn, is. Hanks kneeling down reverently at the end is one all star fake moment. here's a sop to those who thought this movie was sacrilegious. religion? Hollywood? come on! there's a kind of now what at the end of things here, like, can anything be made of this trust me royal line? Brown's next book, and it better be a doozy.