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oh no it's davinci code week

Reviewers are supposed to cover every aspect of the movie, including the performances of the actors, the director, the subject matter, the flow, the effects, etc.

Considering the experience and past successes of both director Howard and actor Hanks, I figured it would be at least a marginal success, even if the subject matter is destined to be controversial.

But the current Rotten Tomatoes reviews aren't giving the movie much good credit at all, in any area.

I am truly surprised.
 
NPR is giving it about half a star this morning

I guess I didn’t express myself clearly.

For every person who’s surprised that the DaVince movie got bad reviews, I’ll buy a double-dip butter pecan waffle cone with chocolate sprinkles.

And slurp it up myself.
 
Roger Ebert has a good review with some fun skeptical comments.
...I know there are people who believe Brown's fantasies about the Holy Grail, the descendants of Jesus, the Knights Templar, Opus Dei and the true story of Mary Magdalene. This has the advantage of distracting them from the theory that the Pentagon was not hit by an airplane.

...The conspiracy involves members of Opus Dei, a society of Catholics who in real life (I learn from a recent issue of the Spectator) are rather conventionally devout and prayerful. Although the movie describes their practices as "maso-chastity," not all of them are chaste and hardly any practice self-flagellation. In the months ahead, I would advise Opus Dei to carefully scrutinize membership applications.

...These men keep a secret that, if known, could destroy the church. That's why they keep it. If I were their adviser, I would point out that by preserving the secret, they preserve the threat to the church, and the wisest strategy would have been to destroy the secret, say, 1,000 years ago.

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060517/REVIEWS/60419009
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All movies in this genre are ove two hours now so that might be what audiences expect. I can think of worse things than watching Audrey Tatou race around exotic locations with Tom Hanks for a couple hours. On the other hand this does have the potential to be dull. The book's story pace is very fast (almost the entire story takes place overnight) and that might be hard to duplicate in a movie.

The book has a series of anticlimaxes which are apparently duplicated in the movie, that's probably a mistake. I don't recall the book coming down on Opus Dei all that much. ALL the secondary characters are motivated by a kind of religious zealotry.

Let's see if the Christians do better with the riots, violence and stuff than the Muslims did with the cartoons.
 
It is apparently true that Opus Dei provides different doors for men and women. Such organizations probably deserve what they get. The guy representing them on History Channel was a bit creepy, they should find someone else. The Mason's had a good guy.
 
sackett said:
I guess I didn’t express myself clearly.

For every person who’s surprised that the DaVince movie got bad reviews, I’ll buy a double-dip butter pecan waffle cone with chocolate sprinkles.

And slurp it up myself.
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Well, chow down, sackett, because I thought it would be very good. It has a multi-time oscar winner for lead actor, a great director, a wildly popular book for the screenplay and all the cash in the world. Yeah, I was surprised.

Enjoy your cone.
 
gfunkusarelius said:
anyway, my OP was just about whether these "history" shows that were supposed to be analyzing the accuracy of the book were doing what they claimed, and in most cases i either saw the opposing viewpoints missing (based on the reading i have done) or downplayed so much as to render them very unconvincing.
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In cynic mode here, I think the "history" shows being broadcast now have a dual purpose. The first is to hype the movie (if they are in anyway a part of the parent company of the production company(s)). The second is to get in on the hype associated with the movie during the MAY SWEEPS. It's all about the ratings, baby.

Not sure how accurate they are intended to be, probably has to do with whether they are related to the production company or not :p

But, hey, this is me in cynic mode :D
 
The Hi$tory Channel had plenty of commercial$ promoting the movie $o hey, everybody win$.

I don't think much of the foofy movie reviewers at Cannes anyway. And the French could not even make a good movie out of Asterik & Obelix. :p
 
Kopji said:
Saw the History Channel last night.
They had a guy from Opus Dei that looked really spooky.

The LDS Mormons used to teach that Jesus was married to Mary. Don't know if they still do though.
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The LDS leadership seems to be backing away from that claim, releasing this just yesterday in reaction to the movie:

"The belief that Christ was married has never been official Church doctrine. It is neither sanctioned nor taught by the Church. While it is true that a few Church leaders in the mid-1800s expressed their opinions on the matter, it was not then, and is not now, Church doctrine."
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..
 
Tricky said:
Well, chow down, sackett, because I thought it would be very good. It has a multi-time oscar winner for lead actor, a great director, a wildly popular book for the screenplay and all the cash in the world. Yeah, I was surprised.

Enjoy your cone.
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And you know perfectly well that none of that means a diddly damn in the difficult industry of making movies.

What they had was dopey material, and they appear to have handled it in a dopey manner.

La Tautou is cute though.
 
Banbury said:
Afew years ago I've seen a priest of Opus Dei on television (I think preaching against abortion) who said it was his desire to do the work of the Devil. I assume it was a Freudian slip, but still...
In Germany Opus Dei has a reputation of being quite fundamentalist. They are especially active against abortion.
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Errr...the Catholic Church is active against abortion. -Elliot
 
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