The Da Vinci Code Movie

Advance screenings of the movie have been very tightly controlled: usually a sign that the studio thinks the movie is no good.

Critics were finally allowed to see it yesterday and indeed the reviews are generally poor.

BBC:
"...it is long and it is dull."

Time:
"...it’s not very good - long (2hr.32min.) and mostly inert."

Variety:
"..."a stodgy, grim thing..."

The review from The Daily Mail leads with a spoiler:

"When Tom Hanks's professor of symbols tells Audrey Tautou, French cryptologist, that she's the last living descendant of Jesus Christ, it's not exactly meant to be a funny moment.

"If anything you're meant to gasp, not laugh.

"But as more than 1,000 of the world's movie critics and film writers watched the much-anticipated and much-hyped screen version of Dan Brown's mega-best-selling novel The Da Vinci Code at a special preview at the Cannes Film Festival last night, guffaws could be heard echoing around the auditorium when Hanks utters the momentous words to Miss Tautou."

Hollywood Reporter:
"Bottom line: a jumble of historical myth, religious symbology and international thriller-action makes for an unwieldy, bloated melodrama."

***

Not to mention, of course, that much of the book's information is bogus:

• Laura Miller, The Da Vinci Crock (Salon, 2004). [hat tip: Bill]
• Bruce Boucher (Art Institute of Chicago), Does 'The Da Vinci Code' Crack Leonardo? (NYT 2003). [hat tip: ibid]
• http://www.jesusdecoded.com/