The Da Vinci Code

I read the book. I saw the movie. You can't wait for my review, right? Well, here it is, in somebody else's words.

The Da Vinci Code...is as well-crafted and engaging a movie as can be expected from its dense and sometimes convoluted source material. It's not great, but it's about as good as it can be.


-Jack Garner of the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

I loved the book more than I expected to. I had moderate expectations for the film because I enjoyed the book so much but I knew that the style in which the story was doled out wouldn't work for a movie, especially one that needed a reasonable running time for showing in a movie theater. "Dense" is a mild word for the book, if you ask me. There's no way that can translate into a 2+/- hour movie. The detailed narratives in the book don't lend well to the screen, either - rare is the blockbuster film that employs a narrator as the main character.

After reading the book, I felt the urge to see the movie. Do I think it was worth it? Eh... maybe so.

Andy did not read the book so his opinion is important. As a movie alone, he enjoyed it. Granted, he can figure out what's going on in a movie no matter how quickly the clues are glossed over. If I'd not read the book beforehand, I would've been stymied by the movie. There were parts where I knew to watch for a clue to the action and I still missed it but when talking to Andy afterward, he was all like, "They spent a whole minute showing how that part was going to work out." Okay, then.

You can imagine the fun he has watching movies like "The Bourne Identity" and "The Thomas Crown Affair" with me.