Thriller & Mystery > H Thriller & Mystery > Howard, Ron > up to 5 GBP

A cryptic Movie

Advantages: Good story, characters
Disadvantages: None

The Da Vinci Code was probably one of the most controversial books of the modern day and so the movie was always going to be eagerly anticipated. The book was written by Dan Brown and was an international bestseller. I've read the book and really really enjoyed it and was excited above the movie. Of course, the subject matter is very controversial and although it is meant to be somewhat fictional I can see elements of truth in it. The film version ...
...follows the story of the book which I like and hasn't strayed too far away from the story which is nice. Tom Hanks stars as Robert Langdon, a professor of Symbology. He is the main character of the movie as it's up to him to solve the riddles and ultimately save himself. I like Tom Hanks in this. There's no doubting that he's a great actor but he definitely brings a fresh approach to this role. When I first heard that he was going to play this part ...

Spottydog11 27.05.2009 · Read full review
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Review of The Da Vinci Code (DVD)

When Mad Max got Rich

Advantages: A glossy and mildly-diverting thriller
Disadvantages: The film is superficial and predictable

In the mid-1990s film-directors Ron Howard and Mel Gibson must have felt quietly satisfied as they sailed along serenely in the same boat. Howard's tribute to all-American pluck, Apollo 13, and Gibson's tribute to all-American fantasy, Braveheart, had both picked up Oscars (the first, understandably; the second, perplexingly) and when the pair teamed up for a new project there was little doubt that fashion and momentum would propel them onward ...
...starring Gibson - was, predictably, a box-office smash and a critical triumph. The film is a reworking of an old 1950s pot-boiler, Ransom! (the latter's scriptwriters get the story credit in this updated remake), and exploits that most fertile of plot devices, the kidnapping. Cue much huddling around telephones, sweating, swearing, tearing out of hair, beating of male chest by hysterical woman, and apple-pie angst. Ransom is a big-budget, slick ...

Templar19 08.11.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Ransom (DVD)

Hanks a Billion Brown!

Advantages: Good fun romp
Disadvantages: Hanks?

...the DaVinci Code and now Angels & Demons, the Collider featuring heavily in the latter movie, hence the intro, this the second of the Robert Langdon trilogy, even though in the book sequence this came before the DaVinci Code. Browns narrative is all about that search for the ultimate particle and how the Catholic Church has always tried to defend their increasingly absurd version of events on 'creation' against science as the gap closes between scientific ...
...= = 'Writing Angels & Demons' Director Ron Howard tries to convince us he loved making this movie but its by-the-numbers stuff for him and clearly a studio job film, one they 'ask' their top guys to do to secure future funding for the studio. This is the permanently Baseball capped directors first ever sequel in his forty-one-year directing career (In 2010 he would have made movies in five different decades believe it or not) and he was paid very ...

thedevilinme 16.10.2009 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Angels And Demons (DVD)

Only the readers moan!

Advantages: Pretty decent film
Disadvantages: Poor ending

The Da Vinci Code was a film that I watched at the cinema when it came out, without having read the book. I don't really have enough spare time to read books, I'm not one who can do it on public transport and I tend to prefer films as they manage to squeeze a lot more in a small space of time, therefore the film - adaptation or not, was going to be the only version I came across. I found the Da Vinci Code to be an awesome film, until the last few ...
...and cheesy, it seems that the film had to push it that little bit further beyond belief having told fairly in depth and plausible findings in the earlier parts of the film. Either way, it had that eerie church feel (I always find churches to be scary dark places, the blood splattered Jesus' don't exactly welcome you!) as if you didn't know what was round the next corner, the actors did superb jobs with the adaptable Tom Hanks taking the main role ...

dangaroo 14.01.2009 · Read full review
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Review of The Da Vinci Code (DVD)

Action-packed with some witty dialogue but still flawed somehow

Advantages: Quite thrilling when it gathers pace, seemed an authentic depiction of London, some humour
Disadvantages: Something about Downey Jnrs depiction of Holmes didnt work somehow, not for all ages/the squeamish

...Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's novels, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson start out by catching a serial killer who dabbles in the the supernatural, an evil man called Lord Blackwood who is sentenced to death, indeed Watson confirms he's dead after he's hung. Things take a distinctly sinister turn, however, when they discover than Blackwood has apparently risen from the dead and Holmes recalls what he told him before he was hung, which indicated that more ...
...actor (Robert Downey Jnr.) played Sherlock Holmes, while an English actor (Jude Law), played his right hand man, Dr. Watson. Now of course I knew that before I went to see the movie, infact I quite like Robert Downey Jnr. as an actor and I have enjoyed some of his other movies and the fact that he plays the main character was one of the main reasons I wanted to see it in the cinema but there was something about him playing this role that I just didn't ...

IzzyS 27.12.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Sherlock Holmes