The Da Vinci Code

The Da Vinci Code is based on the popular Dan Brown novel. But, while I own and enjoy the dvd, I've never read the book. Which admittedly is rather unusal for me. I tend to believe that the books are always better than the movies, but I enjoyed this movie, and had heard bad things about the book, so I decided not to ruin a movie I liked by reading the book.

Robert Langdon is called to the Louvre to offer advice on a brutal murder and the symbols left behind. There he meets Sophie Neveu and together they follow the clues to unravel an ancient secret that could change religious history.

Tom Hanks stars as Robert Langdon and the beautiful Audrey Tautou stars as Sophie Neveu. If you think this sounds slightly familiar you're not wrong, we saw Robert Langdon earlier in the project in Angels and Demons, the prequel to The Da Vinci Code.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, Tom Hanks is super talented. He's one of those actors that is just so believeable in everything he does. Somehow I just always buy any character he plays. He has made Robert Langdon an everyday bloke with a fascinating talent for symbols. He's not pretentious or irritating at all.

Meanwhile he has the sweet Audrey Tautou has great chemistry with Tom and play her character with strength and innocense at the same time. And before I forget, I have to tell you that my one of my top 5 men on my To Do list also stars - Paul Bettany. Unfortunetly he plays Silas, the albino monk that self harms and is completely psycho which doesn't do much for his 'hotness' factor, but he's in it and that gives him brownie points. Also making appearances are Sir Ian McKellan and Jean Reno, both stong actors.

I enjoyed the mystrey of The Da Vinci Code. While I'm not a religious person by any means, I find the history of religion interesting. Of course I know that it wasn't exactly factual, but the possibilities of what could have been is interesting enough in itself. The movie explores what the Holy Grail is or could be and puts forward a good argument for it's conclusion. The theatricals just add to the mystrey of it all.

Over all, definetly a movie worth watching if you aren't deeply religious and you're ok with taking a detour of the accuracy of history path. And you haven't read the book. Those are a lot of if's, but I enjoyed it, so you might too. Don't forget - it has Tom Hanks, so it can't be all bad.