Rocchi and Other Critics Underwhelmed by Da Vinci
Filed under: Drama, Thrillers, Cannes, Mystery & Suspense, Sony
The Da Vinci Code, Ron Howard's controversial adaptation of the best-selling novel, failed to impress critics at its press debut at the Cannes Film Festival. Perhaps the coterie of critics who got an early look at the film a day before its big premiere were tired and jetlagged, or maybe the movie just really does suck. At any rate, response to the film from the critics thus far has been decidedly lukewarm. Cinematical's erstwhile Editor-in-Chief James Rocchi was quoted in an AP piece on the film with this memorable tag: "I kept thinking of the Energizer Bunny, because it kept going and going and going, and not in a good way."
Now, you can take the critics' response for what you will, but I personally take it with a grain of salt. The thing about press screenings -- and I say this as someone who is lucky enough to get to review movies for a living -- is that they are packed with critics, who are, by their nature and by virture of the fact that they see 89,000 movies a year, perhaps a wee touch more cynincal than your average moviegoer. It's not surprising to me, really, that a theater full of critics would snicker and laugh outright at melodramatic lines in a film like Da Vinci -- they've been waiting to sink their teeth into Ron Howard's baby from day one. The real test, for me, is how the film plays to an audience of people who aren't paid to be, well, critical. I'll be seeing The Da Vinci Code myself on Thursday with one very excited guest and a theater packed with real people, and I can't wait to see how this audience will react to the film. The sneak preview audience tends to be a pretty good barometer, and I'm curious to see if they will snicker and titter like the Cannes critic crowd. Be sure to check back here on Friday for my review and the reaction of the real-people crowd.
How about you? Are you pumped up to finally see The Da Vinci Code play on the big screen? Does the critics' reaction impact your desire to see the film? Does Tom Hanks' hairdo creep you out? Would you have cast Audrey Tautou in the role of Sophie? Or could you not care less about Da Vinci and all the hype around it?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-17-2006 @ 10:40AM
Jay said...
The last movie in which Tom Hanks starred in an action role that I recall was the road to predition, and that movie in my mind wasn't all that great.
After having read the book I don't think the movie will live up to it's potential especially if it's long and drawn out.
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5-17-2006 @ 10:51AM
Barrett said...
The book sucked, so I'm not really interested in the movie.
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5-17-2006 @ 11:15AM
Alex Keen said...
Critic screenings are hysterical to witness. In Philly the critics all sit in the first three rows of the theater. Why in an empty theater would you put yourself in the worst seats in the house?
The reason is, when they have to go to ordinary sneak previews with the general population, they want to be as far away from the real audience members.
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5-17-2006 @ 11:19AM
gl2748 said...
The book is so bad it might make a good movie. And my comment is by no means a shot at movies. They work well, intravenous heroin shots of imaginative stimulation. Books meanwhile are like laudanum, slow working. It requires concentration and commitment.
So something like DVC should fare well, its rotten stinking laudanum that gives you a headache, but if it's reprocessed and refined it might just work well in a movie. All the quasi-intellectual insight that buckles under the effort Dan Brown put into squeezing it out like a greasy brown crap should be swept away. I want the pure stuff, the 16 hour book purged into a polished gem of a movie at 2 hours.
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5-17-2006 @ 11:40AM
gerald miller said...
I read the book and I am certainly not 'pumped up"
to see the film. I find it interesting that the critics
at Cannes are all of a sudden tired and jetlagged in their viewpoints when this film was supposed to be the
big deal of the festival and the event of this years
Cannes.When I read one critic say that Hanks did not seem right for the role I remember reading some fans
opinions that Hanks was a terrible choice for the
main part of the film.Maybe had Russel Crowe not made
Cinderella Man he might have done a better job.
I was also not surprised to read that McKellen
stole the film as Teabling.what did amaze me was
the actor who did the albino Monk played the part exactly as written gaining sympathy for a cold
blooded killer.
Hopfully for the fans who actually liked the book
American critics will not be jetlagged.
Ger
'
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5-17-2006 @ 12:13PM
Karina Longworth said...
Alex, when I've gone to a mixed press/sneak preview screening, I've tended to sit off to the side. Why? Sorry to say, but "regular people" seem to behave pretty badly at movies, especially at movies like "The 40-Year Old Virgin" or "The Skeleton Key" -- both of which I reviewed from that style of screening last year. When the people behind you are screaming and talking back to the screen, and the teenage girls in front of you are answering their cell phones, it can be a little difficult to concentrate on the film.
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5-17-2006 @ 1:17PM
MosquitoControl said...
The book was dull as can be. It was set up like a lecture transcript, not a novel. Sophie existed just so there was a character to ask questions during the pseudo-factual monologues.
Pointless book. Terrible storytelling.
I see no reason why the movie would be different.
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5-17-2006 @ 2:41PM
Cath said...
Frankly, Scarlet, I couldn't give a damn. The book was a turgid rip off of Holy Blood (I wonder if Dan Brown's next novel was looting Baigent, Leigh and Lincoln's Templar book, thereby causing its mysterious delay) and I haven't liked Tom Hanks since Bosom Buddies. If I wanted to watch an exciting show with an intrepid researcher, I'd watch the handsome and daring Josh Bernstein on the History Channel's Digging for the Truth. Oh, wait, I already do!
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