Well, the reviews have started coming in for The Da Vinci Code, a movie I am not going to see when it opens this weekend.
The Cannes Film Festival viewers snickered, and burst out laughing (Broken link, active May 17, 2006) at the pompousness of the movie’s climactic moment … Variety calls the movie “stodgy” and “grim” (Broken link, active May 17, 2006) … AFP reports (Broken link, active May 17, 2006) that the Boston Globe called Tom Hanks “a zombie,” and that British radio called the dialogue “cheesy” … The Hollywood Reporter called Hanks’ performance “remote” and “wooden,” and the movie itself drowning in “dramatic inertia.”
Hollywood is still predicting it will make money. But maybe not; they have been wrong before, and even the true believers might not want to sit through two and half hours of cheesy dramatic inertia.
Ian McKellan, who plays someone in the movie, recently said he thought the Bible should come with a fiction disclaimer in the front. Pastors who say it doesn’t matter whether one believes evolution, are you listening?
Recently I mentioned The Da Vinci Code book in a blog post, with links to many articles which have debunked the book’s premises as false and historically invalid. Hank Hanegraaff of the Christian Research Institute says of the movie, “It’s the last thing anyone intended, but Hollywood just handed believers like you and me a significant opportunity to share the gospel with the world.” Read his new book, authored with acclaimed New Testament scholar, linguist, and historian Paul L. Meier, The Da Vinci Code: Fact or Fiction? to help confront the heresies. The Christian Research Institute also maintains a very helpful resource page of books covering all aspects of the controversy.
Thank you for your thought-provoking blog. I’ve scanned a few of your entries and will be adding you to my friends list so I can find you again.
I saw your name a while back and wondered if you were a lady I know who lives in Tri-Cities, Washington. When I saw your name on another new post today, I followed it and learned you are not the same person. However, a stroll through your blog site made clear you are someone whose thoughts I want to revisit again and again.
I appreciate your information on the response of reviewing agencies to The DaVinci Code. Although I had heard of the book, my first introduction to the specifics of its content came in April when I heard Josh McDowell speak. My pastor is also currently in a series that systematically refutes the claims of the book and movie as they relate to Christianity.
May God continue to bless you as you share. You seem to be skilled at keeping your posts relatively brief–something I struggle with. Thank you for the skill in writing, as well as the information, you bring to your posts.
Sincerely,
Sharron