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Ron Howard’s “The Da Vinci Code” stumbles around like
a mime in the dark—The visual entertainment is replaced
by a noisy crash that really has nothing to do with the
entertainment itself. Harold Robbins in his time remained
one of the most popular authors penning trashy novels. Dan
Brown has become the respectable version of Robbins—he’s
an author with some good ideas that he can’t express very
well. The Da Vinci Code sold well not because it was great
literature, well written but because it caused a controversy
when it was released (although other novels tackled equally
controversial versions of Jesus’ life such as The Last Temptation
of Christ and the novel Behold the Man by Michael Moorcock
neither was what you would call populist entertainment)
what made it unique was the veneer of a conspiracy story
involving the Catholic Church covering up clues seen in
Leonard Da Vinci’s famous painting The Last Supper about
the “true” leadership within the church itself (saying any
more would be a major spoiler). ***
That said, this extended edition Blu-ray clearly was
designed for those who love the book and the film. This
edition runs 175 minutes and some change without the previous
and new extras. ***
Regardless of how you feel about “The Da Vinci Code
as a novel although Howard’s film stumbles it still is entertaining
in a pulpy way. Casting Tom Hanks remains an important element
of the film because even when this cow goes astray or loses
its pacing he and the supporting cast manage to wrangle
it back into the narrative pen that keeping it altogether.
Hanks appeal and performance makes the film watchable even
as the narrative becomes increasingly absurd (once we reach
an albino monk doing the bidding of a “secret society” the
film crosses over into Oz with only Hanks’ Dorothy holding
it together). “The Da Vinci Code” could have come out of
the Cold War and you could substitute elements of the plot
and make the bad guys Communist without losing too much
of its pulpy allure. That’s because truly it IS the essence
of old fashioned pulp populist fiction. There’s nothing
wrong with that just don’t come expecting anything other
than entertainment and some absurd characters that are colorful
enough to have come from a Bond film. ---
Image & Sound:
if there was a secret code hidden in the visuals of
the Blu-ray the transfer would reveal all; “Code” looks
marvelous with nice, subtle detail evident in just about
every scene. Colors remain true to the theatrical exhibition
of the film. DNR has been used with restraint preventing
the film from looking like we are touring a wax museum.
***
The 7.1 TrueHD presentation of the film sounds marvelous
with a lot of activity and nice ambient sounds in the quieter
dialog driven scenes that don’t overwhelm the film in a
swamp of sound.
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