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Da Vinci Code, The
Columbia Pictures / Sony Pictures Releasing


5.6

based on 40 reviews
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based on 354 votes
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FILM:

GAMES:

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for disturbing images, violence, some nudity, thematic material, brief drug references and sexual content

Starring Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou, Ian McKellen, Alfred Molina, Jürgen Prochnow, Paul Bettany, Jean Reno, Etienne Chicot, Jean-Pierre Marielle, Clive Carter, and Seth Gabel

Based on Dan Brown's popular and controversial novel, The Da Vinci Code begins with a spectacular murder in the Louvre Museum. All clues point to a covert religious organization that will stop at nothing to protect a secret that threatens to overturn 2,000 years of accepted dogma. (Sony)

GENRE(S):	Drama \| Mystery \| Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	Akiva Goldsman Dan Brown (novel)
DIRECTED BY:	Ron Howard
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: November 14, 2006 Theatrical: May 19, 2006
RUNNING TIME:	148 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA
LANGUAGE(S):	English / French

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Ron Howard's splendid The Da Vinci Code is the Holy Grail of summer blockbusters: a crackling, fast-moving thriller that's every bit as brainy and irresistible as Dan Brown's controversial bestseller.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

A crackling rendition of Dan Brown's novel, siphoning off unneeded fat and fancy and leaving us with a streamlined train of a picture that never stops moving.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

The film has an exciting visual texture that gives body to Brown's bestseller-ese prose, and uniformly strong performances that give dimension, depth and interest to characters that the author never entirely brought to life. In this sense, I found it much more entertaining and satisfying than the novel.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Dan Brown's novel is utterly preposterous; Ron Howard's movie is preposterously entertaining.

Dallas Observer Luke Y. Thompson

All in all, a respectable and predictable adaptation.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

It adds up to a chatty film of genuine visual interest and occasionally sharp acting but no visceral appeal or satisfaction. It's a movie that plays like a book -- that is, watching it is more like reading than a thriller should ever be.

Austin Chronicle Steve Davis

If you take this stuff seriously, one way or another, you're sure to be duped. You've got to hand it to Mr. Brown: So dark the con of man, indeed.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Individual scenes are entertaining in their own right, but the production as a whole is a lumbering mess.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

The movie is so nervous about offending anyone that it's hardly any fun. Hanks delivers a few solemn speeches meant to deflect criticism. Meanwhile, he and Tautou barely hit it off. At least Mr. and Mrs. Smith got hot while doing their jobs.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

While the story plays better on the page than the screen and some of the film's elements work better than others, a proficient Ron Howard version of things is certainly competent if only occasionally thrilling.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

The Da Vinci Code is so transparently pitched as pulp entertainment that, in the end, it's about as subversive as "Starsky and Hutch."

The Onion (A.V. Club) Tasha Robinson

The Da Vinci Code isn't terrible. Brown's novel presented its concepts seriously, as food for thought; Howard's glossy version is more of a snack, designed to be taken only slightly more seriously than "National Treasure," and with the much the same sense of a puzzle-based thrill ride.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

The surprise, and disappointment, of The Da Vinci Code is how slipshod and hokey the religious detective story now seems.

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

The screenplay is at the start far from lucid in setting forth characters and relationships and intents. And after the film has been barreling along for two hours of its 148-minute journey, it seems to have lost the ability to finish. Three or four times in the last half-hour, I thought the film was over, only to be jarred by more of it.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

McKellen, Hanks and Tautou - and Alfred Molina, as a bishop with an agenda - are no slouches when it comes to emoting, but screenwriter Goldsman's rigorously faithful interpretation of Brown's flatfooted prose stylings is the filmic equivalent of putting big chewy baguettes in the actors' maws.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

This laborious, talky, fleetingly engaging, ultimately silly picture is about as good a movie as anyone was ever going to wring from Dan Brown's inescapable bestseller.

LA Weekly Greg Burk

Action and ideas -- they get in each other's way, pal. And director Ron Howard didn't want to choose between 'em. Good impulse, not such a good result.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Only McKellan seems to understand the profound silliness of the film in which he finds himself, and he camps it up accordingly.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

An acceptable but uninspired simulacrum: an overly faithful multiplex translation of a very, very popular airport novel.

Chicago Reader Andrea Gronvall

Screenwriter Akiva Goldsman (A Beautiful Mind) pelts the viewer with so many factoids and allegations about the early Catholic church, goddess worship, the Crusades, painting, cartography, and code-breaking that the movie's big revelation turns out to be neither grand nor shocking.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Lacks suspense, momentum and visual panache.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Disappointingly tame.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

The most controversial thriller of the year turns out to be about as exciting as watching your parents play Sudoku.

Premiere Jessica Letkemann

At root, novelist Dan Brown’s story is an entertaining one--whether you believe any of these ideas are real or not. And in the end, it’s that standard movie trope (good guys must solve dire puzzle while bad guys give chase) that makes The Da Vinci Code an okay film.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

There are reversals of expectation, miraculous escapes from certain doom -- all the things that make thrillers thrilling. But The Da Vinci Code isn't thrilling.

Slate Dana Stevens

Given the silliness of the source material, The Da Vinci Code stood little chance of being a great film, but it could easily have been a fun one. Instead, Howard takes a strangely respectful approach to the overheated mysticism of the novel, turning the film into that most boring of genres: the pious blockbuster.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Ron Howard has taken an intriguing page-turner of a story and re-shaped it into a bloated wannabe epic.

Time Richard Corliss

Howard and Goldsman have efficiently touched all the bases. But they haven't found a way to replicate the book's page-turning urgency.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

I certainly can't support any calls for boycotting or protesting this busy, trivial, inoffensive film. Which is not to say I'm recommending you go see it.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Director Ron Howard and screenwriter Akiva Goldsman have conspired to drain any sense of fun out of the melodrama, leaving expectant audiences with an oppressively talky film that isn't exactly dull but comes as close to it as one could imagine with such provocative material.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

Da Vinci never rises to the level of a guilty pleasure. Too much guilt. Not enough pleasure.

Empire Ian Freer

One of the most talk driven summer flicks in living memory, an out of sorts Howard transforms what should be a fun treasure trail romp into something inert and borderline dreary.

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

Overshadowed by its own marketing hurricane and popular rage, Code struggles for significance as a movie experience and flies a weak flag as a provocation.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

Like a two-bit philosopher working the wrong side of the stone, Howard has managed to turn gold into lead.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

It stars Tom Hanks in his first genuinely dull screen performance.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

If there's anything to be learned from this dud, it's that when you decide to adapt an explosive property like The Da Vinci Code, playing it safe isn't safe: Either swallow hard and make the damnable thing or give it to someone with more guts and/or less to lose. Here is a saga that bombards the very foundations of Western religion. But onscreen, there seems to be absolutely nothing at stake.

Film Threat Michael Ferraro

Even more frustrating than the trite dialogue exchanges, is the robotic performances delivering them. This is Tom Hanks' worst performance is years (maybe even his worst ever). Ron Howard's slothful direction is giant misstep from his previous effort ("Cinderella Man"), relying on techniques and hopefully he won’t repeat it again.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

There's no code to decipher. Da Vinci is a dud -- a dreary, droning, dull-witted adaptation of Dan Brown's religioso detective story.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Even as a visual aid, though, The Da Vinci Code is a deep-dyed disappointment. Paris by night never looked murkier.

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

The Catholic Church has nothing to fear from this film. It is not just tripe. It is self-evident, spirit-lowering tripe that could not conceivably cause a single member of the flock to turn aside from the faith.

The average user rating for this movie is 5.6 (out of 10) based on 354 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Nathan L gave it a4:
This movie moves likea snail, and the actors were probably actually robots that replaced their counterparts. stoid, boring. The only good actor is the men who plays teabing.

Cassian J. gave it a5:
I came to this movie with very low expectations. I have not read the book upon which it is based, and had read and heard only bad things about this movie. To add to this I have never been a great fan of Ron Howard’s movies or of the films of Tom Hanks. But I have to say this movie without being anything exceptional, was nowhere near as bad as I expected. The fact that the movie bashes organised religion was always going to appeal to me, but I do not have a clue how much of the background of this story is based on fact of if it is all fiction. The film it’s self is probably to long at two and a half hours and it seemed to really drag towards the end. However it was reasonably well directed without being anything special. There where a few trite moments which felt forced just to move the plot along, but all the acting was fine I think the script really did play the characters out as national caricatures All in all not as bad as expected but I would not watch it again.

Alister L. gave it a1:
I had plenty to say about this movie, but then read Anthony Lane's review from the New Yorker and found that it had all been said for me.

Matt gave it a1:
Unfortunately I Was forced to watch this film in economics. Personally I would have rather taken a test and write 5 dbq's on the history of civil service reform. What a waste of time / money / resources. I'm sure the book was better than the film. It has to be. Anything was better than that garbage. Storyline is way out in left field. I honestly tried to pay attention but it was way too confusing. If you want to see a good movie with Tom Hanks, watch Saving Private Ryan.

Pablo E. gave it a0:
This was simply one of the worse movie ever. The book was at least a page turner. This time, from a mediocre book a even worse film.

Jerry B. gave it a6:
I didn't read the book, so there were no spoilers for me. I thought it was a creditable movie: Hanks did his best but I was disappointed in Howard's direction. It should have been better edited IMO. Overall a 6

Louis H gave it a7:
Pretty good. I read the book, and the trailor caught my eye. I don't think Tom Hanks was the best actor to play as Robert Langdon, but he was okay. They cut out the 2nd cryptex, which dissapointed me, but the action/mystery was still very entertaining. I like how they encarnated the book into a movie. Good job Ron Howard!

Da Vinci Code, The Columbia Pictures / Sony Pictures Releasing

Da Vinci Code, The
Columbia Pictures / Sony Pictures Releasing