Da Vinci Code, The

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.