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Da Vinci Code, The
EMAILPRINTColumbia Pictures / Sony Pictures Releasing

Mixed or average reviews
Based on 40 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 358 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama | Mystery | Suspense/Thriller
Written by:
Akiva Goldsman
Dan Brown (novel)
Directed by: Ron Howard
Release Date:
Theatrical: May 19, 2006
DVD: November 14, 2006
Running Time: 148 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
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)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: A Beautiful Mind Apollo 13 Apollo 13: The IMAX Experience Backdraft Cinderella Man Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas EdTV Far and Away Frost/Nixon Parenthood Ransom The Missing
GAMES: Secrets of Da Vinci: The Forbidden Manuscript The Da Vinci Code (PS2)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site Webshots: Locations of the Da Vinci Code
What The Critics Said
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...
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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Dan Brown's novel is utterly preposterous; Ron Howard's movie is preposterously entertaining.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Luke Y. Thompson
All in all, a respectable and predictable adaptation.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
Individual scenes are entertaining in their own right, but the production as a whole is a lumbering mess.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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."
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
The surprise, and disappointment, of The Da Vinci Code is how slipshod and hokey the religious detective story now seems.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
An acceptable but uninspired simulacrum: an overly faithful multiplex translation of a very, very popular airport novel.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Ann Hornaday
The most controversial thriller of the year turns out to be about as exciting as watching your parents play Sudoku.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
Ron Howard has taken an intriguing page-turner of a story and re-shaped it into a bloated wannabe epic.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
Da Vinci never rises to the level of a guilty pleasure. Too much guilt. Not enough pleasure.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
It stars Tom Hanks in his first genuinely dull screen performance.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 5.7 (out of 10) based on 358 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
R. Lopez gave it a10:
When the book was released in 2003 following the huge success of Dan Brown's other novel Angels & Demons. No one not even Dan Brown himself could have Imagined what a huge global phenomenon The DaVinci Code would be, the book has been translated into almost every language it's old out millions of copies all over the world, and I happen to have a copy at that. SO when I heard they were making one of the greatest books in modern history into a film to tell you the truth I wasn't real all that optimistic, so when I went to go see the DaVinci Code in theaters during it's opening weekend I was floored and utterly stunned by how amazing and accurate this film was to the book, albeit they changed some things but that's the film industry for you. Now seeing it again after four years and it's still amazing. Tom Hanks turns in an amazing performance as Robert Langdon who will soon be considered one of the greatest literature characters of all time, Langdon is soemthing of an enigma, he follows no code or by no means any standards and he always puts everything of himself to save lives at no cost to his own. Tom Hanks brings to life a character that people have come to love and admire. And he's done it with his own style and grace, Langdon isn't just some character on a page anymore no he;s been brought to life in an exceptional way the only the likes of Ron Howard and Hanks could. The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown was a global literary phenomenon but now it's also a global film phenomenon as well. I know allot of of fans put down this movie due to some minor changes that were made but if you look past that this movie will not disappoint. Unlike most books brought to the silver screen, this one is faithful and very thought out. It's not some half baked movie like Kiss the girls or it's sequel.No the DaVinci Code was made to be exactly like the book as much as possible and they did very well in my opinion, this movie is not prefect and it doesn't pretend to be, this movie is well thought out and made but at some parts it falls a little short of overwhelming. But if you see the bright side to this film and if you look at it for the great movie that it is, you definitely won't be disappointed. All in all The DaVinci Code delivers great any day entertainment.
kitty gave it a10:
I absolutely loved this movie! I was completely entertained, and I have never read the book so I had no idea how it was going to end, which was a nice change since I normally have movies all figured out by the halfway point.
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.
