36 out of 48 people found the following review helpful:
The Code's no cracker...
A Customer from Marlow, England,
28th June, 2006
Disclaimer: I would like to state that that I am not a religious zealot (quite the opposite in fact), and nor have I read the book. Right, now we've got that covered, I am free to slate this appalling piece of cinema with impartial abandon. Now I am a fan of independent cinema as a general rule (yes, yes, cinematic/literary snob alert), but that doesn't mean to say that I don't appreciate the finer points of a good Hollywood blockbuster. Unfortunately the only good things to be said for this film come in the shape of Sir Ian McKellen and Paul Bettany. Nothing new there then. As for the usually magnetic Audrey Tautou... Why, why has she done this to herself? Perhaps her performance was intended to be a parody of some kind? She and Hanks are banal, disappointingly uninspiring for actors of their calibre and have so little chemistry that they seem to be looking through rather than at each other. Ordinarily I am all in favour of anything that gets up the Pope's nose, but if it's a good religious conspiracy theory you're after, I thoroughly recommend going elsewhere. In fact just go elsewhere full stop - bad acting, bad script, bad direction, bad cinematography... Did anyone else notice that every shot of London (just in case we forgot where they were, presumably) contained at least one Routemaster, black cab and/or red telephone box? Having been quite lengthy on the subject, however, I think I can sum up this film with a single adjective: ludicrous.
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