Pretty much everyone in the world has read The Da Vinci Code. It’s a decent, B-rate thriller. The religious themes in the book are fun to speculate about – especially if you know a little bit about religious history and can see the holes all over the plot. Anyway, that’s a different story for a different time!

I don’t know if I would suggest to go and see this movie only because I don’t know if the movie is worth the $9 or $10 to go see it. If you can catch a $5 matinee somewhere (they do exist!), then definitely go check it out, but this would make a great “Blockbuster movie night” in a few months when it comes out on DVD.

The movie itself is very close to the book. As a matter of fact, if you read the book over a year ago like I did, you’d think that the book and the movie are exactly the same – word for word. The truth is that there are some parts of the book that haven’t quite made it to the movie, like Sophie’s brother or the second cryptex. However, the movie is still pretty good without those parts and I’m sure it’ll be a Christmas present for a bunch of people.

Sir Ian McKellan and Tom Hanks deliver good performances. Some have been harsh on Hanks in the movie, but I disagree. It’s not easy for any actor to be given a role where over half of the movie-watching world has read the book that this character comes from! Hanks manages to give life to a generally boring character and I hope that they bring him back for the future Dan Brown movies that are in the works.

I give the movie my approval, but don’t expect to see anything more than what was in the book if you go to see the movie – quite frankly, if you DID expect anything other than what was in the book, then you’re nuts!