Overdressed

Thanks to a very generous reader, I was given the opportunity to attend a sneak preview of The Da Vinci Code last night.

Before I discuss the movie, I first have to say that I've never attended a promotional preview before and it was little more complicated than I expected. First, Buck Rogers told me that he'd leave my name "up front" and I could get passes for me, Big Daddy & My Kid. I'm such an idiot, I thought he meant he would leave my name up front at the theater. The manager was all, "Ermmm....I think you were probably supposed to pick up your passes at the radio station." Duh. But the nice manager was kind enough to let us in anyway.

I knew we were supposed to get there early because you have to have a pass to get in, but having a pass doesn't ensure that you actually do get in. Buck Rogers told me that the theater lets people start lining up at 6:15 for the movie at 7:30. We got there at 5:30 because we planned to eat first somewhere by the theater, and THERE WERE ALREADY PEOPLE IN LINE! So Big Daddy offered to stand in line while me & the Kid went to eat.

The let us into the theater at about 6:30? I guess? Or 6:45? They let people in about 20 at a time, exchanging passes for tickets. Then, before you could go into the theater, they checked your bag and wanded everyone. They were checking for CAMERAS. Since the movie's not out yet, they don't want anyone bootlegging it and putting it out on the internet before it's released.

Of course I'm not putting up any bootlegged copies of the movie. I don't think there will even be spoilers. Not that you can really "spoil" a movie of a book that 60 million people have read.

I thought the movie was good. I think that it stuck very closely to the book (it's been a long time since I read it). It seems like it would be a little difficult to follow if you hadn't read the book, but My Kid said he understood everything. Big Daddy liked the movie, too. But our friend, who we ran into at the theater, said afterwards that he was a little disappointed in it. After all the buzz, he thought it was kind of "slow." He said that it could have been condensed a bit. Personally, I was already concerned that there's so much information but he disagreed. For the record, he hadn't read the book.

I've read that Tom Hanks' performance was bland, but it's not the most exciting character, ya know? And I adore Audrey Tautou (Amelie was such a beautiful movie) but I'm not sure if this part is going to make her a big American star since all she really gets to do is look confused and say, "Quoi?

She does, however have great hair.

I'll tell ya who was great was Ian McKellen (who, if I'm not mistaken, was in Lord of the Rings and also the X-Men, which I expect will be a blockbuster this summer even though it's directed by that freak of nature Brett Ratner). His character got all the best dialogue and plotlines. Also, the albino monk was good, too, in an evil and twisted sort of way. (Now not only are the Catholics upset about the movie, but the albinos are also protesting it since they think it misrepresents albinos.)

I give it 3 stars (worth seeing, but don't stand in line for it [unless you're getting in free]).

PS - I have been trying to post this all day, but the internet connection at our house has been down. Now I'm at Starbucks' using Big Daddy's TMobile HotSpot account. And there's a teenager in here wearing one of those paper toilet seat covers around his neck.

Posted by Kalisa on Friday, May 19, 2006 at 5:51 PM | Permalink