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Reviews
The Da Vinci Code (2006)
Good plot, pity about the direction
I liked Dan Brown's novel - a good yarn. I was sad to see how boring the film was (I watched the extended version on DVD). There was so little of the suspense of the book and even the "baddies" were really not so bad. The assassin was a creepy character in the book - approaching a Michael Myers - in the film one felt rather sorry for him, he was more like a BBC producer's catamite from a deprived background! There was no sense of urgency or menace at all.
Tom Hanks is a good actor but miscast here, perhaps, and Audrey Tautou was very wooden. Jean Reno and Ian McKellen are very talented so I do think the blame had to rest with the director. Having said that, watch it by all means, but have some strong coffee on the go.
The Aristocrats (2005)
Waste of money (at any price) - not dirty, just very badly produced.
I am no prude and I am not easily shocked. This was not funny or shocking but a very badly edited mish-mash of little bits of cuts from a series of interviews. I could not believe that anyone would have the nerve to actually sell this rubbish.
My impression is that we are supposed to find just the idea of the underlying joke so funny that we don't actually need to have it told to us. The sales pitch, if only implied (the producers must have obtained legal opinion as to whether it was a swindle or not), was that the Aristocrats joke would be told by a variety of well-known comedians. The IMDb page certainly implied this in my view.
If this is what you are hoping for - you will be sadly disappointed!
The Godfather Part III (1990)
An excellent film - Sofia Coppola played her part well.
I have seen this film several times since its release, in the cinema and on DVD. I have also read numerous adverse comments from some film critics and cannot believe that they saw the same film. It was actually a worthy follow-up to the first two Godfather films and is still worth viewing after all these years: Al Pacino playing his part magnificently. Some critics poured out volumes of abuse about Sofia Coppola at the time and this has been repeated by others until it seems to be accepted generally - sadly, many critics are unoriginal and trot out others' clichés. I find myself totally unable to agree - she played her part well, in my estimation, and her character was believable - certainly did not merit the denigration she received from some. (I have even seen comments (on this site) disparaging her looks - I can only conjecture about the writers' gender preferences and/or stage of development.) If you have not seen this film, forget the sour criticisms, watch it and you may be pleasantly surprised.