Da Vinci Code Movie

Sorry for the lack of a Friday night post, but I went over to my brother's place after seeing the Da Vinci Code and ended up staying there until just a few hours ago. So how was the movie that took in $224 million worldwide in the past 3 days? It was much better than I expected. In fact, I disagree right out with the majority of bad reviews it has. I've read the book, and I must say that a lot of the scenes in the movie play out on the big screen much like I had pictured it. In fact, I can't remember the last movie based on a book that was so true to its book. I'm sure they left out some of the nitty gritty stuff, but they didn't change things around in a way that affected the whole plot and they didn't add in any nonsense as far as I could tell. A number of critics hated the acting, but I felt that they were rather accurate portrayals of the actors. Admittedly, I wasn't convinced by Alfred Molina's accent, but it wasn't really a big deal. Tom Hanks and Audrey Tatou just looked great up there together, and Ian McKellen couldn't have possibly been a better Leah Teabing. I even enjoyed Jean Reno, though I hadn't seen any of his older movies. If there's one thing that can justifiably criticized, it's the length. However, I think they'd be hardpressed to cut more from this two and a half hour beast. Any less and you'd either feel lost or ripped off. Still, people found room to complain that it was too shy to push the Jesus thing too far, whereas I think that they spent just enough time on the controversial stuff. Some people even had the nerve to complain that there was too much talking, so let me assure you now that this is a drama; not an action movie. Another thing I'm sure readers will whine about is how the movie doesn't hold the suspense that you have in between chapters of the book, but I can't see how it would've been possible to translate that without either lengthening the movie or making it feel too choppy. I give it an A- because I think that Ron Howard did the best possible job he could with this one. It was clear that he put a lot of effort into it, especially since he even threw money into flashback scenes for explaining some of the history. Don't believe the critics: you might as well just see this one.

Ars Technica has finally put up their review of the MacBook, and it's extremely positive. I'm a sucker for their impressions on consumer electronics, and if you read the review for yourself then you'll see how compelling it is. Don't expect a 12" MacBook Pro though, because Apple has confirmed that they're not planning on making one. I suspect that they'll release one next year when it gets easier to shove all that fancy hardware in a smaller body. A common trait on the whole line of Apple notebooks is the iSight, and now there's software to help you find someone who may have stolen your laptop! It uses that iSight, and I'd strongly recommend it for Apple laptop users. The Washington Post has a review of Urge on WMP 11, and it sounds pretty good, but not quite there yet. I think it's annoying that it only has 2 million songs and no extras with your download, which really puts it behind iTunes, in my opinion. Pearl Jam has released their latest music video through the Creative Commons license, which is an awesome little license that allows free use of the media for non-commercial purposes. Way to hopefully start a revolution, Pearl Jam! If you love getting technical like I do, then you may be interested in this review of the Core Duo on the desktop, which makes it look like Intel is actually starting to catch up with AMD. Microsoft is getting sued once again, but this time it comes from Symantec for misappropriation of trade secrets that they acquired when they used some Veritas (which has recently merged with Symantec) code in Vista. Lastly, if you want to see a really badass mosaic, then you must see this. It requires some new-fangled Macromedia Shockwave player, but it's worth it.

I questioned before this weekend whether the controversy surrounding the Da Vinci Code would attract enough people to offset the negative reviews, and it looks like I was more right than I had thought. It's the second biggest worldwide opening ever and a cool $77 million here in the States. I was also a little surprised by Over the Hedge pulling in second place with $37.2 million. MI:3 clutched onto to 3rd place, and now we just have to see how X3 will fare next weekend. We finally have some Grind House news. Tarantino has signed on Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas for his part of the movie, but not sure what the part is yet. Also, the entire movie has been delayed until next Easter. I'm wondering if it's because Rodriguez halted production a couple of months ago, but I'm sure that it's for the best. Remember that Superman Returns trailer we had word was coming soon? It turns out that it was the international trailer, and it's now online. It just has a few new scenes, including one of a bullet bouncing off of Superman's eye. We have some new set photos from Casino Royale, but none of them looked all that special to me. We also have a few new ones from X3, but I still wasn't all that thrilled by them. Lastly, Yahoo Movies has some exclusive clips from The Omen, which I still think has potential as a creepy movie.

Now for some Unconscious Mutterings:

I say ... and you think ... ?

1. Yours :: Ours


2. Charcoal :: Drawing


3. Platitude :: Plain


4. Graduation :: Gift


5. Hungry :: Man


6. Somewhere :: Anywhere


7. Nurse :: Silent Hill 2


8. Freak :: Show


9. Unbelievable :: Music


10. Walk :: This Way