EcclestonWatch

[lordsummerisle]

For Eccleston lovers, The Guardian today (14th Jan) is giving away a free DVD of "Let Him Have It", starring the Salford time lord as Derek "Let him have it, Chris" Bentley in his first ever cinema role.

[lordsummerisle]

I also read that Eccleston was considered for the part of Silas the evil self-flagellating albino monk in The Da Vinci Code. They went with Paul Bettany in the end, a good choice but I think Eccleston would have been interesting to watch too.

[Hobbit]

Hope to see The DVC this weekend. Has anyone caught a preview screening?

[Adam J Purcell]

Hope to see The DVC this weekend.

Did you get to see it in the end? Most people seem to be panning it but there are also a few raving! What did you think?

I haven't read the book but have read Holy Blood, Holy Grail (as in the recent court case), so I know a little of the story (though not sure if Rennes-le-Château is featured in The Da Vinci Code).

[Hobbit]

Due to the fact it hasn't stopped raining all weekend, no, I didn't get to see it

[tallorder]

Hope to see The DVC this weekend.

Did you get to see it in the end? Most people seem to be panning it but there are also a few raving! What did you think?

I haven't read the book but have read Holy Blood, Holy Grail (as in the recent court case), so I know a little of the story (though not sure if Rennes-le-Château is featured in The Da Vinci Code).

Take the names and some of the places (though not actually RLC), add an American professor and a heavy dose of American cheese - spinning on the Da Vinci element. Mix up with a very poor level of literay competence and flog 46 million copies!

BBC's Mark Kermode called it the most boring film he has ever seen!

[lordsummerisle]

It's a decent enough book, though more a page turner than anything of literary worth. Great for reading on the bus or before you go to sleep as none of the chapters are more than five pages. You can also feel smug because the puzzles are easy to solve yourself, well before the characters solve them, and you'll guess who the real villain is before you're halfway through it. After that you can read The Digital Fortress and wonder if the Dan Brown just put it through a word processor and just did a global change on the names and places.

Arturo Perez Reverte's "The Dumas Club" follows much of the same ground and is a much better read. It's even been made into a film already, The Ninth Gate, starring the much more watchable Johnny Depp.

Da Vinci Code, The Movie has to be boring though, it stars Tom Hanks.

Even his name sends me to ...... zzzzzzzzzz.

[macfadyan]

very much enjoyed The Ninth Gate - mind you, I like Depp as an actor. The ending was....unexpected, I'll admit, lol.


Couldn;t give a fig about the da Vinci nonsense.

[tallorder]

I also had the misfortune to read Dan Brown's Angels and Demons - also starring the yawn-induucing Robert Langdon. Equally well written, it focusses on a plot to destroy the Catholic Church at a time of papal conclave. Quite amusing in places, but I'm sure it's not meant to be funny. If 'Da Vinci' is his take/rip/bloodbath on the Holy Blood, Holy Grail then 'Angels and Demons' is the same for The Illuminati and the Vatican. There's a whole lot of suspension of disbelief needed to reach the final chapters and the plot twists are heavily well signposted with lines like "and little did Langdon know that that fact would save his life not 48 hrs later...":roll:

Doubtless coming to a megaplex some time in the near future if the opening weekend of Da Vinci is anything to go by. (I have a bit of a thing for Audrey Tatou though, so will probably catch the film on Demand or DVD in due course )

P.s. Can I take the opportunity to point out that I neither purchased or borrowed these books. By chance. my brother was lent them by a friend who lives locally and he left them at my place for collection by the owner. I steamed through them both in about a week to see what the fuss was about. Not a lot it turns out... 46 milllion people can be wrong and many of them should know better! At least I know I haven't put any money in the pocket of this schmuck...

[lordsummerisle]

Remarkable.

Dan Brown is a multi-millionaire for writing prose that any halfway decent fourteen year old English student would get a rap across the knuckles for daring to hand in to his teacher. Yet nobody actually buys the books or goes to see the film and if they do, nobody confesses to actually enjoying them.

For the record, I read my (borrowed) copy of The Da Vinci Code in two days of train journeys to work and lunch in the pub. I thought it was badly written but that didn't stop me enjoying it and wishing I'd had a girlfriend who was a sexy French code-breaker. In an attempt to stop feeling so intellectually dirty after reading it, I tried Virgina Wolfe's "Mrs. Dalloway" but that just made me want to buy lots of flowers and become a suicidal lesbian.

I'm so confused.