reviews: May 2006 Archives

There is no such thing as bad publicity. I'm surprised that the Catholic Church didn't learn that lesson in 1988 when they turned The Last Temptation of Christ from a mediocre film at best into a certified media sensation. Denouncing a film as heresy is good for guaranteeing it at least another $20 million at the box office.

I heard all of the poor reviews coming out of Cannes too. But they're *French* for crying out loud! They already *hate* all things American, they're fiercely proud of their Catholic heritage, and one of the bad guys in this film (at least for the first half anyway) is a Frenchman! How Ron Howard thought he'd get a decent review out of Cannes, I have no idea.

Despite all of the negativity, this is a good movie. If you enjoyed the book, you'll definitely enjoy the movie. If you haven't read the book, there is plenty of action and suspense to keep you occupied, but you may be frustrated by all of the puzzles being solved before your eyes. You may want to wait for DVD so you can pause it and unscramble "so dark the con of man" for yourself.

I've never been a big fan of Tom Cruise -- his movie career peaked with Top Gun, in my opinion -- and his recent exploits and the surrounding media blitz have done little to endear him to me and many other moviegoers who were on the fence about him. Cruise is tolerable in this role, and this movie is good for its genre, although just a tad preoccupied with gadgets. And NBC's recently deceased series Heist did the whole false-bottom-in-the-car-over-the-manhole thing a *lot* better.