10 Wildly Popular Films That Are Actually Rubbish
3. The Da Vinci Code
Dan Brown’s novel sold over 50 million copies, but have you ever met anyone who said they liked it? This adaptation is just the same: it has the best cast, director and screenwriter that money can buy, but its apologists are few.
Too clunky to be thrilling, too ridiculous to be taken seriously and with a notable lack of chemistry between Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou, The Da Vinci Code is in such a hurry to cash in on the novel’s popularity that it has no use for decent staging and cinematography. Instead, it just plods along for two and a half hours, and even casting an A-list actor in every role doesn’t generate much interest.
That said, the movie took $758 million worldwide and launched a franchise starring Hanks as Robert Langdon. We’ll find out whether the character still has box office clout when the latest instalment, Inferno, opens in October.