The Da Vinci Crud

I certainly lend no weight to what the Cannes snobberati think of a "film".  And I generally take critics' reviews with a grain of salt each.  But by almost all accounts, the widely anticipated Da Vinci Code is a steaming pile of the highest order.

I generally prefer to go by IMDb user ratings as a bellweather of my likely enjoyment, but the one critic site that often provides a reliable early indication of the truly spectacular and the truly atrocious is Rotten Tomatoes.  They aggregate all available critics' reviews and provide a "Tomatometer" gauge of freshness from 0-100%.  The number corresponds to the percentage of critics' reviews that are favorable.

Generally when you see a freshness score above 70% or 80%, you can bet that it's either a great movie that you're bound to enjoy, or it's an "important" movie that critics know will be an Oscar contender and don't want to be on record as hating, no matter how boring it is.

Likewise, when a movie really tanks it on the Tomatometer, you can usually bet the results are well-earned.

To date, The Da Vinci Code has reeled in an abysmal 6% freshness rating (i.e. identical to Gigli).

Yes, Gigli.

Interestingly, despite being so resoudningly "rotten", the critics' average 1-10 scoring was 4.3, suggesting that it's not a remarkably terrible movie, but rather one that just about everyone agrees is fairly cruddy.

I expect I'll still see this movie, as I've always enjoyed the Howard-Hanks pairing.  I'm also one of the dozen or so people in the country who didn't read the book; I'm not sure whether that'll enhance or further deteriorate my viewing experience.

The film opens wide Friday.  Anyone who sees it, please feel free to submit your reviews and reactions.