Author: Jürgen Prochnow

Features:

• Mastered in High Definition
• Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
• Languages: English, French, Spanish
• 5.1 Dolby Digital
• Anamorphic Widescreen

Format: Special Edition

Release Date: 14-11-2006

Details: Special Features The DVD extras on a film as popular as The Da Vinci Code should be plentiful, and this version doesn't skimp. With over 90 minutes of special features, including ten behind-the-scenes featurettes, there's a lot here to explore beyond the film itself. The question is, is there anything new here that we haven't heard before, in all the hype, pseudo-documentaries, and controversy surrounding the movie, to make it worthwhile? For most viewers, the answer will be "yes." Essentially, if you like the movie, if you enjoyed the book, you will get a lot out of them. Just as the movie is intended to make the book come to life, the DVD extras should make the film come to life by pointing the audience into the world of the filmmakers, connecting the dots between print and film, and for the most part they do just that. The extras here range from the typical look behind-the-scenes to more in-depth features on the supporting characters, the locations, and the Mona Lisa herself. "First Day on the Set with Ron Howard" features the director gushing about the opportunity to film in the Louvre and work with Tom Hanks again (the two worked together before on Splash and Apollo 13). It's a short piece that doesn't reveal much beyond making an attempt to share Howard's excitement (with the "Gee, I really loved working with him/her on this project" that you hear in every such featurette), but viewers might enjoy seeing how the stage was set up in the famous museum, down to the spike tape on the floor showing actors where to hit their marks. The Filmmaking Experience, Parts 1 and 2 further explores the creative and technical aspects of the filmmaking process. A Conversation with Dan Brown starts out feeling like a puff-piece (the man who wrote this book got started at age 5 with a story called The Giraffe, The Pig, and the Pants on Fire. "It was a thriller," he says .) and unfortunately it doesn't go very deep into much of anything of interest. But on the other hand, this isn't 60 Minutes here; it's intended to give viewers a better sense of the man behind the franchise, which it does. Much of the footage from this interview is sprinkled throughout some of the other featurettes. Meanwhile, the character behind the franchise, Robert Langdon, is examined in his own featurette, as is Sophie Neveu. The cool thing here is getting under the skin of the actors to see how they approached the characters, knowing that most of the movie-going audiences already have formed their own ideas about the characters from the book. The most interesting extras are the featurettes that focus on the history behind the mystery. Or is it the mystery behind the history? Either way, the first one on the Mona Lisa, and the second featurette on the many codes and symbols that are hidden throughout the movie balance out the remainder of the extras nicely by demonstrating the sense of intrigue, mystery, and game-playing adventure that made The Da Vinci Code so popular in the first place. --Daniel Vancini Product description Hanks/Mckellan ~ Da Vinci Code Amazon.ca Critics and controversy aside, The Da Vinci Code is a verifiable blockbuster. Combine the film's huge worldwide box-office take with over 100 million copies of Dan Brown's book sold, and The Da Vinci Code has clearly made the leap from pop-culture hit to a certifiable franchise. The leap for any story making the move from book to big screen, however, is always more perilous. In the case of The Da Vinci Code, the plot is concocted of such a preposterous formula of elements that you wouldn't envy screenwriter Akiva Goldsman, the man tasked with making this story filmable. The script follows Dan Brown's book as closely as possible while incorporating a few needed changes, including a better ending. And if you're like most of the world, by now you've read the book and know how it goes: while lecturing in Paris, noted Harvard Professor of Symbology Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) is summoned to the Louvre by French

UPC: 043396148345

EAN: 9781424814862

Languages: English

Binding: DVD

Item Condition: UsedVeryGood