Da Vinci Code reviews "frustrating," says director - Yahoo! News:
"'This sounds a little 'hucksterish', but people really respond to the movie better the second time than they do the first time. Of course it's frustrating that some of the critics have been harsh with it and that's disappointing, because I'm the type of person that likes to please everyone. I think with this project, that's an impossibility and I've kind of known that all along.'"

Of course, I have not seen the film nor do I plan to. Just going by the reviews I have read though, and what Mr. Howard says, it appears that once again he has tried to please everyone instead of trying to make a film that reflects HIS vision. I don't really believe he has one and that makes him a handy man not an artist. Don't get me wrong, handy men CAN make works of art. I consider Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark to be such a work and had Howard had that vision of the story and presented it as such it may have worked out better. The only film of his that I found entertaining is Night Shift. Come to think of it, that was primarily due to an exceptional Micheal Keaton performance and an extremely comely Shelley Long as the required hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold. I have several Catholic friends who are quite upset by the subject matter of this flick but as soon as I heard it was a Ron Howard film with Tom Hanks in the lead I KNEW they had nothing to worry about. This project has SAFE and INOFFENSIVE and DULL stamped all over it. Ignore it and it will go away.