After a rather lazy Saturday, where my only achievement was to go into town and get my haircut. I sat down to watch Eurovision on the computer, watching only the acts up to and including Daz Sampson and his Teenage Life rap. Then, I decided to shut down the computer and head for the living room to watch the Saturday night premiere on Sky Movies. National Treasure was a movie I recall my ex manager had seen at the cinema back in January 2005 and I had heard some good reviews, particularly of Cage’s performance. It was 9.14pm and thanks to Sky Movies Multi-Start I started my showing at 9.15pm. Fantastic, don’t you just love digital television. The movie was great, action packed and entertaining, even if the ending was mixed. In my opinion they took the easy way out, rather than going out with a bang. Perhaps they just lost motivation (or the $100 milion dollar budget!) I can say quite categorically that it was the better of the two movies I would see this weekend. Sean Bean portrays the likeable bad guy and Jon Voight while a bit part does play the convincing father figure. While there are some similarities with the big blockbuster released this week, I prefer this story. America has such a rich history and stealing the one document that means more to the people than anything else, is a stroke of genius. They are making a sequel, scheduled for released within the next two years, but I am not sure how exactly they can continue the story or for that matter find a new one. The Wikipedia entry states that is has many similar elements to the film I would see tomorrow, but they are minor in detail. Seems like everyone is searching for some kind of lost treasure.

Went to see The Da Vinci Code this afternoon at the Vue cinema, Reading. I have not read the book, so this review is based purely on the film and nothing else. Overall it was entertaining and in places gripping. However, the ending was rather a major let down. All the publicity with the big marketing drive from Sony, has meant most people are going to watch the movie just to see if it really is as bad as ‘they’ say it is. While I love conspiracy theories matched with a great hunger for history, I think the movie fails to truly explore the idea that could shake the foundations of Christianity. While I can understand many people feel it is blasphemous, I prefer to believe the story to is there to entertain and provoke discussion, rather than question anyone’s faith. Tom Hanks is an actor I enjoy watching and most of his movies I have seen. Here, he lacks the emotion and conviction for such a major role. Perhaps Ron asked him to play the role in this way and keep his distance from the plot, but being so involved and knowledgeable you would feel he would have a greater connection to the events unfolding before him. Given the movie is so long, you expect there to be quite a roller coaster ride, but actually once you realise the main twist, the movie begins to slow down and end on a bit of whimper. By all means go and watch this movie at the cinema, but do not expect to be blown away. It just is not that type of cinema experience. The saving grace is that the summer movie going season ahs only just began and there are plenty of other movies I am looking forward to seeing over the coming few months. Starting next week with X Men 3.

I have had a del.icio.us account for several months but hardly had the time to update it. This weekend I decided to change this over the weekend and have also integrated the links onto my Links page. I love the idea of tagging and grouping my links into bundles, but I need a bit more time to organise my collection. If you join the social ‘book marking’site feel free to add me to your list of contacts. My username is Teg.