Revelations

In case you haven't heard...

The film adaptation of author Dan Brown's best-selling novel The Da Vinci Code opens today in theaters. The media coverage in the run-up to the release has been quite amazing--and I don't mean that in a good way.

Have you been watching the cable news network MSNBC lately? I happen to be home yesterday morning, and in the midst of channel surfing, I was stunned to find that while CNN and the Fox News Channel were covering the confirmation hearings of General Michael Hayden for the top spot at the Central Intelligence Agency--really important stuff--MSNBC was instead, covering the film! Wow! In fact, Da Vinci programing has been all over the dial, from the entertainment news shows...to the The History Channel, SCI-FI Channel and beyond. I have not seen this kind of media coverage for a flick since The Passion of The Christ in 2004.

And then there was the film's infamous debut in France on Wednesday...

Meanwhile, the review round-up reveals a few bright spots among the dark clouds.

In an interview with Mike Collett-White of Reuters, director Ron Howard describes the overwhelmingly negative reviews of his eagerly awaited movie, as "Frustrating" but he believed the news was not all bad.

Critics and movie-goers often disagree, Howard said in an interview on Thursday, and some people at preview screenings had found the film starring Tom Hanks more rewarding on the second viewing than on the first.

"I don't really read them (reviews) at the time that we're coming out, because it's too touchy a subject for me," Howard, 52, told Reuters at an exclusive hotel on the Mediterranean coast outside Cannes.

"I like to know what's going on, so I get a sentence or two of description."

Months after a film's release, Howard said, he collects reviews to see what the consensus among critics was

Really, what else can the guy say?. I still think the movie will make a bucket full of cash this weekend regardless of what critics say. The novel, which I have only read excerpts of, is just too popular for folks to ignore the movie. It's just a question of how much it will make...

For example, Entertainment Weekly's Joshua Rich predicts a $71 million weekend, just the same...

I also wish the Catholic Church put forth the same amount of energy when handling the Priest sex abuse scandal, as they have trying to dispel the book and or movie...

The weekend's other big release is the CGI animated film Over The Hedge from Dreamworks.

The next Hollywood Summer blockbuster hopeful on the conveyor belt-- X-MEN 3: The Last Stand.