Diggers (2006) - Marino and Dieckmann's film is a pleasant, funny change of pace

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The pleasant, low-key poster for Katherine Dieckmann's Diggers

QUICK REVIEW:

We are in a fishing community just an hour away from Manhattan in the 1970s. Shellfish giant South Shell is taking the work from the local clam diggers there. A young guy, Hunt's fisherman father now dies and leaves his boat to his son.

Paul Rudd (Ant-Man (2015)) is great as the middle-aged, lonesome man, who bitterly 'protects' his sister and comes up with excuses for his own unrealized dreams. He shares one sexy clam scene with Lauren Ambrose (Six Feet Under (2001-05)) in Diggers.
The humor of the film bears witness of a large absurd-comical talent in writer/co-star Ken Marino (Role Models (2008)). Diggers presents a neat little story with well-balanced doses of warmth and reality. It's really funny to boot.
Katherine Dieckmann (Motherhood (2009)) directed it.

Maura Tierney and Paul Rudd in Katherine Dieckmann's Diggers

Cost: 28 mil. $ (reported)
Box office: 24 mil. $ (reported)
= Uncertainty
[Both numbers are from Diggers' Wikipedia page, but I am skeptical as to the truthfulness of both of them. The budget seems very high, and the film grossed just under 60k $ in North American theaters in its very small theatrical release there. It premiered simultaneously on the HDNet channel that funded the film, and was released on DVD just days after, much as with Steven Soderbergh's Bubble (2005). Diggers' commercial destiny is hard to probe, but I will count it as a flop. Dieckmann's next film, the maligned Motherhood with Uma Thurman, seems to have ended her movie career prematurely.]

What do you think of Diggers?

Duel (1971) - Spielberg's truck terror is ideal afternoon fare

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The intensity screams at you from this painted poster for Steven Spielberg's Duel

QUICK REVIEW:

A salesman on his way to a client meeting is under the boot at home, and in the burning hot sun on his long way to the meeting, he's about to have a real shitty day: Through the dessert, he is terrorized by a 40 ton truck with a mad driver.

Master filmmaker Steven Spielberg (The Sugarland Express (1974)) already masters elementary suspense here in his second feature, a TV movie for ABC, which was subsequently lengthened into a theatrical feature. (Spielberg's first was his episode in The Name of the Game TV movie series, LA 2017 (1971).)
Richard Matheson (Dracula (1974)) adapted his own short story for the film. The story also includes the theme of a modern family life of compromise and the instinctive frustration of the modern man, which reappear in later Spielberg works.
Dennis Weaver (McCloud (1970-77)) plays the unlucky salesman terse and naturalistic, and the many shots around the chase are fantastic.
The few detractors: SPOILER The ending seems abrupt and is in need of a giant explosion in my opinion. And Billy Goldenberg's (18 Again! (1988)) score seems, at times, like a ripoff of Bernard Herrman's classic Psycho (1960) score.

Related reviews:
 
2011 in films - according to Film Excess
Steven Spielberg: War Horse (2011) - Spielberg visits WWI with problematic horse drama
Super 8 (2011) - Abrams' nostalgic family crowdpleaser (producer)
Band of Brothers - TV mini-series (2001) - WWII-sacrifice and -comradeship portrayed with skill and integrity (producer)
A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) - A robot fairy tale with both heart and mind
Amistad (1997) or, Must... Free... Slaves! 
Twilight Zone The Movie (1983) - Fear takes many forms in tragedy-struck anthology
1941 (1979) - Spielberg's bizarre 'comedy spectacular' sinks like a rock 

Watch the trailer for the film here

Cost: 450,000 $
Box office: Unknown
= Uncertainty
[But the film was a hit: As ABC's Movie of the Week, it won an Emmy and was nominated for another, as well as a Golden Globe as Best TV Movie. Spielberg went 3 days over the 10 day shoot, but based on the strength and popularity of the film, he was given two more shooting days to give the film a longer running time, (buffing it from the TV version's 74 minutes to the theatrical version's 90), so the film could be released in theaters, mainly abroad. Duel launched Spielberg's career onwards, and he has once said to Weaver in an interview that he watches it twice a year "to remember what I did."]

What do you think of Duel?

Top 10: The best adventure films reviewed by Film Excess to date

1. The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) - Wes Anderson

2. The African Queen (1951) - John Huston

3. Avatar (2009) - James Cameron

4. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) - Andrew Adamson

5. Back to the Future Part II (1989) - Robert Zemeckis

6. Coraline (2009) - Henry Selick

7. Kon-Tiki (2012) - Joachim Rønning & Espen Sandberg 

8. Roman Holiday (1953) - William Wyler

9. Qivitoq (1956) - Erik Balling

10. The Bear/Lours (1988) - Jean-Jacques Annaud

Other great adventure films reviewed by Film Excess
(in alphabetical order)

Barry Lyndon (1975) 
Bolt (2008) 
Diamonds Are Forever (1971) 
The Lego Movie (2014) 
Men in Black 3 (2012) 
Moonrise Kingdom (2012) 
The Triplets of Belleville/Les Triplettes de Belleville/Belleville Rendez-vous (2003) 

Good adventure films and TV-series reviewed by Film Excess
(in alphabetical order)

The Adventures of Tintin - all 3 seasons (1991-92) 
The Avengers/Avengers Assemble (2012) 
Battle Royale (2000) 
The Blue Lagoon (1980) 
The Call of the Wild (1972) 
Cannibal Holocaust II/Natura Contro/The Green Inferno (1988) 
Captain Kidd (1945) 
Christopher Columbus: The Discovery (1992) 
Congo (1995) 
Midnight in Paris (2011) 
Oz the Great and Powerful (2013) 
Rango (2011) 
The Rum Diary (2011) 
The Sitter (2011)
Spirited Away/千と千尋の神隠し (Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi) (2001) 
Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) 
Super 8 (2011) 
Your Highness (2011) 

Mediocre or poor adventure films reviewed by Film Excess 
(in alphabetical order)


Alice in Wonderland (1999)
The Amazing Spiderman (2012)
Baby Geniuses (1999) 
The Brothers Grimm (2005) 
Circus World/The Magnificent Showman (1964) 
Coming to America (1988) 
Howl's Moving Castle/ハウルの動く城 (Hauru no Ugoku Shiro) (2004) 
John Carter (2012)
The Lost Boys (1987) 
Minions (2015) 
Mr. Peabody & Sherman (2014) 
X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)

[48 titles in all]

Previous Top 10 lists:

The best adapted films reviewed by Film Excess to date 
The best action movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

What do you think of these lists?
What adventure films are missing?
And which would you place differently?

The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys (2002) - Care's heart-warming, mega-flopping coming-of-age debut

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The comic book-inspired poster for Peter Care's The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys

QUICK REVIEW:

We are in a Catholic school in the American South in the 1970s, where 4 boys are drawing superheroes and pulling pranks like stealing the saint statue from the school. One of them now gets a girlfriend, and lots of tensions arise.

Altar Boys thrives on its dream cast: Kieran Culkin (Igby Goes Down (2002)), Emile Hirsch (The Mudge Boy (2003)), Jena Malone (Donnie Darko (2001)), Vincent D'Onofrio (Jurassic World (2015)) and Jodie Foster (The Silence of the Lambs (1991)), who was also a co-producer on the film. They are all absolutely wonderful in this coming-of-age youth drama.
It is filmed with nice, rich colors by Lance Acord (Being John Malkovich (1999)) and interlaced with super-cool animated sequences that detail the boys' comic book fantasies and their conceptions of themselves.
The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys is an adaptation of the semi-autobiographical 1994 novel by Chris Fuhrman, written by Jeff Stockwell (Children of the Machine (2015-)) and Michael Petroni (The Book Thief (2013)) and directed by music video director Peter Care (Six Feet Under (2004), TV-series) as his feature debut. The film has a surprising ending, which I liked.
This is a good film.

Watch the trailer for the film - with Spanish subtitles - here

Cost: 12 mil. $
Box office: 2 mil. $
= Mega-flop
[This considerably budgeted debut independent film received mostly good reviews, but failed to attract the audiences it needed: It never even crossed 100 screens in North America, where it grossed 1.7 mil. $ (85 % of the total gross), and internationally, it seems it was only released to Italy, Spain and Mexico, - perhaps because these are big Catholic markets, - but it never did much business there either. The film did win the Best First Feature award at the Independent Spirit Awards, but Care hasn't come back since this major flop.]

What do you think of The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys?

The Desperate Hours (1955) - Wyler's top-drawer true-crime home-invastion thriller

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Humphrey Bogart - a bona fide heavy on the poster for William Wyler's The Desperate Hours

QUICK REVIEW:

A small, normal suburban home gets terrorized by an escaped convict trio, who take the family there hostage, while they await some money to come their way.

SPOILER It is the brave, noble American family, - with Fredric March (A Star Is Born (1937)) sparkling as the sacrificial father, - who in the end serves as a monolith for the sanctity of private property here in this true-crime thriller classic. "Get outta my house!", he commands Humphrey Bogart (The Big Sleep (1946)), right before furnishing him with a fatal installation of internal AC.
Bogart is a real ornery devil here in his last performance as a villain. The fear he and his thug partners inspire is easy to sympathize with. The unpredictability of the criminals' world, - and of the world surrounding the potboiler nightmare, - as well as the ending makes for a fierce, neat time of suspense here.
Joseph Hayes (The Young Doctors (1961)) adapted his own book and play for the screen with Jay Dratler (The Dark Corner (1946)), and German master filmmaker William Wyler (Roman Holiday (1953)) directed the picture.

Related reviews:

William Wyler: Ben-Hur (1959) - Perhaps the greatest epic film of all time
The Big Country (1958) - A big western gift  
Roman Holiday (1953) - Wyler takes us to marvelous Rome on an unforgettable romantic adventure 

Watch the original trailer for the film here

Cost: 2.3 mil. $
Box office: 2.5 mil. $ (North America only)
= Uncertainty
[If Desperate Hours played very well internationally, it may have been a box office success, but it doesn't look like it was a huge hit theatrically. It was remade in 1974 in India as 36 Ghante and in 1990 in Hollywood by Michael Cimino with the same title as the original, - but to considerably worse reviews.]

What do you think of The Desperate Hours?
What's your favorite home-invasion movie?

Desperado (1995) - Rodriguez' second Mexico actioner is a sexy, latino fireball

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Antonio Banderas is the passionate Latino with the Big Gun on the poster for Robert Rodriguez' Desperado

QUICK REVIEW:

Bitter after having lost his girlfriend, our Mariachi hero sets out to kill the responsible, Bucho, - who turns out to be his brother. On the way he falls in love with a highly curvaceous book store assistant.

The universe has changed to one which is juiced up by big cash from great Texan writer-director Robert Rodriguez's debut El Mariachi (1992), which was the first in his Mexico trilogy, to this the continuation of the trilogy that ended with the bad Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003).
Desperado has great, well-choreographed action scenes and some delightful supporting actors; namely Cheech Marin (Masked and Anonymous (2003)), Steve Buscemi (Boardwalk Empire (2010-14)) and Quentin Tarantino (She's Funny That Way (2014)). As well as a starring couple, Antonio Banderas (Original Sin (2001)) and Salma Hayek (Frida (2002)), who reek of sex and passion. It all makes it more than okay that Desperado is a very different kind of beast in terms of scope and tone from the great Mariachi.

Salma Hayek and Antonio Banderas pose for Robert Rodriguez' Desperado. - Where they the sexiest screen couple of 1995?

Watch the trailer for the film here

Cost: 7 mil. $
Box office: 25.6 mil. $ (North America only)
= Uncertainty
[But certainly a big hit. Desperado was shot entirely on location in Ciudad Acuña, Mexico. It opened #2 to 7.9 mil. $ domestically. Only few numbers are out about its global performance, which seems to have been decent.]

What do you think of Desperado?
Were Salma Hayek and Antonio Banderas the hottest screen couple of 1995 in your opinion?

Diamonds Are Forever (1971) - Connery's last Bond adventure is a colorful romp

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Explosive entertainment under something resembling a disco ball on this poster for Guy Hamilton's Diamonds Are Forever

QUICK REVIEW:

James Bond kills his arch enemy Blofeld in the beginning of this, Bond movie # 7. But when he subsequently follows a mysterious diamond hoax from Holland to Las Vegas, it is revealed that Blofeld is still more alive than ever!

Sean Connery (The Hunt for Red October (1990)) was brought back to the 007 well for his last film as Bond after George Lazenby's underwhelming single stint as the gentleman spy in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969). And Diamonds is just what every fan of the early Bond films could have ever wished for: An incredibly extravagant film, which contains the franchise's wildest car chase up to this point, through Las Vegas, along with another fun chase in a Moon Buggy in the Nevada desert!
The film also has Jill St. John (The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1961)) as the excellent Bond babe Tiffany Case and a bizarre gay villain couple, (called Mr. Kidd and Mr. Wint.)
How exactly the diamonds fit in remains unclear to me, but Diamonds Are Forever still stands as a Bond classic in my book. It was written by Richard Maibaum (Thunderball (1965)) and Tom Mankiewicz (Live and Let Die (1973)), based on Ian Fleming's 1956 novel of the same name, and directed by Guy Hamilton (Goldfinger (1964)) as the second of the four Bond films that he directed.

Related reviews:

Bond franchise: Skyfall (2012) - The overly celebrated third pout from Daniel Craig as Bond in slick production
A View to a Kill (1985) or, Once a Gentleman, Always a Gentleman! 
Casino Royale (1967) - The packed spy spoof frontrunner, a film very much of its time (spoof comedy - not part of the franchise)
Dr. No (1962) - Bond # 1 is one attractive package

Watch the original trailer here

Cost: 7.2 mil. $
Box office: 116 mil. $
= Blockbuster
[Lazenby had signed on for 7 Bond films (!), but wanted out after the first one after the advice of his agent, (strange agent, hu?). United Artists wanted Connery back for just about any prize, and he finally landed 1.25 mil. $, - a record sum at the time, - for the job. - He proved to be worth it. The film grossed 43.8 mil. $ (38 % of the total gross) in North America. Many critics have criticized its 'campy' humor, preferring, ostensibly, the mock-gloom of the latter, 'serious' Bond entries.]

What do you think of Diamonds Are Forever?

The Leopard/Il Gattopardo/Le Guépard (1963) - The greatest film ever made?

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A painted poster that doesn't at all do Luchino Visconti's The Leopard or its stars justice

If you only watch one more film for the rest of your life, let it be The Leopard by Milanese master filmmaker Luchino Visconti (Death in Venice/Morte a Venezia (1971)), based on the same-titled 1958 novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, his only novel.

On Sicily in the years 1860 to 1862, the Prince of Salinas steers his aristocratic family safely forward, as the rebel Garibaldi attacks royalist troops and unites Italy, and a promising marriage approaches in his nearest family.

From the very first frames of this epic period drama, it is clear that it is a work of extraordinary visual beauty. The cinematography by Giuseppe Rotunno (The Stendhal Syndrome/La Sindrome di Stendhal (1996)) captures the Sicilian landscapes and the often flamboyant interiors with equal measures of grace and profundity and wisely withstands close-ups for the vast majority of the film in place of more distanced, picturesque offerings.
Visconti adapted the novel with screenwriters Suso Cecchi D'Amico (What a Woman/La Fortuna di Essere Donna (1956)), Pasquale Festa Campanile (Rocco and His Brothers/Rocco e i Suoi Fratelli (1960)), Enrico Medioli (Once Upon a Time in America (1984)) and Massimo Franciosa (Rocco and His Brothers). It is a mature story of love, war, marriage, Sicily, Italy, aging and death. Sequence after sequence stuns and affects with its humor, its sharp and often profound dialog and its magnificent images.
Nino Rota (Amarcord (1973)) has composed the beautiful score, and Mario Serandrei (The Battle of Algiers/La Battaglia di Algeri (1966)) has edited the film just perfectly. It trusts its own attraction in its visuals and strong characters to overcome the fact that this isn't a plot-driven film, and the editing of several sequences, including the fancy ball scenes that make up nearly the last hour of the film is not only bold but piercingly insightful. This last third of the film is arguably its most miraculous, perfectly portraying the uniquely lonely and desolate feeling of being isolated in a major festivity setting.

A still from the overwhelming, fantastic civil war scenes from Luchino Visconti's The Leopard

The battle scenes are incredible, and so different in their purity, (regrettably, one might add), from the way that war plays out in our time.
The Leopard, of course, attains its masterpiece status as one of the best films ever made not least because of its brilliant cast:
Burt Lancaster (From Here to Eternity (1953)) got his career's arguably best part as the Prince of Salinas, the ultimate, wise, Conservative patriarch, a personified institution on the Mediterranean island, where he is like a lion on the savanna. In the latter scenes where the Prince becomes morose, Lancaster plays him with astounding sensibility, but he is a study in formidable character acting from start to finish here.
Behind the Prince, Alain Delon (Le Samuroaï (1967)) might be the most dashing actor in a film ever as his nephew, and Claudia Cardinale (Once Upon a Time in America/C'Era una Volta il West (1968)) equals his beauty with her voluptuous grace, fantastically memorable vulgar laugh and perpetually, and awfully charming, puckered forehead.
In supporting parts, the film also has some extremely fine and funny roles for some esteemed Italian actors: Paolo Stoppa (Garibaldi (1961)) as Don Calogero, Rina Morelli (The Joy of Living/Che Gioia Vivere (1961)) as the hysterical Princess of Salina, Romolo Valli (The Garden of the Finzi-Continis/Il Giardino dei Finzi Contini (1970)) as Father Pirrone and Terrence Hill (My Name Is Nobody/Il Mio Nome è Nessuno (1973)), who is also quite handsome as Delon's army chum, are all delightful.
The Leopard demands attention and concentration but is an infinitely worthwhile film. SPOILER Even in the end, it doesn't give us and its title character the movie ending that would seem obvious; he doesn't get to die.
The Leopard doesn't give contrivances, it gives life.

Burt Lancaster in the role of his life, as Luchino Visconti's The Leopard

Claudia Cardinale and Alain Delon in Luchino Visconti's The Leopard

Watch the American trailer for the film here, - which doesn't do it justice at all

Cost: 2.9 Bil. ITL
Box office: 1.8 mil. $ (North America only)
= Uncertainty
[Visconti originally wanted Russian star Nikolai Cherkasov for the lead, but he wouldn't be in the film. The American studio Fox gave their contribution to the budget with star Lancaster attached, which made Visconti angry, because he didn't get a say in the matter, - but it turned out to be a great collaboration after all. Visconti, being gay and naturally enamored with Delon, gave him the only dressing room available, so that the film's star Lancaster reportedly had to wait around for hours for Delon to be ready. The Leopard was a big hit in France, where it won the Palme D'Or in Cannes and 3.6 mil. paid admission, and in Italy, where it nearly made its budget back by '67 (2.3 Bil. ITL). It was also re-released several times in Italy to success. I count it tentatively as a box office success. Upon release in the US, Newsweek and The New Yorker gave the film ridiculing reviews. It is out in four lengths; the 185 minute version is Visconti's preferred one, - so watch that one.]

What do you think of The Leopard?
Do you agree that it might be the greatest film ever made?

The Deadly Companions (1961) - Peckinpah's debut is a tough, great, suspense-filled western

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The well-drawn, sexually suggestive poster for Sam Peckinpah's The Deadly Companions

QUICK REVIEW:

We follow a Yankee soldier, who for five years has hunted the man who nearly scalped him in the war. When he finally tracks him down, he accidentally comes to shoot a 9 year-old boy instead of the culprit, and a kind of pilgrimage through Apache land with the boy's coffin, his prostitute mother and two additional, deadly companions begins.

Deadly Companions is the eminently written western suspense story by Albert Sidney Fleischman (Hell Bent for Glory (1958)), who also novelized his script, which became the proficient feature debut for great American director Sam Peckinpah (The Wild Bunch (1969)), who had previously directed episodes of 5 TV-series.
The script contains poignant lines and two great lead characters, who are both very strong and very vulnerable at the same time, played by Maureen O'Hara (Rio Grande (1950)) and Brian Keith (Centennial (1978-79)).
The Deadly Companions is a very fine debut indeed.

Related review:

Sam Peckinpah: The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970) - A manly respite with Robards and Peckinpah

Watch a preview for the film here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: Unknown
= Uncertainty
[Deadly Companions was shot in Arizona on a low budget, although how low is not possible to say. - Peckinpah, who was hired based on Keith's recommendation of him, got a lot out of it in any case. He worked without script control or editing rights, and he vowed after the film to never work without script control again, (a little strange, since Fleishman's script is pretty great.) Unfortunately, no box office figures are out online either. The film was in public domain for a while, but seems to be copyrighted today. - Any western and/or Peckinpah aficionado should do themselves the favor of buying a copy!]

What do you think of The Deadly Companions?

The Da Vinci Code (2006) - Howard's first Brown adaptation is a popcorn thriller hoot

♥♥♥♥

 
+ Best Paris Movie of the Year 

QUICK REVIEW:

Renowned Harvard professor of symbology and religious iconography Robert Langdon is flown in from the States to the Louvre in Paris, where an old man has been killed with mysterious signs engraved into his chest. - About a very old secret!

Rarely has a film been surrounded by more hysterical fuss than was the huge adaptation of Dan Brown's (The Lost Symbol (2009)) bestseller The Da Vinci Code (2003). It was greeted with scorn at its Cannes premiere and protested against and banned in nearly a dozen countries because of its supposedly blasphemous content. Akiva Goldsman (A New York Winter's Tale (2014)) wrote the screenplay, and Ron Howard (Frost/Nixon (2008)) directed.
Despite all the hullabaloo, mostly terrible reviews and controversy, Da Vinci Code is an exciting and entertaining, huge, broadly appealing picture, just as it should be. The international cast is impressive, counting Tom Hanks (Saving Private Ryan (1998)), Audrey Tautou (Dirty Pretty Things (2002)), Jean Reno (Léon (1994)), Paul Bettany (A Beautiful Mind (2001)) and more, but it is especially Ian McKellen (Mr. Holmes (2015)), who spreads joy in it, playing a mad atheist.
The flash-backs can seem endless, and the film is very long (running 146 minutes in the theatrical version, (a 174 minute extended cut also exists!)) But Brown's Jesus theory is well-spun and thrilling.

Related posts:

Ron Howard: Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel (2011) - Stapleton's Corman doc. is among the year's best films (interview subject)

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

A Beautiful Mind (2001) - John Nash given the Epic Treatment  
Backdraft (1991) - Howard's giant, stupid Chicago-set firefighter movie 
American Graffiti (1973) or, Cruisin' Modesto '62 (actor)

Watch the hype-fueling trailer for the film here

Cost: 125 mil. $
Box office: 758.2 mil. $
= Blockbuster
[Despite the reviews and attacks from the Catholic church, or perhaps to some degree because of the controversy, audiences flocked to the film and made it the 2nd biggest hit of the year, only bested by Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. It had a 77 mil. $ opening weekend in North America, the best ever for both Hanks and Howard. It grossed 217.5 mil. $ (29 % of the total gross) in North America and was a massive hit worldwide. Leonard Maltin called it "a letdown in every respect", while Roger Ebert was in line with Film Excess and gave it 3 out of 4 stars, stating "it works." Its less successful sequel Angels & Demons (2009) is also a fact, and the two will soon be followed by Inferno (2016), the 4th Langdon novel, and the 3rd to be adapted by Howard, with Hanks.]

 
What do you think of The Da Vinci Code?