Critic consensus:What makes Dan Brown's novel a best seller is evidently not present in this dull and bloated movie adaptation of The Da Vinci Code.

Numbered reviews:1. Some protesters believe that if you see this film, you'll go to Hell. They got it backwards. I think if you go to Hell, you'll probably see this film while you're there.
2. Over the course of two and one-half hours, the film unfolds in a series of dull and unengaging episodes.
3. The movie version is so faithful to Dan Brown's hit book it should come with a dust jacket ...
4. If you want a taut adventure story, read the book. If you want a simiplistic tale with average performances and irritating alterations to the source material, watch the movie.
5. If you want an entertaining yarn about the Knights Templar, historical secrets, and cryptic codes hidden in famous documents and artifacts, go rent National Treasure.
6. Does what a good film adaptation should do: Illustrate the best parts of its source material and still manage to make a highly enjoyable film for the uninitiated.
7. Even as a visual aid, The Da Vinci Code is a deep-dyed disappointment. Paris by night never looked murkier.
8. It still had the necessary element of Encyclopedia Brown cerebellus-ex-machina, but it was visually interesting and didn't slow down the action with book-digging%u2026they made the film well, they just took the path of least resistance, and for that I can
9. It would have taken a more imaginative approach and vision not within the reach of Howard and Goldsman to make the material come alive as a movie.
10. Completing the trail of cryptic clues simply becomes an end in and of itself -- think Sudoku: The Movie -- with little in the way of whimsy, star chemistry or excitement to enliven the dour plod.


Critic consensus:A great addition to the existing surfing documentaries.

Numbered reviews:1. You won't want to wait an hour after eating your popcorn to jump into this surfing-culture doc. But you may have to hang on to your seat as board-riding daredevils tackle the humongous waves of Hawaii's North Shore and other dangerous places.
2. The waves get progressively higher in Stacy Peralta's overlong but entertaining historical surfing documentary.
3. While the movie might not have as much social context as its predecessor, it's just as fun.
4. Magnificent if overlong.
5. Even those who've never waxed a board will be engaged and amazed.
6. This is vicarious daredevilry at its best.
7. [T]his film ranks right up there with last year's Step Into Liquid as a top surf doc.
8. While not quite as exuberant as his previous feature documentary, Dogtown and Z-Boys, skater-turned-filmmaker Stacy Peralta brings the same level of respect and enthusiasm to the subject of surfing.
9. Surfing's seeming purity was spoiled by pop phenomena that suggested all the cute guys and gals rode rear-projection waves without mussing their hair-dos.
10. Peralta shows himself to be something of a big-wave challenger here by breathing in bigger gulps of geography, history and culture.


Critic consensus:A breezy and lively modern art documentary, revealing that LA is not a cultural wasteland when it comes to fine art.

Numbered reviews:
1. A lively film that doesn't linger too long on any one thought or with any one interviewee.
2. No one emerges very well defined from this historical shuffle, but those who know the artists' works, or names such as Hopps and Blum, but have never heard them speak, will find The Cool School absorbing and informative.
3. Cool School is a must for anyone interested in 20th century American art.
4. The Cool School, a breezy, lively documentary about a thin slice of the Los Angeles fine art scene in the 1950s, is easy on the eyes, and the ears too.
5. Diverting.
6. Thoughtful and thought-provoking.
7. Though designed more for the devotee of the arts than your average moviegoer, the film is still apt to enthrall even the uninitiated who wouldn't know a Jackson Pollock from a Willem de Kooning.
8. Largely avoids sharply delineated portraits, with its focus on the scene at the expense of individuals, ultimately resulting in a documentary that doesn't rise above the functional.
9. All told, and well told, this is essential history.
10. Documentarian Morgan Neville takes an appropriately lively, left-field approach to The Cool School's eye-opening history of the Beat-era Left Coast art scene -- a lesser-known chapter in the story of American modern art.