- The ancient male symbol was the blade, it's a basic phallus. It's still used today on military uniforms.
- Yes, and the more penises you have, the higher your rank. Boys will be boys!

Many people have told me I just absolutely *have* to read The DaVinci Code, but from what I've heard and seen of the story it never seemed like it was as fantastic as they make it out to be. My theory is that this is a work of fantasy where people's minds get engaged in what could be possible in our world. But for me I've spent a lot of time with science fiction and fantasy stories, where fantastic ideas are allowed to run free.

Admittedly, the book seems to be a great thrill ride as well. What will happen? Will Langdon escape and live? In essence that's what the movie provides as well. It's a fun ride as we follow a story. It doesn't really try to make any points, and it doesn't delve all that far into the codes and puzzles that are clearly a key theme in the story (any of you who have read the book, I'm curious how much the book really digs into those codes and puzzles...)

The movie did have some key highlights. Tom Hanks continues his trend of excellent acting work, but the movie was really stolen by Ian McKellen. He was just fantastic as the elder Englishman on a grail quest. I felt the movie noticeably perk up when he became involved.

Ron Howard continued some of the techniques he used in A beautiful Mind for showing how very smart people might solve puzzles or problems in their mind. That ghost looking visualization that highlights different pieces of the image with some muttering dialog does a great job of portraying quick though, something terribly hard to show in the movie medium. Also, I really enjoyed the special effects work they did in fading between modern scenes and historical ones. My favorite was the fade from the modern London skyline to middle ages London. Shots like that remind me of the amazing history that some of these places have seen, something we here in the relatively young United States tend to forget (especially those of us that live on the west coast.)

It's a fun ride, and I've even heard from a few people that read the books that it's a solid complement to the book - exploring the story in a new medium. Just try not to roll your eyes at the spectacularly bad police work during the chase scenes...

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