Based on Dan Brown's unfortunate bestseller, The Da Vinci Code (Sony) arrived in theaters labeled as one of the most controversial films ever released, but had anyone's blood pressure risen by the time it was over? Brown's supposedly blasphemous interpretation of Da Vinci's The Last Supper—laid out here by Ian McKellen, in the film's only riveting scene—has been sermon and editorial fodder for years, but director Ron Howard shows little investment in the issue one way or the other. But even if he had no passion for religious revisionism, at least he could have mustered a little for storytelling…
Anyone intrigued by last year's Good Night, And Good Luck would be smart to dig into the box set Edward R. Murrow: The Best Of Person To Person (Koch), a compilation taken from Murrow's '50s interview series. It features hours of footage of Murrow talking to everyone from John F. Kennedy to Sammy Davis Jr.…
Thanks to HBO's The Sopranos and The Wire, the NBC cult favorite Homicide: Life On The Street is no longer the greatest crime drama in TV history, but the show's remarkable seven-year run—now collected on the Homicide: Life On The Street: Complete Series Megaset (A&E)—still offers some wonderfully moody acting, pitch-black mysteries, and all the scruffy existentialism the small screen can hold…
Part biographical documentary, part concert film, Lian Lunson's Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man (Lions Gate) is plagued by gratuitous editing tricks, some weak performances, and an appearance by Bono at his fatuous worst, praising Cohen in almost exactly the same words he applied to Bob Dylan a few years back. So it's a tribute to Cohen's power and the interpretive skills of Antony, Rufus Wainwright, and others that it's still pretty essential viewing…
John Tucker Must Die (Fox)… and yet this film must not be watched.