Dear Ron Howard,
While the capable “Frost/Nixon” failed to wipe away the existence of your mostly heretofore milquetoast cinema, it did engender a modicum of goodwill and made inroads into proving you’re better than the “A Beautiful Mind,” blemish that will always scar the Academy Awards.
However, we’re reminded that your proclivity for middle-of-the-road moviemaking is still alive and well with this summer’s “Angels & Demons” – the May 15-set, sequel (or prequel, who knows…) to “The Da Vinci Code,” with Tom Hanks.
We’re kind of willing to forgive this one with the one-for-us, one-for-them mentality which presumably affords you the luxury of another Ocean liner to take your kids to school with, but a third film? Really?
Dan Brown has announced that the next installment of his “Da Vinci Code” series titled, “The Lost Symbol,” is due in September. Ok, we can’t point a gun at Howard and Hanks’ head quite yet — who knows if they’re onboard, but Variety reports that Columbia will “move quickly to get the ball rolling on the third installment of the franchise.”
OK, well we’ll back up for a second. Ronald, you showed some promise after decades of innocuous and toothless filmmaking. Get your little tentpole out of the way this summer and then hand over the reigns and move on. You can do better. You showed us a little something. Now show us more.