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Movies have been in on this for a long time'Da Vinci Code' not a new type of thrillerBy Todd Leopold  Audrey Tautou and Tom Hanks star in the film version of "The Da Vinci Code," due out May 19. QUICKVOTE(CNN) -- Ron Howard had an interesting point. "The Da Vinci Code" is fiction, the director of the film said, and shouldn't be assumed to be anything but -- so there's no need for disclaimers or apologies. "In 'Three Days of the Condor,' you don't say there is no agency within the agency," he told The Hollywood Reporter. Of course, conspiracies involving the CIA -- or some other shadowy government entity -- are a dime a dozen. It's different when your conspiracy involves Jesus Christ and the Roman Catholic Church, which is why the film has attracted such controversy. Still, "The Da Vinci Code" is a conspiracy film. There's usually been a pretty good market for such films, too -- especially when the times have created distrust in authority. And the times have often created a distrust in authority. Take "The Manchurian Candidate," for example. The film -- about an assassination plot involving brainwashed Korean War veterans -- came out in 1962, when the country was apparently enjoying the John F. Kennedy "Camelot" era. Its darkness became a liability a year later, when Kennedy was shot. Although the film aired on TV over the years, it didn't get a major re-release until the 1980s, when rights issues were worked out. Indeed, some believe star Frank Sinatra sat on the film because of his discomfort -- but that, like many conspiracy theories, was false. When corporate America started conglomerating, Hollywood put out the wicked satire "The President's Analyst" (1967), about a presidential psychiatrist on the run from shadowy figures. The ending, which reveals who's controlling the pursuers, has a different resonance in these NSA phone scandal days. And then came the '70s and the backwash of Vietnam and Watergate, which produced "The Parallax View" (1974), "The Conversation" (1974), "Condor" (1975) and a film about a real conspiracy, "All the President's Men" (1976). Since then, there have been others, ranging from "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" (1988), which managed to work in a plot about the Los Angeles trolleys and freeway system (with some basis in truth); Oliver Stone's "JFK" (1992), which dredged up all the doubts about the Warren Commission's report; and films like "Enemy of the State" (1998), a potboiler from the word "go." Well, you're not paranoid if they're really out to get you. Eye on Entertainment digs through some secrets. Eye-opener"The Da Vinci Code" may have angered some Christians, but it also entertained tens of millions who purchased Dan Brown's book. The movie is expected to be a smash. If it's faltered so far, it's in not being entertaining, if you believe the critics. As of Thursday morning, "Da Vinci" was running under 25 percent "Retarded, ridiculous and crushingly dull," wrote Chud's Devin Faraci. "[It's] long and mostly inert," said Time magazine's Richard Corliss. Other adjectives to describe the film include "lifeless" (USA Today), "plodding" (Philadelphia Inquirer), "dreary" (Rolling Stone) and "bloated" (The Hollywood Reporter). Whew. Not exactly a roller coaster ride. A handful of critics beg to differ, including the Chicago Sun-Times' Roger Ebert, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Eleanor Ringel and the New York Post's Lou Lumenick. We'll find out what audiences think this weekend. "The Da Vinci Code" comes out Friday. On screenOn the tubeSound wavesPaging readersVideo center
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