So this is why there was no one in line to see "The DaVinci Code" (or any other movie playing yesterday)

Despite it being panned by critics, people have been flocking to see "The DaVinci Code," and yesterday I was one of them. As I am wont to do, I went to the theater several hours earlier in order to get a ticket, and caught a glimpse of Mun Geun-young filming a movie, right there at the top of the colored waterfall steps at Yongsan Station.

I did not have to wait in line at all at the Yongsan CGV, and there were plenty of seats, which seemed a bit odd, even on a Tuesday night, but that's because I didn't know about the South Korea-Senegal pre-World Cup friendly super-jumbo soccer match.

I played soccer for nine years in elementary, junior high, and high school, even becoming an AYSO referee in Orange County at one point. But I just don't get excited enough about the sport to watch every single game (or even most games) the home team plays. This is, in part, because I tend to jinx the team I favor. Instead, I take advantage of the light traffic on the city's highways that results from everyone else being at home or in a bar watching the match and screaming at the telly.

Thank goodness, Korea did not lose (it was a 1-to-1 draw), otherwise we'd have to despise Senegal for the next four years, and I'm just tired of all the hate.

By the way, "The DaVinci Code" was not all that bad, though I can see how fans of the book might be disappointed. Fans of Audrey Tautou might also be disappointed, since she's not naked even once in this film (which, I suppose, is appropriate for someone who — ¡¡¡SPOIL ALERT!!! — may be a descendant of the Holy Christ).

The book was cleverly laid out and involved the reader in how the codes and riddles were solved, in a richly textured way even a two-and-a-half-hour-long movie (no diet soda beforehand, if you're smart) simply cannot. Instead, it was a moderately interesting thriller in the same vein as "National Treasure," though with less gunfire.

If you have already read the book, the plot twists of the movie simply don't have the surprise, nor do they provide the satisfaction of laying out the details of the book in visual form. For that, you'll probably have to wait for "The Discovery Channel" to come out with its twenty-hour version.