Los Angeles, Calif., May 12, 2006 / 12:00 am (CNA).- As the controversial Da Vinci Code movie is set to be released next Friday, actors and production officials continued trying to answer the film’s critics. Star Tom Hanks offered his own comments trying to dissuade critics by saying that the “story we tell is loaded with all sorts of hooey and fun kind of scavenger-hunt-type nonsense.”

In comments to the British ‘Evening Standard, Hanks tried to convince people to see the movie more as an entertainment, and to put into perspective the serious implications of the movies content against faith.

"If you are going to take any sort of movie at face value, particularly a huge-budget motion picture like this, you'd be making a very big mistake,” he added.

"It's a damn good story and a lot of fun.... That never hurts,” he concluded.

The Da Vinci Code will make its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival next Wednesday.

Cardinal Angelo Amato on the other hand, recently described the novel as "stridently anti-Christian" and called for believers to "reject the lies and gratuitous defamation" in the book.

He added: "If such lies and errors had been directed at the Koran and Holocaust they would have justly provoked a world uprising. Instead, if they are directed against the church and Christians, they remain unpunished. I hope you will boycott the film."

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