Tom Hanks has hit out a critics of his new movie The Da Vinci Code, saying that they are making a big mistake.

The movie, based on the best-selling book by Dan Brown of the same name, is released next week.

"We always knew there would be a segment of society that would not want this movie to be shown," Hanks said.

"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."

"It's a damn good story and a lot of fun," he added.