If I could speak as eloquently as Morgan Freeman and look as awesome as Antonio Banderas, I would certainly not want to do a movie like Code.

In my trip to the local Hollywood Video Store for a movie, I couldn't help but see two actors I like on the cover of the straight to DVD movie Code. It was even on Blu Ray.  Two hours later, I would learn just why I had never heard of this at the movies.  It is listed as Thick as Theives on the Internet Movie Database.

Why I thought I would like it

Morgan Freeman! Come on, this guy could narrate MY life, and make it sound awesome. He is a great actor and a great speaker. I have loved many of his movies.

Antonio Banderas.  This guy is cool! This is Zorro!  I like Antonio Banderas.

Radha Mitchell - Okay, I am not as familiar with her, but she is a beautiful woman and I have seen her in a few films such as Henry Poole is Here, Mozart and the Whale and Silent Hill. I highly recommend the second film, Mozart and the Whale, an unconvetional love story between two people who have Aspergers.

Robert Forster This is the cool go to guy for Elmore Leonard type characters. Heck he even narrated a few Leonard books on tape in addition to playing Max Cherry in the Leonard written, Tarentino directed Jackie Brown (based on the novel Rum Punch)

It's a Heist Film! Dogs love trucks, Guys love heist movies! I had visions of The Great Train Robbery, The Score, The Italian Job, Ronin or even Ocean's Eleven!

When I realized why this went straight to video.

One old pro, an art thief named Keith Ripley(Freeman) takes Gabriel Martin (Banderas) under his wing after Martin daringly steals two valuable diamonds from Russian diamond dealers.  Ripley wants Martin to be his partner for one last heist (aren't all heist movies about ONE LAST HEIST?). The job is of course impossible, a robbery of the safe of the Romanov's a high powered Russian antiquties dealer. They must bypass the Russians security system and keep away from Lt. Weber (Robert Forster - Jackie Brown).  In the meantime, Antonio Banderas beds down Rahda Mitchell, who plays Alexandro Korolenko. She is also Freeman's girlfriend and the daughter of one of the Russians.  After some gratuitous sex and nudity by Banderas and Mitchell, the robbery plans commence.

My problem was that neither the characters or the plot seemed remotely believable not even in a fun way.  The Russians safe was impossible to open, and the pair of theives didn't even come up with a cool complex way to steal the contents of the safe like the gang from Oceans Eleven or DeNiro and Norton in the Score. They didn't even have a cool plan like Pierce Brosnan in the Thomas Crowne Affair.  After the ridiculous robbery, a bunch of plot twists that make no sense occur. One, because we don't have enough invested in the characters to care, and two, well because they make no sense!

This film was boring. We never invest in the characters or get that sense of ..what happens next. I did get a good sense of who cares what happens next.  This film was a jumbled mess that doesn't establish itself or its characters enough to generate any interest. Plot elements seems to be tossed in as random.  What do the Russians have to do with things? Why does Lt. Weber hate Keith Ripley? What are Ripley and Martin's back stories?  What makes anyone tick? Even when the film is over and everything is "explained" nothing makes sense.  By that point however, I just didn't care.

Summary

Remember, good actors don't always do good films. This is a good example of that principle. I learned that the Code is... act in a movie if they put enough zeros after the first digit on your check, don't worry about the script. 1 star, I was disappointed to see these fine actors in this horrible film.

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Recommended:
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