DVD Review: The Code: Morgan Freeman, Antonio Banderas, Radha Mitchell, Mimi Leder: Movies & TV

Jun26

DVD Review: The Code: Morgan Freeman, Antonio Banderas, Radha Mitchell, Mimi Leder: Movies & TV

Posted by admin | on 26 June, 03:29 AM

Product Description
Studio: First Look Home Entertain Release Date: 06/30/2009 Run time: 103 minutes Rating: R

Good talent put to waste in a been-there-done-that heist movie,

By z hayes (plano,texas) -
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)

The only reason I picked this movie up [as a rental] was because of Morgan Freeman, an actor I’ve always respected and admired. The fact that Antonio Bandera plays opposite him also intrigued me, and then there’s the beautiful Radha Mitchell. So, the idea of these three together in a movie kind of made it an appealing choice, though I have to say I was disappointed with the results.

The movie is a standard heist film - Antonio Bandera plays Gabriel aka Gaby, an armed bandit who encounters Morgan Freeman’s character, Ripley whilst pulling off a robbery on a subway train. Ripley sees potential in the relatively younger Gaby and persuades him to join him in a heist at the famous Romanov’s Jewelers. The objects of desire are two prized Faberge eggs whose existence have never been officially acknowledged but which Ripley assures Gaby are very much in existence and priceless [well, about 40 million]. Anyway, as Gaby agrees to be Ripley’s sidekick, he finds himself falling for Ripley’s Russian goddaughter [played by Radha Mitchell]. Things get more complicated when a detective resentful of not being able to convict Ripley for his past heists starts putting the heat on the pair, despite being warned off by the Feds [who are investigating the Russian jewelers]. When Radha Mitchell’s character gets kidnapped, Ripley and Gaby are forced to race against time to pull off the heist of a lifetime with some interesting plot twists along the way.

What worked for me - the acting was credible on the whole, despite the unimaginative and at times, implausible plot. There is no genuine chemistry between Freeman and Banderas, and the pairing seems awkward. The story itself is uninspired - there have been so many other heist movies that were much better than this, and so I felt let down by the writing and the direction.

What does work is the chemistry between Banderas and Mitchell. Radha Mitchell is a very attractive actress and she pulls off her role convincingly, playing a rather enigmatic character who seems to know more than she is letting on. The pair sizzle on-screen which helps the romance part of the movie,which happens to be another focus in this film. The heist part of the movie is rather weak, though the action picks up when Ripley and Gaby finally break into the jewelers, though once again, there is nothing new here.

On the whole, I’d recommend this as a rental at best - like I mentioned earlier, there are much better heist movies out there and “The Code” does not bring anything new to the table.
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