The Assassin's Code

Very old school, film noire vibe made in a modern style. Very enjoyable. The score is brilliant.

Take a drink every time you hear a cop movie cliche, you'll be smashed in ten minutes.

This is a watchable movie more commendable because of its very modest budget. The marketing blurb was somewhat misleading in saying that a ghost-like assassin was stalking the investigative detective, as if said assassin's identity was unknown. We clearly knew the assassin's identity after his dispatch of no less than four victims in the early part of the movie! The over-riding characteristic of this film for me was the very, very pronounced audio - loud musical score, loud sound effects. But this somewhat annoying quirk had a commendable spin-off....it is one of the very few U.S. movies in which the dialogue was easy to follow - no mumbling here. Boy, what a relief. I don't think I'm alone in being critical of the audio, especially diction in films from the U.S. For this improvement here alone, it deserves six stars rather than five.

A classic thriller with a weak script and multiple lackluster perfomances. Another case of a passable story reduced to a unimaginative work that wastes the talents of decent actors. Jason Chatwin does a good job with little support and the work of Peter Stormare is first rate as the baddie. If you like John Wick or Proud Mary you may find this interesting but most will lose interest quickly.

Worth watching for Stormare's limited scenes and some okay mob stuff. And I have a weird thing for Lifetime diva Yancy Butler, so there's that. But Chatwin chews the scenery shamelessly, the relationship scenes are torture and the dialogue is laugh out loud cop shop. Still, I was only intemittently bored and mostly entertained. Nice fish, too.