El Codigo Secreto

i enjoyed it!

the story was pretty well told. the background of John Cusack's character was well revealed, so we can better understand his motives and feelings during the unfolding action, the female character was somewhat underdeveloped i think, not that it impacts the story much, but we could have gotten some flashbacks on how she ended up in the station as well, not only in words - but thats all minor mumblings

although it may seem to some as a 'B' rated movie - it is a much, much better than that, you can easily tell that much effort has been put in this movie by a serious team

7/10

I won't try and stretch your credulity by saying this is a must see movie. You could give it a miss and your life will be just the same as if you saw it. However... It really isn't a bad little flick if you can get past the misleading posters, etc. They say "Action Movie" and the reality is that it is a character piece. A definite case of poor marketing.

John Cusack plays a burnt out CIA black ops guy that is assigned to watch over Malin Akerman after screwing up a job. The movie is more about him confronting his demons than about fighting off some nameless terrorist types. He does a decent and believable job.

Malin Akerman's character is somewhat under-developed. Her acting wasn't terrible, I just think the role could have been better written. I just couldn't seem to care all that much about whether she lived through it.

The one really jarring note was the location. It is supposed to be a remote secret base, but they used one of the many former air bases scattered through England as the setting. The thing is none of those bases are all that remote and it is a large complex with bunkers and electric gates and crap like that which kind of sticks out like a sore thumb. They would have done better to set it on an island off Scotland or something.

Over all it was worth seeing but it's better to rent than to buy.

7.6 of 10. Fast moving film that says a lot about intelligence operations and the mental state of the operatives, why they do what they do, and the risks/prices they pay.

In these, it's easy to get hung up in details of is it real or is this done exactly like that, or is the cryptography accurately handled. For the most part, this successfully portrays the details. Are there actually numbers stations? That's not the question to ask. Are there secret communications operations? Yes. Once you get past that, most people already know and accept there are secret killings, so you can simply enjoy the story (except for the product placement, of course).

Another problem with these films is they get too caught up in the message, talking, and forget about action, thrills, and the story. This does a surprisingly good job quickly setting up the plot and keeping the pace fast (best of all, without any car chase scenes or similar gimmicks). The soundtrack/score helps too.

Something like a simplified, but not dumbed down, Bourne Identity film.

This is the remarkable debut into English-language film directing by the Danish noir director Kasper Barfoed. Recently I reviewed his brilliant Danish thriller THE CANDIDATE (KANDIDATEN, 2008, see my review). Now he steps into our language, so watch out! This is a highly atmospheric and ominous thriller mostly set is a bizarre bunker on a disused military base which has been turned into what the security services call a 'numbers station'. That is where short wave is used (since its broadcast location cannot be traced) to broadcast instructions to spies round the world using number codes. The lead actor is John Cusack, who is perfectly cast because he makes a convincing quiet, brooding type. Here we come up against the problem I have mentioned frequently before, however, which is that the main character, with whom we are meant to sympathize, is a professional killer. In this instance, he is a government assassin. But is that any better than being a standard 'hit-man'? In any case, it is an unmistakable sign that our society is in a state of terminal decadence when the heroes of so many movies are men who kill for money. I suppose one could say that of Monsanto, perhaps, but then one could argue that Monsanto is an even worse sign of our terminal decadence, with the accent in their case on 'terminal'. So there he is, John Cusack, quietly guarding the woman who reads out the numbers at the numbers station, when things go seriously awry. Some of 'his side' have sold key information about the numbers station to 'the other side', whoever they are these days. And then vicious men with guns come in and start shooting and wanting the codes, and in fact they want to do terrible things with those codes, such as send false instructions requiring the agents who receive them to kill their own bosses. We are meant to feel sorry for John Cusack because nasty men are trying to kill him, but then who feels sorry for all the people John Cusack has killed? But that's not part of the script. Putting all the moral questions aside (which is what our society does nowadays), this is a very exciting film. So there you are.

I saw that this movie only scored 5.4 on IMDb and I wanted to quickly write that it's a whole lot better than that. The movie kept me interested from start to finish. It doesn't slow down appreciably at any point. There isn't an overwhelming amount of action but there is a tense atmosphere throughout. The location is also great. A moody, grey numbers station right out in the middle of nowhere. But the main reason for watching this movie is Cusack who perfectly plays the loner, haunted, tough guy, with a conscience. He's supremely watchable in every frame. In fact, Cusack plays these types of characters better than anything else. He has that suitably detached, dangerous look, down to a tee. He also does ambiguity very well. All of this is displayed really well in the movie. Ackerman is also well cast as the enthusiastic, smart code girl.