Code 211

This was a mishmash of a movie. Wooden acting. Unrealistic. Bad plotting. Starts with a woman typing frantically on computer during a download. Why? Then people get blown up and killed for no apparent reason. Then the movie begins with a contrived situation about bullying so some kid can go on a ride along because it's in the script. After that, you have the tried and tired daughter and estranged father conflict. I like Nicolas cage. I think he's made some great movies -- i.e. Face/Off and Family Man -- but nothing worthwhile in at least 10 years. And worst of all, the acting was like planks of wood interacting. I could smell the ham from my computer. Someone obviously owed someone else a big favor otherwise this movie would never have been green lit.

This entertained me. Some of the acting was a bit hammy in parts. Cage and Dwayne Cameron are fine. Some of the others are weak though.

It's supposed to be based on a real event, the North Hollywood shootout in 1997. There's nothing similar between that event and this movie. So forget it. Sit back and enjoy a basic action movie

This movie by Nicolas Cage and company is another to add to the bad. Opening credits blew it when they pan a laptop showing a active transfer while she randomly strikes the keyboard senselessly. What were they expecting this to add more realism you could see she was not typing and nothing appears on the screen except the transfer process. Obviously the film's editor should cut this to the floor but they probably thought nobody would care, that's why this is a B movie.

You like wood? Great, just check out the 'acting' in this abomination. A shame as the camera work is actually ok, but the bloody acting ( if you can call it that) is so stilted and forced it's untrue. I'm about 20 minutes in, but I'm a glutton for punishment... I'll sit through this crap so you don't have too. Yep I'm a martyr. Ok, I've finished it, my opinion hasn't changed, it's bloody awful... Infact I'm knocking a star off from 4 to 3... So contrived it made my eyes bleed.

Granted that I had little expectations for "211" from writer and director York Alec Shackleton when I sat down to watch it. Why? Well, solely because this was just screaming to be another Nicolas Cage movie.

So was it? Both yes and no. Yes, in the sense that he trotted on with his usual stumped performance with just a single grimace throughout the entire movie. No, because the storyline sort of veered from the usual stuff that he participates in.

Was it a good movie? Nah, it was adequate, albeit quite generic. The storyline had its moments, not many, but it had them. But for a bank heist movie, then it offered very little to the cinematic experience that haven't already been seen in other bank heist movies.

The dialogue in the movie was good, and the characters were good, which definitely worked in favor of the movie. However, some of the things that the bank robbers were doing just made so little sense, especially since they were supposed to be highly trained military people.

All in all, an adequately entertaining movie that will suffice if you have nothing more pressing on the to-watch-list. But this is hardly a movie that you will be returning to watch a second time around.