The Assassin's Code

I saw the film's world premiere last week at the Cleveland International Film Festival, where it sold out every showing. It's a noir crime-thriller that's not what you'd expect -- it hits the ground running with action, then expands into an intelligent character piece. Justin Chatwin and Peter Stormare are both arresting in the kind of roles that indie films allow actors to break out of their stereotypes -- Stormare delivers an unexpectedly touching, tour-de-force monologue in one of the best standalone scenes I've ever seen; and veteran radio guy Mark Thompson ("The Mark and Brian Show") is fantastic as rookie-detective Justin's captain and surrogate father figure. The dialog is smart and laugh-out-loud funny, and the soundtrack is knockout. A real hidden gem of a film.

Went to the 5/12 screening at Harmony Gold theatre in Hollywood and really enjoyed the movie. It was a special screening that was promoted by Mark Thompson (of Mark & Brian) that is a co-star in it. Plot was a bit predictable, but the film was good as it had some good laughs, of which the lines were improvised by the actors (as we learned in the Q&A). The score, by Austin Wintory, was really good. It hit the film noir vibe nicely.

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.

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

Cleveland police detective Michael Connolly (Justin Chatwin) lives under the shadow of his late disgraced cop father. He investigates a shipment of drugs stolen from police custody. Kurt Schlychter (Peter Stormare) is killing lots of criminals involved in the heist. District attorney Laura Consolo (Yancy Butler) suspects a vast criminal conspiracy within the power structure.

This is a lower budget crime B-movie. The opening should be a big heist action sequence but the filmmaking is not good enough. The budget is probably not big enough. The story telling needs more clarity. The acting varies. Chatwin is trying hard to be hard. Stormare plays a good killer but he could use more screen time. He should be equal to Connolly in terms of character importance. Other actors are less capable. It's a mixed bag. This movie is trying to be a hard-boiled crime story but it's mostly flat with inferior filmmaking.