While First Look Studios is not one of the better known studios (at least to me!), they have released some interesting films such as War, Inc., King of California, Priceless and The Proposition. Of the recent films they have released. my favorite is Transsibberian, an action thriller which takes place on the Transsiberian railroad on a trip across China and Russia when American missionaries get caught up in a Russian drug deal. When I received word that their most recent film starring Morgan Freeman and Antonio Banderas would be released on Blu-ray, I was anxious to check it out. After all, with Morgan Freeman starring in it it has to be good, right?
Film
The Code is a traditional heist film with a twist, and many twist in fact. The film stars Morgan Freeman as master thief, Keith Ripley, who is hatching a plan to steal two unknown Faberge eggs from a Russian diamond dealer in New York City. He recruits Gabriel (Antonio Banderas) after he watches him steal some diamonds on a subway car. While initially reluctant, Gabriel agrees to join in on the plan and they move forward with their planning to steal the Eggs from a nearly impenetrable safe and security system. During the planning, Gabriel meets and falls for Ripley’s God Daughter, Alex, played by the simply stunning Radha Mitchell, who I must say has an incredible body and how has some really steamy sex scenes with Antonio Banderas. Acting sure has some incredible perks!
While I enjoyed the film, as heist films go, I have seen better. While the film does have its twists and turns, the film is fairly predictable and doesn’t really capture your attention completely. If you are looking for a nice film to rent on a Saturday night, check out The Code as I am sure you will find it enjoyable at least for one go around. Recommended as a rental only.
Video
I am a bit torn by the video quality on this release. For the most part, it is pretty good with deep and stable blacks and a color palette that is natural looking and features well saturated colors. However, while overall clarity is good, the film lacks the level of detail that you find with the better looking encodes. The film is fairly soft overall especially longer shots. There is one scene in particular that I found a bit disturbing that occurs out on Coney Island. For some reason, that scenes gets very soft with poor color rendition. I found it rather jarring to see the image deteriorate to that degree in a film, even though it is fairly brief. After my experience with Transsiberrian, I was looking for a bit better video quality than what is present on the Blu-ray edition of The Code.
Audio
I was also a bit disappointed with the audio on The Code. While the disc case indicates that the audio is Dolby Digital, I can in fact confirm that it is Dolby True HD 5.1 and not plain Jane Dolby Digital. However, unlike most lossless tracks, I found the overall sound quality to be a bit on the harsh side, especially the music tracks, which can be a bit fatiguing at reference levels.
I also found the sound to be a bit lacking in the area of transparency as the audio lacked the sense of depth both front to back and side, sounding a bit flat and congested in comparison to the better sounding lossless audio tracks. On the plus side, the surrounds are used fairly aggressively to create a nice sense of immersion. Overall dynamics are quite good as is the bass response which is deep and tight. In addition to the overall fidelity of the audio, I was a bit disappointed with the dialogue track which at times, is difficult to hear, getting a bit lost in the mix. Is this a bad audio presentation? No, far from it but it is a bit of a disappointment and falls a good deal short than the lossless tracks on the better recent Blu-ray releases.
Special Features
While I have seen releases with less in the way of extras than The Code, I haven’t seen many. The extras consist of short snippets of interviews with the principal actors and the director and producer. The segments are really short and look hastily put together. Also included is a short behind the scenes featurette shot during the filming of the movie. This behind the scenes featurette is a bit different than most as it considers of a camera shooting the actual filming of the movie and the interaction between the cast and crew rather than on set interview. As was the case with the interview segment, this featurette looked rather hastily put together at the last minute without much in the way of planning. Neither of the extras are in high definition. Needless to say, The Code is not BD-Live enabled and does not include a digital copy of the film.
Final Thoughts
While I enjoyed watching The Code, I have seen much better heist style films. However, it you are looking for a nice rental for a Saturday evening and are looking for a film you have not already seen or something new, check out The Code. Recommended as a rental only.
