Code of Silence
|
List Price: Our Price: $2.64 You Save: $7.34 (74%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $1.57 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of Code of Silence
Movie Review: "One day, I would like to give you a gift of a Columbian necktie."
Summary: 4 Stars
I'm not a big fan of Chuck Norris, but as a devotee of director Andrew Davis, I approached "Code of Silence" and was pleased to find that the same methods that would later benefit fellow action stars Harrison Ford (in The Fugitive) and Steven Seagal in (Under Siege) made for a very approachable and enjoyable Norris-headed action/thriller. Some other reviewers here claim that this is Chuck's outright best movie, and while I don't have the viewing experience to verify this, it certainly is a very good film that transcends the B-movie standards of the time, making for a surprisingly classy addition to a genre generally identified by its abundant amounts of cheesiness.
The story: when his stance on a case in which an aging cop has covered up the accidental shooting of a teenager leaves him a loner on the force, tough Chicago cop Eddie Cusack (Norris) must fly solo as he undertakes a kidnapping case in the midst of a mob war.
The first thing that I noticed about the movie is its striking similarity with the director's subsequent project, the Steven Seagal vehicle Above the Law. From its production style to its soundtrack, Chicago setting, and the five cast members playing similar roles in both movies (the most prominent of which is the villainous Henry Silva, The Manchurian Candidate), "Code of Silence" seems to have been the ground-layer to a style that director Davis felt comfortable sticking with for a while. However, neither film truly copies the other when it comes to spirit: while the Seagal picture was a martial arts film with political overtones, "Code of Silence" is a stricter cop movie with Norris playing an Eastwood/Bronson-esque character. He doesn't do a whole lot of talking, and that's fine since he pulls off the tough-guy act more convincingly than most men in action. It's not a look-at-me vehicle like, say Invasion U.S.A. would be, but Norris' gravitating presence is so strong that it doesn't need to be backed up by a lot of chatter or karate kicks.
Speaking of karate kicks, I was a bit disappointed that there aren't a lot of them in here. Norris has a single neat martial arts fight in a bar, but with the exception of a couple quick fisticuffs, it's all about the infrequent shootouts and chases (including one where he dives off a train into a river to pursue a perp)...save for the end of the movie, where Chuck commands a lethal, remote-controlled police robot to help attack the mob hideout. It's an incredibly bombastic scene for a movie that has thus far played it straight and down-to-earth, but it's a nice payoff for having to deal with a relative inabundance of action for the first 90 minutes. Again, it's a cop movie that doesn't rely on action, but it's infused with enough of Andrew Davis' know-how and enthusiasm to make both the told-before story and its relatively unknown performers like Mike Genovese ("Port Charles"), Molly Hagan (Election), and Bert Remsen (Thieves Like Us) life-like and memorable.
Again, I can't say for sure, but I can imagine that this film's overall finesse and restrained pace ought to make it a better entry point for aspiring Norris fans of all film disciplines than one of his straight-forward action flicks. Definitely worth the price with good replay potential. Get it!
Movie Review: "You want to take on the whole world by yourself? Now you're gonna get your chance, Cusack."
Summary: 4 Stars
Before Steven Seagal made a habit out of playing no-nonsense cops who employ martial arts to take out the trash, my man Chuck Norris was there ahead of him. CODE OF SILENCE is one of Chuck's best movies - my second favorite after LONE WOLF MCQUADE - and it's got a whiff of SERPICO about it but with roundhouse kicks thrown in and one of the manliest beards to ever grace cinema. CODE OF SILENCE is actually one of Chuck Norris's slicker action thrillers, never mind that there's a pretty lame "hi-tech" experimental police tank featured in it.
Tough Chicago vice cop Detective Sgt. Eddie Cusack has got no use for shady cops, and he makes his disdain fairly obvious when a fellow officer 30 years into the job (Ralph Foody) gets away with murder. For this, Sgt. Cusack gets ostracized by his fellow officers, leaving him on an island in the middle of a war between two rival mobs. One of the film's most impactful moments surfaces when Cusack heads for the drug lord's lair and the police dispatcher can't get any unit to respond as back-up. Doesn't matter to Cusack. When the daughter of one of the crime lords is targeted, Cusack means to keep her safe, back-up or no.
I'd never call Chuck Norris a fancy martial artist. He eschews the flashy stuff and instead relies on power moves, on spinning kicks and sometimes on the good old American fist to the face. And, taking a page from Clint Eastwood's strong and silent mold, he never was burdened with too much dialogue. Still, when a thug tries to talk smack to him, Norris delivers a cool one-liner: "If I want your opinion, I'll beat it out of you." That's a funny line but not as funny as what happens when two stupid armed robbers unwittingly hold up a bar full of cops.
Also benefiting this movie is the slew of interesting side characters that proliferates the screen, from Cusack's weathered fellow officers - especially Ralph Foody, whose braggadocio camouflages that stench of guilt-driven unease - to the mouthy punks and career criminals that Sergeant Cusack runs into. Dennis Farina, who in real life is a veteran Chicago cop, is Cusack's injured partner, and possibly one of the very few people who stays on his side. The main bad guy is played by Henry Silva and this guy presents one of those classic great faces for villainy, but he should've known better than to taunt Norris: "One day," he sneers, "I would like to give you a gift of a Columbian neck-tie." Norris responds by stepping up to him and smirking, "Why don't you give it to me right now?"
CODE OF SILENCE can't escape its 1980s sensibilities, but so what? The pace moves along and while Chuck Norris doesn't have one of those magnetic personalities, his cast provides the color, and Chuck himself provides the buttkicking. And there's something endearing about how he gruffly attempts to comfort the grieving girl he's protecting. He's not gonna win you with sweet talk; he's never glib. But he will karate chop the hell out of some punk miscreant who's all up in your face. Everyone's got a niche.
Movie Review: "They Call You 'Stainless Steel' On The Street."
Summary: 4 Stars
Originally slated for Clint Eastwood who declined it, and definitely one of Chuck Norris' best performances, CODE OF SILENCE concerns Eddie Cusack (Norris), a cop's cop, who finds himself with three sets of enemies---a Colombian drug cartel, the Chicago Mafia, and his fellow cops. The first two are locked in a vicious turf war for control of the drug trade on Chicago's streets, and both sides are gunning for Cusack, who wants to stop them. He soon finds himself trapped in a web of traditional Sicilian "omerta" and Colombian "silencio."
Cusack is a pariah because he has testified against Sgt. Craigie (Ralph Foody), a washed-up alcoholic officer who inadvertently shoots a young boy and plants a gun on the body to cover up his mistake. Although Craigie is known by all to be a dangerous has-been, the code of silence among his brother officers protects him.
The story finally comes down to a stand-off in which the Colombians kidnap the daughter of the Chicago Godfather. Cusack must rescue her. His one-handed fight is one of the best set-piece gun battles on film, certainly the equal of anything in the DIE HARD or LETHAL WEAPON series.
The Cannon Group, a "B" studio, just about breaks into the Hollywood mainstream with this film. The story is strong, the major characters memorable, and the plot dynamic. CODE OF SILENCE is a film which uses it's gritty Chicago locations with an almost Sydney Pollack-like elan. CODE OF SILENCE also foregoes the self-important grimness of the typical "B" action thriller by poking fun at itself. Cusack's off-the-cuff "Catch you later," murmured to a coke dealer as Cusack leaves a tony North Side party to meet with a Mafia chieftain, is a gem; a sequence when two hapless stick-up artists try to rip off a local bar frequented by nothing but cops is a side-splitting classic. Cusack's partner's retirement schemes, everything from selling hot dogs at Wrigley Field to alligator farming, keep the viewer chuckling.
Chuck Norris' performance as Cusack is one of his best characterizations. Norris acts, and so well that he almost makes us forget we are watching Chuck Norris. Henry Silva, as Camacho the Colombian drug lord, is positively frightening. Many of the supporting roles are taken by recognizable mainstream character actors, and these are uniformly good.
The weak spots in CODE OF SILENCE largely involve the scripted dialogue, some of which is overly contrived ("I hate to put you on the spot"..."I spent thirty years on the spot"), and some of the performances, which are wooden and monotone ("Hi, Uncle Felix"..."You've been a bad boy, Tony" a confrontation between two Mafiosi delivered with all the dramatic force of a damp mop on a tile floor). Perhaps these watery moments wouldn't seem so bad if the rest of the film wasn't so well done.
These flaws cost the film a reviewer's star and relegate the film to "B" moviedom, although CODE OF SILENCE really rates an A Minus.
Movie Review: While the justice delays, someone has to make the dirty job!
Summary: 4 Stars
At the Seventies two well known emblematic figures such Clint Eastwood (Harry Callaghan) and Charles Bronson (Paul Kersey) knew to built the epitome of the urban hero; that anonymous and defenseless citizen who - given the well known legal allurements - decided to apply the justice according their own codes.
Chuck Norris in the early Eighties, (Stallone was in another sphere and Kurt Russell was developing an underground hero) became the heiress of this tradition, incorporating his undeniable skills in Martial Arts which allowed him for one hand, to continue a winning formula around the non sense action movies and by the other hand to engage a wide audience into the genre of the new forms of personal combat, that after the tragic death of Bruce Lee and with the irruption of the Kick Boxing, whose maxim exponent was the young Jean Claude van Damme, allowed him to interweave both genres.
Chuck Norris trajectory acquired several peaks and downs, but inside this easy going weekend movies got its goal until the early Nineties where van Damme, Schawrzeneeger, Mathias Hues, Michael Pare, Michael Dudikoff, Lorenzo Lamas, Brian Bosworth, Dolph Ludgreen, and Wesley Snipes would establish a wider spectrum of heroes.
Movie Review: CHUCK NORRIS CAN ACT.
Summary: 4 Stars
This slick 1985 thriller is proof. CODE OF SILENCE stands out from the basic cops & robbers shoot-em up pack on several fronts: It takes place in Chicago, instead of Los Angeles or NYC; The dialogue is real thanks in part to the presence of Dennis Farina and a handfull of real Chicago cops in walk on roles (especially the attempted bar holdup sequence); And you have Henry Silva in a joy ride of a role as Luis Camacho, the best film drug lord since Tony Montana. The Columbian necktie reference is memorable. Andrew Davis was already doing his homework for THE FUGITIVE (1993)with great locations and a unique camera view. B+ on this one.