"Code Name: Dancer" gets the most important ingredient right: the lead. I was totally captivated by every moment Kate Capshaw was on the screen. It's a strong female role, and Capshaw invests herself in it. Where the movie disappoints is the action itself - there is hardly any of it. You can see how, after this initial story introducing the character (and letting her rather douchey husband in on "her secret life"), the stage was set for further and bigger adventures. And in fact the ending of "Code Name: Dancer" suggests that this movie might have been conceived as the pilot for a new TV show about this back-from-retirement female spy who is good with guns, languages, disguises, tailing, etc. In reality, 14 more years had to pass before a similar - and more advanced - TV show finally aired: "Alias". But this was a noble try. **1/2 out of 4.

This film starts out with Kate Capshaw, (Annie) playing the role as a wife and school teacher to a loving husband who is very much in love with his wife. However, Annie has a very secret past and was involved with the CIA in Cuba and speaks excellent Spanish and has had lots of lovers as part of her past life. After six years of marriage, all of a sudden Annie receives a telephone call telling her that Dancer needs her help and wants her to go to Cuba. Gregory Sierra, (Vic The Dancer Pena) plays the role as a friend of Annie who saved her life when she was working as a CIA Agent. There is plenty of romantic scenes and I would not call this a thriller, but a very well acted film with plenty of flashbacks that jump back and forth. Kate Capshaw and Jeroen Krabbe gave outstanding performances.

I admit I liked this guilty pleasure. The plot is a little hard to follow because it jumps back and forth in time and everyone looks the same in all times. All the sets looked like they we're shoot in the 'burbs of Miami, not in Cuba. Also everyone was supposed to be Cuban; Kate Capshaw was about as white as they come in this film.Putting those fopas aside, the story is a fairly complex affair that spans 8+ years. It involved a spy who got out of 'The Company' many years before. Now Dancer, a fellow spy, has collected on a favor of saving the leads' life some years in the past.Decent camera work, mildly compelling story, good acting, and good sound led to an enjoyable Monday night flick. Just don't expect this to be the next James Bond. After all, I did get the film as a double feature in a $1 bargain bin.BTW: I did learn a couple of things in this film: Cubans can hotwire anything (a quote from the movie) and Russian spy's are very slow and can't aim worth a darn.

I purchased several DVDs from an overstock store for less than two bucks apiece. The back of the cover for this DVD promised a Cuban spy story. I did not realize until later that this was a TV movie. I think it was shot directly to video because the projected image (6' horizontal, 4:3) was quite poor and did not compare to the image from a DVD made under more modern processes. The poor quality of the video was overshadowed by an excellent cast, a very decent story line and great direction and production. This reminds me of Alfred Hitchcock's "Topaz" where the American agent goes into Cuba to get information on the Russians. He has to depend on an old flame to help him out.If you like spy stories and watch this on a screen no larger than 27" you will probably enjoy it as well as I did if not more. There seems to me that there is a real shortage of spy stories out on DVD. I eat them up.