I was planning to give this film a 7 until the final scene, when the bubblegum-disco credits music kicked in. Deduct 1 star for the bad taste left in my mouth."Thick as Thieves" (alternatively titled "The Code") is your standard high-tech heist film, with serious tips of the hat to "Mission Impossible" and "Ocean's 11." A number of nice plot twists along the way, some of which you'll probably see coming and some not. The obligatory 40 seconds of moderately graphic sex. (Why did I get the odd notion that the producers were trying to bump this up to an R rating but couldn't quite manage it?) And, my main reason for the high rating, exceptional performances from Morgan Freeman and Antonio Banderas.Freeman is his usual stolid self and always worth seeing, though we've all seen his persona before. But Banderas is a particular joy to watch. At least one IMDb reviewer commented that he's getting a bit old to play the wisecracking buddy-movie younger guy, but I didn't view his character that way at all. I saw a cool-headed, competent crook, still young enough to have all his abilities but aware that the tide is ebbing quickly. (Banderas was 49 when this film was released, though his character can pass for considerably less.) And he doesn't take himself seriously; watch his facial expressions, some of which are hilarious, some self-mocking, and all expressive and beautifully in character.In fact, the entire film doesn't take itself seriously; I think that's why I had such fun watching what is, at bottom, a modest, not particularly original story. The ridiculously high-tech alarm systems and burglary gadgets, the juggling of identities and motives, the light, understated script (including some wonderful scenes featuring fully expendable bad guys): The mood of the whole is simply fun. Crack a beer and enjoy it.

"The Code" or "Thick as Thieves" as it is called is a 2009 film starring Morgan Freeman, Antonio Banderas, Radha Mitchell, and Robert Forrester.The story concerns a slippery thief, Keith Ripley (Freeman), who teams up with a thief from Miami, Gabriel (Banderas) to steal antique Faberge eggs that are kept in a vault surrounded by huge security trappings at a jewelry store named Romanov's.Ripley needs to do the theft as a debt payment for his late brother, who was mixed up with a Russian mobster. He wants the eggs, and he's determined to get them. They are being watched by Lieutenant Weber, who has been trying to get Ripley for years.Freeman and Banderas didn't have much chemistry, and Freeman, of course, is capable of roles having much more depth. So both kind of glided along, Banderas using his charm, and Freeman his geniality.Derivative story with a couple of twists. A decent rental.

Generally speaking, I like Morgan Freeman, and in all honesty I guess he was OK in this. There's nothing in his performance as Keith Ripley that I could really criticize. Ripley is a professional jewel thief, who's planning to pull off the heist of the century; maybe of all time: stealing two Faberge eggs worth $20 million each from a New York City jewel dealer. In order to help him with that, he recruits a partner - Gabriel Martin (Antonio Banderas.) Banderas isn't really my favourite actor, but like Freeman, he does well enough in the role. The problem here wasn't the performances of the two leads. It was the material. It was, in short, dreadful.In the first few scenes of the movie you get a sense that this movie either wants to be a comedic sort of "heist" story or an action thriller. There are elements of both involved in those first few scenes. Or, maybe it's going to try to combine the two. I was actually intrigued after about 10 minutes to see which of those three options was going to be taken. And then - it took none of the three. After teasing us for those few minutes with what might have made a good movie, it just became a pretty standard, every day heist movie, with the Russian mafia thrown in for good measure, and a beautiful girl (Alex, played by Radha Mitchell) being considered necessary apparently.From about that 10 minute point on, I was honestly lost. I mean, not in terms of the story - that was clear enough; these guys want to steal the Faberge eggs, and Gabriel has the hots for Alex, who happens to be Ripley's god-daughter, and the daughter of one of the Russian mobster- types, while all the while the NYPD are trying to nail Ripley, even though they've been told by the FBI not to nail Ripley ... Did I say that was clear? OK. I exaggerated a bit. Truthfully, though, I wasn't really lost. I was bored. Stupefied. For most of the movie I was wondering why an accomplished actor like Morgan Freeman would take on a role in a movie like this?Then, as the end approaches, it's almost as if everybody who had anything to do with this (especially, I guess, the writers who produced the script) suddenly realized that they had quite a turkey on their hands - and so all of a sudden we're thrown twist after twist after twist, except that by this time I wasn't that interested in trying to keep track of all the twists, because I had just simply stopped caring. (2/10)

I can barely think of anything that made this movie special, and yet, I still had fun watching it. For me the plot was very entertaining even though it wasn't very great. The most I liked the little twist in the movie. I have to admit, it surprised me. While the movie had an extremely boring story in the beginning, it improved a lot after that twist. In the end Banderas looked like a loser, yet Hollywood managed to end the movie with a (almost) typical Hollywood ending. (Kind of interesting.)Banderas, nor Freeman have been exactly bad, yet, they couldn't convince me in their role as master thieves. The dialogs haven't been exactly great, yet, they managed to entertain me. Visually the movie was uninteresting. The action was pretty much non-existent. (So don't expect an action movie!) Still, the movie wasn't as bad as many other writers claimed here. There are way less inspired, less creative, more cliché- ridden and boring movies made in Hollywood these days.