Codice criminale

I had heard about this movie a few years ago, yet I was never able to find it on video. After all but giving up on seeing it, I found it on PPV one day. Without hesitation, I purchased it. I wasn't expecting much from the movie, but being a Charlie Sheen fan, I thought that it was at least worth a viewing.

I was pleasantly surprised while I was watching it. Now, make no bones about it, this movie won't win any awards and Charlie Sheen is certainly no Tom Hanks, but the material and the stars are a good match. (Although Mark Dacascos is sadly underused.)

Some good action sequences and a strong subplot involving Sheen's relationship with his estranged wife and daughter as well as his father make for a well rounded "B" action film. This is the movie that redeemed Sheen in my eyes after the debacle that was "Free Money".

At just over an hour and a half, the film doesn't overstay it's welcome, and a few comical moments spread throughout the movie are welcome. Overall, on a scale of 1 - 10 (1 being "Hanging Up" and 10 being "Gone in Sixty Seconds), "No Code of Conduct" rates an 8.

This should have been a good film. Fine actors, a fair story line, violence and guns a plenty.

I hope no-one in Law Enforcement sees this one.

How did the Sheens get their police jobs? Incompetent doesn't describe their performances. I'm a big fan of shootouts, especially the John Woo style with vast expenditure of ammunition, but these were insultingly bad.

Charlie does justify his appalling aim in a scene with his wife where he tells her that he is coming home to his family rather than spending time at the firing range. (He should have spent half the film there if you ask me)

There is a scene where it occurs to me that someone had reduced the powder loads in their ammunition to the point that they bounce off car body panels at 5 metres. (This also explains why the guns jam, there isn't enough power to work the action)

I could have done better. Even I could hit a van at 5 metres!

Watching this will have you squirming with embarrassment for the Sheens, and wanting to help them shorten the film by an hour by actually aiming at things.

Charlie Sheen plays a hot shot, trigger happy cop who's trying to stop a violent criminal gang from smuggling millions of dollars worth of heroin from Mexico.

If you have a soft spot for B-action movies then this is definitely watchable but it's still a pretty bad movie. The editing is terrible with some quick cuts which don't make much sense and there's a very silly "Shoosh!" sound during nearly every scene transition. Some of the acting is pretty bad too especially the actress who plays Sheen's wife, she wasn't great. The action is pretty good though.

There's one shot where a car crashes and rolls multiple times while Sheen is running along side it shooting at bad guys which was actually really cool and there's some nice old school blood squibs.

I think it would have been much better with a different director.

STAR RATING:*****Unmissable****Very Good***Okay**You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead*Avoid At All Costs

The age old aidage of never trust a book by it's cover is definitely the case with No Code of Conduct,a ploddingly formulaic DTV actioner with misleading pretensions of being anything but.

The plot has a good looking,well groomed Charlie Sheen as cop Jake Peterson who,along with his father Bill (Martin Sheen) and partner Paul DeLucca (Mark Dacascoes) becomes embroiled in a plot to take down some drug dealers.

I had the DVD of the film lying around my house for ages and put it at the back with all the other stuff I have to watch.But after a while,the front and back cover,featuring all manner of explosions,gunfire and well suited action characters,not to mention an exhilarating plotline,began to wet my appetite like the prospect of a double quarter pounder meal at McDonalds.Sure,it was an obviously straight to video effort,and as such probably had the production values to match,but,all the same...

Oh,how I was to be disappointed.

The 'thrilling' action sequences are practically non-existent and what little action there is fails to generate any excitement whatsoever.The story is riddled with buddy-buddy cop thriller cliches and Sheen's character is promoted as the standard 'cop-who-doesn't-play-by-the-rules' hero,but he does little throughout to make us think he is a renegade in any way or that he has any sort of problem with authority.**

This was a very disappointing film. I expect a lot more from Martin Sheen. The plot was week. Oh, and the long winded lectures from "bad guys" justifying their actions...give me a break. The producers slapped the name SHEEN on the title and didn't pay attention to the story line.