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Thick as Thieves
Thick as Thieves
	DVD cover
Directed by	Mimi Leder
Written by	Ted Humphrey
Produced by	Randall Emmett; Danny Lerner; Lori McCreary; Les Weldon;
Starring	Morgan Freeman; Antonio Banderas; Radha Mitchell; Tom Hardy; Marcel Iureș;
Cinematography	Julio Macat
Edited by	Martin Nicholson
Music by	Atli Örvarsson
Production; companies	Millennium Films; Emmett/Furla Films; Revelations Entertainment; Grosvenor Park Productions; Equity Pictures;
Distributed by	First Look International
Release date	April 17, 2009;
Running time	104 minutes
Countries	United States; Germany;
Language	English
Budget	$25 million

Thick as Thieves (also known as The Code) is a 2009 American/German heist action thriller film directed by Mimi Leder, starring Morgan Freeman, Antonio Banderas, and Radha Mitchell.^[2] The film was released direct-to-DVD on April 17, 2009 in the United States and on October 18, 2010 in Germany.

Plot

In New York, veteran thief Keith Ripley recruits younger crook Gabriel Martin to help him pull off one final job in order to repay his debt to the Russian mafia, who had killed his previous partner, Victor Korolenko, before they could complete the plan. Martin is unsure of Ripley, but Ripley's goddaughter, Alexandra Korolenko, who is Victor's daughter, convinces him otherwise, although Ripley does not like that the two are getting close. Ripley tells Martin the plan, that they are going to steal from a Russian museum that has been smuggling Russian treasures into the country and bribing the NYPD with large donations and expensive equipment. The two infiltrate a party at the museum posing as cops, with Ripley as Lt. Weber, who has a vendetta against Ripley, to gather information about their vault.

The Russian mob, led by Nicky Petrovitch, grow impatient and kidnap Alexandra, telling Ripley he must steal two Fabergé eggs from the Russian Museum in order to get her back. When the duo get into the vaults of the museum with the eggs, Martin reveals he is an undercover cop from Miami planted by Weber to catch Ripley, leaves Ripley locked in the vault and informs Weber, while taking the eggs to the Russian mobster to free Alexandra. After Alexandra is released, Martin is forced to meet with Petrovitch, who reveals that the eggs they have stolen are made of wood. Meanwhile, Weber and his squad enter the museum, but are detained by the security guards due to Martin telling the guards he was a cop as he escaped.

Martin reports in to the police the next morning, after the police have picked up Petrovitch, only to learn that the man they have in custody is not the man Martin met, and that the man he met was actually Victor Korolenko, who had faked his death with Ripley's help. It is then revealed that Ripley had escaped, letting the museum know cops were on the way and that they had cleaned out the vault of all the smuggled items (which had included the eggs) before the police could inspect it, meaning there was no evidence that anything had been stolen and that Martin's testimony would be worthless as his actions have been kept off the book to prevent Ripley from finding out. Martin's involvement with Alex compromises him, and Ripley had to be let go.

Ripley later calls Martin from an airport tarmac, ready to leave with Victor to meet with a buyer for the eggs; to tell him that they knew Martin was a cop from the beginning. Martin later meets up with Alex, who remained in New York, and who confesses that her feelings for him are real. Martin decides to become a thief.

Cast

Morgan Freeman as Keith Ripley
Antonio Banderas as Gabriel Martin
Radha Mitchell as Alexandra Korolenko
Robert Forster as Lt. Samuel Weber
Rade Šerbedžija as Nicky Petrovitch / Viktor Korolenko
Marcel Iureş as Vitaly Zykov
Tom Hardy as Det. Michaels
Corey Johnson as Det. Voutiritas
Asen Blatechki as Russian Gangster
Marianna Stanicheva as Madame Irina
Vladimir Kolev as Andrei
Stefan Shterev as Georgi
Constantine Gregory as Boris Sergeev

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 20% based on reviews from 5 critics.^[3]

David Nusair of Reel Film Reviews gave the film 2.5/4 and called it "...a hopelessly uneven endeavor that's consistently buoyed by Freeman's mere presence...".^[4]

Dragan Antulov of Draxblog Movie Reviews gave it 3/10 and wrote: "The sadness created by this film could be cured only by its quick descent in well-deserved oblivion."^[5] Jason McKiernan at Filmcritic.com called it "sloppy, lazy, and unable to keep up with its own con."^[6] David Cornelius at DVDTalk.com wrote: "Don't let the big names fool you: The Code is limp enough a thriller to deserve the direct-to-video treatment it's received."^[7]

References

^ "THICK AS THIEVES". British Board of Film Classification. Archived from the original on 2020-01-25. Retrieved 2020-01-25.
^ McNary, Dave (2007-10-07). "Radha Mitchell set for 'Code'". Variety.
^ "Thick as Thieves (The Code) (2009)". Rotten Tomatoes. Archived from the original on 2019-04-02. Retrieved 2020-10-10.
^ "The Films of Mimi Leder - Reviews by David Nusair". reelfilm.com. Archived from the original on 2020-07-10. Retrieved 2020-01-25.
^ Dragan Antulov (2 November 2009). "Thick as Thieves (2009)". Draxblog Film Reviews. Archived from the original on 11 May 2020. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
^ "The Code Movie Review, DVD Release - Filmcritic.com". www.filmcritic.com. Archived from the original on 5 September 2009. Retrieved 15 January 2022.
^ David Cornelius. "The Code". DVD Talk. Archived from the original on 2020-08-14. Retrieved 2020-01-25.