The Code
Columbia Pictures | Release Date: February 13, 2004 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
44
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 13 Critic Reviews
Positive:
3
Mixed:
7
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
The atmospheric, richly detailed La Mentale has terrific vitality with its volatile mixture of alternating camaraderie and savagery. Read full review
70
L.A. WeeklyJon Strickland
If the plot comes off more like a reworking of Scorsese’s tales of Italian-American mobsters, Boursinhac nevertheless shows a sure hand with his story, lingering on the handsome, lost face of Dris as his world falls apart around him. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Doesn't have much time for refinement of image or elegance of plot. What it's got instead is an insider's feel for the local, excitable hoodlum life and speech. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
It might seem as though there is nothing new to be done with the crime thriller, but The Code (La Mentale), directed by Manuel Boursinhac and written by Bibi Naceri, provides a new twist. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterSheri Linden
Although it offers no new angles on the story engines of loyalty and revenge, the French film boasts an intriguing milieu and the off-center, hair-trigger intensity of Samy Naceri as a crime boss. Read full review
60
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
Boursinhac and Bibi Naceri throw all the usual elements into the pot: Economic inequality, ethnic tensions, feverish family ties and the titular criminal code, which everyone invokes and everyone agrees is a load of claptrap. Read full review
50
VarietyRonnie Scheib
Gallic gangster actioner fuses many disparate generic and stylistic conventions, but, although script by co-star Samy Naceri's brother was purportedly pared down from several hundred pages, it still bears the weight of its pretensions. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
Interestingly, though, the actor who plays Yanis is a dead ringer (despite the scowl) for Adam Sandler. That's surely an effect director Manuel Boursinhac didn't intend. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleCarla Meyer
Light on inner conflict and heavy on cliches. Read full review
40
Village VoiceDavid Ng
While Melville's films strike a pose of ironic bloodlessness, The Code attends to a thick stew of (soap-) operatic emotion, turning each internecine skirmish into an occasion for melodramatic brooding. Melville once described his films as comedies; The Code, unfortunately, knows no such wit. Read full review
30
The New York TimesDave Kehr
Probably should have stayed on a shelf back in Paris. Read full review
25
New York PostLou Lumenick
A boring and violent French crime thriller, is the sort of routine potboiler that generally goes straight to video in this country, if it's seen at all. Read full review
20
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
Choose to pass this one up.
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