Codinome Banshee

I had no expectations to the 2022 action thriller "Code Name Banshee" from writer Matthew Rogers and director Jon Keeyes as I sat down to watch it. In fact, I had never heard about the movie prior to sitting down to watch it. But I figured that it might be worth a watch.

The storyline in "Code Name Banshee" was a bit too bland and monotonous to really fall into my liking. There simply wasn't enough happening to keep the momentum going. So it was a rather generic and dull experience sitting through this. Sure, there were a few gun fight scenes throughout the movie, but it was simply drowned out in a tirade of slow paced narrative and monotonous dialogue.

I figured that the movie might have had some worth to it since it had both Antonio Banderas and Jaime King on the cast list. Turned out that I was not right in my assumption. "Code Name Banshee" felt like one of those numerous movies that Bruce Willis has been showing up in throughout the many last years; not really worth the effort. And not even Tommy Flanagan could manage to lift up the movie much.

For an action thriller, then "Code Name Banshee" was rather short on both action and thrills. So director Jon Keeyes didn't really deliver a movie that managed to stand out and prove to be overly entertaining or enjoyable. Yet, I managed to endure the movie to the end, though it was my one and only time to do so. Believe you me, I am never returning to watch this movie again, as it was too slow paced and devoid of interesting events.

My rating of "Code Name Banshee" lands on a generous four out of ten stars.

I'm not sure when it happened, but movies just got really bad over the past few years. Even before covid and the obvious budget cuts. Maybe it was superhero movies that just turned everything into low budget, low effort crap.

What a shame to see someone like Antonio Banderas be reduced to this after his 90s hits.

1 star for a few decent shot compositions and Banderas.

I came across this movie totally by accident, and although the cast looked impressive (particularly with Banderas) the recent stream of appalling movies with actors like Willis, Cage and a handful of others meant I was guarded (at best) on its prospects for being decent... and as it turns out my scepticism was completely warranted.

Banderas is as always accomplished, and! Puts his heart into his work delivering a solid performance as you'd expect, but he can't carry this one (no single actor could) since on the whole the movie just fails to deliver on so many fronts.

It's really a pale shadow of the story it should be offering an insufficient level of suspense, dialogue, story, action and overall engagement to pull off a film of this genre. In fact, the overall experience is a little like the title, underwhelming and somewhat misleading.

One of the major problems is with the lead played by Jamie King. She is seriously miscast here and hasn't the on-screen presence, the physical dexterity, or the acting capability to pull this one off, and what she lacks she does in some considerable measure.

I love strong female characters, but if you're selling me one, make it authentic and not some Poundland or Wallmart alternative. Her inability to hold a gun steady is a glaringly obvious disaster even for a casual observer, but the choreography she delivers in the fight scenes had me doubting if she could successfully even take on my eighty three year old grandmother, who is a specialist in her own right with a wooden spoon. That said, she isn't the sole cause of the films failure to deliver, just another aspect of one of the many facets that wasn't addressed sufficiently.

There is no excitement here, just another mediocre delivery to pass time or have on in the background and even though I made it to the end, I don't recommend it.

Who selected these actors, and why does Banderas do this garbage? He can clearly do that better.

The main actress should consider whether she wants to continue playing at the level, or should rather take on easier roles. She holds the weapon like a beginner and embodies the assassin very badly. The close combat scenes were hidden in the dark. Were you so bad that this was necessary?

Tiresome dialogue, weak action performed by underprepared actors. If you can't hold an automatic at arms length without shaking, you may not want to portray a seasoned assassin. Just saying. Antonio Banderas should have passed on this one. His part in Stallone's "Expendables" was 10 times better than his character in this one. Just sad.

I gave it 2 stars only because it did have Banderas in it and the short preview I saw looked promising. Fool me once and all that... I'll never get the time or my $9 back on this one. Wish I'd checked these reviews first.

And why do they require a minimum of 600 characters in these reviews? In this case I'm forced to ramble on much longer than needed.