The Numbers Station

I saw that this movie only scored 5.4 on IMDb and I wanted to quickly write that it's a whole lot better than that. The movie kept me interested from start to finish. It doesn't slow down appreciably at any point. There isn't an overwhelming amount of action but there is a tense atmosphere throughout. The location is also great. A moody, grey numbers station right out in the middle of nowhere. But the main reason for watching this movie is Cusack who perfectly plays the loner, haunted, tough guy, with a conscience. He's supremely watchable in every frame. In fact, Cusack plays these types of characters better than anything else. He has that suitably detached, dangerous look, down to a tee. He also does ambiguity very well. All of this is displayed really well in the movie. Ackerman is also well cast as the enthusiastic, smart code girl.

i enjoyed it!

the story was pretty well told. the background of John Cusack's character was well revealed, so we can better understand his motives and feelings during the unfolding action, the female character was somewhat underdeveloped i think, not that it impacts the story much, but we could have gotten some flashbacks on how she ended up in the station as well, not only in words - but thats all minor mumblings

although it may seem to some as a 'B' rated movie - it is a much, much better than that, you can easily tell that much effort has been put in this movie by a serious team

7/10

I must admit I was pleasantly surprised by The Numbers Station. Going on John Cusack's recent venture into silly, inconsequential direct to video thrillers without depth or heft, I expected a mind numbing cash grab with his moniker shamelessly plastered in pre title billing. I only watched it for a couple of actors I really enjoy, and what I got was thoroughly fun, slow burning spy thriller that took its time, built the characters and focused on mood and story instead of just action filler. During and after the Cold War, Numerous 'Numbers Stations' were planted all over Europe, facilities where operatives would reside, broadcasting codes in the form of random sequences of digits, all over the region to various agents, who would read them, and carry out the orders embedded within. Cusack's plays a disgraced agent who is assigned to accompany a coder (Malin Ackerman) to a remote station, and protect her and the premises. They arrive and are immediately at odds with each other. Ackerman is a rookie spook with idealistic values and a sunshiny demeanour that irks Cusack right off the bat. He has acres of tragedy behind him, curdling his personality into a jaded, hangdog presence, essentially just wearily carrying out the motions with listless resignation. The script wisely gives them time to bicker about their differences, learn a bit about each other and form a shaky bond before the inevitable conflict rears its head, in the form of a rogue special ops unit led by a determined psychopath (Richard Brake). Their aim is to hijack the numbers stations broadcasting capabilities and send out codes of their own containing orders to do God knows what. It's up to Cusack to prevent this, giving him new purpose. The underrated Liam Cunningham briefly shows up as Cusack's morally bankrupt partner who ends up having a crisis of conscience, and portrays it really well as only Cunnningham can do. It's not a movie to rave about, but it's a solid, moody thriller for lovers of the genre, perfect for a lazy rainy night.

I won't try and stretch your credulity by saying this is a must see movie. You could give it a miss and your life will be just the same as if you saw it. However... It really isn't a bad little flick if you can get past the misleading posters, etc. They say "Action Movie" and the reality is that it is a character piece. A definite case of poor marketing.

John Cusack plays a burnt out CIA black ops guy that is assigned to watch over Malin Akerman after screwing up a job. The movie is more about him confronting his demons than about fighting off some nameless terrorist types. He does a decent and believable job.

Malin Akerman's character is somewhat under-developed. Her acting wasn't terrible, I just think the role could have been better written. I just couldn't seem to care all that much about whether she lived through it.

The one really jarring note was the location. It is supposed to be a remote secret base, but they used one of the many former air bases scattered through England as the setting. The thing is none of those bases are all that remote and it is a large complex with bunkers and electric gates and crap like that which kind of sticks out like a sore thumb. They would have done better to set it on an island off Scotland or something.

Over all it was worth seeing but it's better to rent than to buy.

well, guys who gave low scores for this movie better getting off their high horses and at least having some solid feelings where they stood. this movie actually is quite watchable and i wouldn't mind telling you that i'm one of the arrogant, cynical, and hair-splitting picky guys who never had patience to any and all kinda bad movies, yet this one surprisingly surpassed my expectation. john cusack looked quite old in this film, his hairs looked quite stiff and unnatural due to so much hair dye was used that had made his hairs looked so disgusting. his facial features also looked quite messy.....but he did a great job here and malin akeman also performed so well. the screenplay was well crafted and the "panic room" replaced by some military bunker was also not bad at all. this film looked quite low budget but never gave you a B movie feeling and it's quite smart to have limited money well spent and turned a film into a quite watchable suspenseful one. if you by any chance want to watch a film without being foolish and make your money worthwhile, then watch this one, at least it won't let you down too much.