Code 8 (2019)

May 15, 2020 3:19 AM

A super-powered construction worker falls in with a group of criminals in order to raise the funds to help his ill mother. Starting Stephen Amell from Arrow, Robbie Amell from The Flash / Upload / X-Files, Sung Kang from several Fast and Furiouses, and a murderer's row of Canadian speculative fiction actors.
posted by rednikki (7 comments total)

I went in expecting a cheesy, campy superhero movie and got way more than that. This film was surprisingly nuanced. Stephen Amell was exactly what the role required, and has better acting chops than I gave him credit for. Robbie Amell makes you feel for him. Sung Kang is a glowing ball of charisma. Plus, there were a bunch of Canadian actors playing roles that were different from how I normally see them. It didn't default to an easy or happy ending. They built an interesting, complex world. I would definitely recommend this one
posted by rednikki at 3:24 AM on May 15, 2020 [1 favorite]

Yeah, that was different and way better than I expected.

Martin Roach works. That guy must not have had a day off for 20 years. He's in everything.

Fun seeing a bunch of Canadian sci-fi actors getting to stretch their legs a bit.

I'm really glad they didn't glam Nia up or force a romantic angle.

The opening montage did an excellent job of setting up the world conditions without saddling the actors with a lot of clunky exposition.

Definitely a solid, well thought-out movie. Much better than I expected.
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 3:35 AM on May 15, 2020

Code 8 is streaming in the US via Netflix.
posted by Etrigan at 4:26 AM on May 15, 2020

Yeah I liked this a whole lot more than I expected. Very meticulous world building without over-exposition. All those years on Arrow clearly allowed Stephen Amell to harness his emotions in acting, and he worked very well here. I couldn't help but see shades of Oliver Queen, but when you've put that character through everything in 8 years, it's hard to find something unique for Amell to do without hints of that show. Robbie Amell did great too. He's a great genre actor, with Tomorrow People and The Flash under his belt.

I would love it if there was either trilogy or even a miniseries based on this world. It's a unique idea that people with powers are the oppressed.
posted by numaner at 1:51 PM on May 15, 2020 [1 favorite]

>It's a unique idea that people with powers are the oppressed.
if you liked this, you'll like the character Magneto from Marvell's X-Men.

I enjoyed it, but spent most of this movie wanting to shout at the screen "why didn't they unionize, why don't they have political representation, why aren't super neighbourhoods close-knit ghettos?”
posted by k3ninho at 12:06 AM on May 17, 2020 [1 favorite]

uff wow I was expecting more from how you were all talking about it! There is a strange nice of Netflix movies - better than the old "straight to DVD" movie, maybe about the same quality as a Syfy original miniseries?

I will say this for it - they put all the pieces in the right place using really standard dialogue and plotting, but they did so in a way that told a slightly different story than I've seen.
posted by rebent at 8:51 PM on May 17, 2020

I enjoyed it, but it felt a lot like a full season of a television series that was condensed into a movie.
posted by Scattercat at 2:15 AM on May 18, 2020 [1 favorite]