Code 37 takes the surprising step of finishing the continuing plot line from the TV series (who raped Hannah Maes' mother and why) in a movie, rather than in a season finale. But in order to provide a 'normal' movie experience, the writers have bolted this onto a standalone case - which has NOTHING to do with the rape-mystery. So on the one hand we have Hannah (Veerle Baetens who overacts like crazy) and her three diminutive chums (Michael Pas, Marc Lauwrys and Gilles Deschrijvere) looking into the assault on a crazy writer who has had a sexual encounter with a young prostitute in a porn cinema. The assault is later followed by a murder and another violent attack, always on people who are associated with the prostitute (Maaike Neuville in a dreary and thankless role) and her 14-year old sister who's also started to go on the game. And Hannah meets an old flame who now runs a big bad nightclub in Ghent, and who happens to be the uncle of both girls.
Never mind that Hannah as a vice cop would never have been put on the assault and battery case. Never mind that the cops are dumber than the audience by a mile (the 'mystery' is so predictable and shallow that you guess it by the half-way mark). Never mind that the solution to the continuing plot line is so uninteresting and unexciting that it's a mystery why this was reserved for a movie. What's so sad is that this is nothing more than a bad episode of a TV series, with a TV-series aesthetic (flashy but claustrophobic), there's no extra spectacle, not a second of true suspense or emotional attachment to any of the characters. It isn't even racier than the TV series (which goes pretty far for a mainstream show at times). Truly dreadful.
Never mind that Hannah as a vice cop would never have been put on the assault and battery case. Never mind that the cops are dumber than the audience by a mile (the 'mystery' is so predictable and shallow that you guess it by the half-way mark). Never mind that the solution to the continuing plot line is so uninteresting and unexciting that it's a mystery why this was reserved for a movie. What's so sad is that this is nothing more than a bad episode of a TV series, with a TV-series aesthetic (flashy but claustrophobic), there's no extra spectacle, not a second of true suspense or emotional attachment to any of the characters. It isn't even racier than the TV series (which goes pretty far for a mainstream show at times). Truly dreadful.