Haute trahison

My Take: Routine political thriller with mediocre action scenes and predictable twists.

A rarely seen political thriller, which made a very poor box-office response, I managed to catch THE SHADOW CONSPIRACY on TV just now, and while I was glad that I satisfied my curiosity to see this rare film, I didn't exactly feel this film was all special. Considering the box-office response to it, SHADOW CONSPIRACY is not all quite as bad as critics and the public reacted to it, but still ain't very good to begin with and everything, from script to direction, is pretty predictable. Charlie Sheen plays the presidential assistant who finds himself caught up with assassins and chases (a lot of them) when he discovers a deadly conspiracy which lurks amongst the White House staff. After a professor is murdered, Sheen aids the help of ex-flame reporter Amanda Givens (Linda Hamilton) to uncover the traitor and unlock the conspiracy of the title.

But this script, written by Adi Hasak & Ric Gibbs, are pedestrian as they come, not much differing from other White House conspiracy thrillers as in ABSOLUTE POWER and MURDER AT 1600. Some considerable talents (Donald Sutherland, Ben Gazzara and Stephen Lang) try their best on a routine script, but rarely saves it from predictability of the script. Not to mention a ludicrous scene which involves a toy helicopter, which seems far too silly and out-of-place in this "serious" political thriller. THE SHADOW CONSPIRACY has its moments I'm sure, some of which are much to under-appreciated (director George Pan Cosmatos serves up some decent chase scenes), but none of which lifts this routine thriller of which there's not much payoff or surprises.

Rating: ** out of 5.

This was the last film directed by George P. Cosmatos, a Greek born in Italy, who directed numerous Hollywood action movies and thrillers over the course of 24 years, including several with Greek settings. This one is set entirely in Washington, D.C., and it is a cracking conspiracy thriller about traitors inside the White House. The hero (who spends most of his time on the run from an assassin hired by the conspirators) is played by Charlie Sheen. Linda Hamilton plays a Washington political journalist with whom he is involved on and off, and they become co-fugitives. The dominant presence in this film, however, is that of Donald Sutherland, who acts circles round everyone else, as a security chief. Theodore Bikel has a bit part as a Russian scholar living in the USA who gets killed at the beginning of the story because he has discovered the traitors. Ben Gazzarra plays a character who stands around tables at the White House looking important and smug, but I did not understand until I looked at the credits on IMDb that he was meant to be the Vice President. The President is played by Sam Waterson, but he too is just a supporting character in the story. Gore Vidal has a fleeting bit part as a Congressman. The film contains an excess of action and not enough story. But it is very tense and 'thrilling' as a thriller should be, so it works within its genre. Charlie Sheen is very convincing as a young Special Assistant to the President who is constantly on the run because he has discovered the traitors who wish to assassinate the President. The assassin who keeps trying to kill him is played by Stephen Lang, who is absolutely terrifying, though why he wears a long white coat down to his ankles, thereby attracting a lot of attention to himself, is a mystery. (Aren't assassins supposed to be inconspicuous?) And how does he stow all of those guns under that flimsy coat? And how does he not get stopped by the police when he is shooting all those innocent bystanders in the streets like that? Oh, well, it's only a movie.

Bobby Bishop (Sheen) is a close personal advisor to the president but gets out of his depth when shots are fired at him & he learns of a sinister shadow conspiracy within the highest government that is supposed to watch & protect the president.

It's up to Charlie Sheen as Bishop to uncover what is going on & why? Sheen was still a bankable enough star here & i liked 90's Sheen in movies such as the equally awesome & underrated "Terminal Velocity" & the Eastwood Cop Thriller "The Rookie" Sheen was decent back in the day. Here Sheen plays panicked well & he's constantly on the run & the film felt similar to Will Smith's Conspiracy Thriller "Enemy of the State" but that came out later than "Shadow" here. Amongst the cast is Terminator star Linda Hamilton as the local hard-nosed reporter that teams up with Sheen & the veteran movie legend Donald Sutherland as a hugh-up government boss & is supposed to be helping Sheen get to safety!!! Also ww get an unstoppable Assassin role for the scarily intense Stephen Lang (Don't Breathe, VFW) as he pursues Sheen across a rainy Washington DC. I love the 90's look & feel of this comforting Thriller & a decent music score only helps it. There's plenty of action packed scenes that keeps the movie moving constantly & is never boring.

Shadow Conspiracy is a 90's Thriller gem that is probably completely forgotten about today & probably barely made a dent at the box office on it's release way back in 1997 but i like it alot & think it's one entertaining ride. More exciting than it's given credit for.

Also this was director George P. Cosmatos last movie, he made the Cult Classic Stallone Thriller COBRA.

Familiar plot. Familiar reaction. Just maybe, the casting pushes this action/drama through to the end. Bobby Bishop(Charlie Sheen)is a major player in Washington D.C. for he is a special assistant to the President(Sam Waterston). Bobby is given a tip that there is a covert action being put into place to overthrow the government. To find out more details he is to meet Professor Yuri Pochenko(Theodore Bikel)only to watch him be gunned down by a sniper. Bobby's mentor, Jacob Conrad(Donald Sutherland), thinks he is just over reacting. Bishop's former girlfriend Amanda Givens(Linda Hamilton)is known as a sharp investigative reporter and is more than willing to help ferret out this much rumored activity. Bishop finds himself running for his life in a chain of chaos and confusion. A Special Agent(Stephen Lang)is hell-bent on killing him before he can blow the whistle on the attack on the existing government.

Ben Gazzara plays Vice President Saxon and Gore Vidal has the role of Congressman Page. Nicholas Turturro is an expert technician in surveillance. The plot does reach a fever pitch and the action is heavy and exciting. The most believable of the cast is Lang, who seems to have unlimited lives. Sutherland's talents are wasted. Sheen may be taxing his abilities. This movie is better than you may think.

MST3K fodder. It's so bad it's actually worth seeing just for that reason. There are some hilarious things in it, such as the mysterious device the bad guy is seen working on for the whole movie, that turns out to be this tiny helicopter that flutters around carrying and firing a machine gun without so much as a wobble, but is brought down by a bag of balloons (the kind they release at political conventions). Many other wonderful touches of that sort. Stars Charlie Sheen. There's one scene where he spends five minutes recording a conversation, only to drop the microcassette in the Potomac River by accident. If they'd cast Emilio Estevez in the part that never would've happened.