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.

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.

1st watched 2/25/2002 - 4 out of 10(Dir-George P. Cosmatos): Predictable action thriller where any frequent movie goer could guess what was coming next. Charlie Sheen is the good old boy to the President who just happens to be not liked by the rest of the presidential staff. Of course, he gets involved in a situation where he's framed over and over again and he has one friend in the White House, played by Sutherland, who naturally doesn't stay that way for very long. His other friend is a reporter played by Linda Hamilton(who has very little to do or say in this meaningless role), and of course his biggest and bestest friend is the President himself(Sam Waterston) who stays his pal till the end despite everyone else being killed around him. Brainless yet action-packed meaningless trife despite loads and loads of acting talent(all pretty much wasted.)

One wonders how did this screen play got to be made into a thriller movie. The writers had no clue into the many holes they were creating in a story so predictable as this. At the same time, one has to question the studio as to why this movie was approved. The director George Cosmatos must have a more clout among the Hollywood bigwigs than we can think.

I never saw this film when it had a commercial run. It was recently shown on cable, and not having anything better to watch, decided to take a chance. Wow, it's that bad.

The film could have used a more likable hero than Bobby Bishop, blandly played by Charlie Sheen, who whispers his lines incomprehensibly. The pairing of Linda Hamilton with Sheen doesn't add anything to the movie. Donald Sutherland must have a lot to explain to his friends in how he accepted to appear in this picture.