Conspiration

Enough said. People say that this is a rip-off of Eagle Eye. And people say that Eagle Eye is a rip-off of other movies. Echelon Conspiracy, renamed in Singapore as The Conspiracy, may be a rip-off but it does not mean that it cannot entertain. I was entertained by it. The Conspiracy has its own plot but the main idea is from Eagle Eye. It is suspenseful at times as it nears the mild twist.

The story: The pace is okay. I feel that it could be cut short on some points but anyway, the middle part caught up with the pace. The acting is a bit awkward with some of their priceless expressions. The music is quite good. This is more into a thriller than an action movie so hard-core action fans might be disappointed as it is under the action category. It had misled me into thinking that there should be a reasonable amount of action. It may look like it is a direct-to-DVD movie but it is a lot better than some direct-to-DVD movies.

Overall: It is not as bad as what a lot of people said. Definitely not the worst movie for me. At least, this tries to be fun. Some movies like recent spoof movies, you can clearly see that there is no effort taken to make the movies. People who like Eagle Eye and cannot get enough of the story, should catch this.

And that's not necessarily a bad thing. After all, let's not pretend Eagle eye was particularly original. It was essentially a warmed over version of Enemy Of The State which was probably based on some other movie I've never seen. Basically what you've got is you're super paranoid information state super computer run amok strategy here. And for the budget it actually works pretty well. The budget is far from shoe-string, but you're not going to see a national deficit's worth of special effects like you did in the two aforementioned films. Let's just all be happy this film proves that there is something that Michael Bay CAN'T get his hands on (and more than like ruin...Friday the 13th,anyone?), shall we?

The performances are all fine if not somewhat forgettable. Ving Rames succeeded once again in annoying the crap out of me, but that's nothing new. Martin Sheen is an amazingly easy replacement for Jon Voigt (who played essentially the same character in Enemy Of The State). You know, the somewhat power mad head of any given 3 letter intelligence organization (CIA, FBI, FSB, KGB, CBS, etc.) who realizes the error of his ways after everything heads south. Well...maybe not so much for Sheen, but what do you expect? The guy takes the weirdest projects. In any event, Tamara Feldman does fine as the amazingly hot but somewhat pointless love interest/double agent/tougher-than-she-looks chick. If I had one major complaint about the whole thing, it's got to be the simply massive suspension of disbelief required for all but the most hardcore of the tin foil hat crowd. While I too am concerned about the amount of surveillance used by the US government, I am not worried about being tracked by literally everything with a lens. I am well aware that not every single CCTV, traffic, bank, and security camera is accessible by anyone with an internet connection. That's why it's called CCTV...because it's CLOSED CIRCUIT. And since when do Russian hackers have technology that can get the job done better than a multi-billion dollar agency like the NSA? Whatever. It's still not a bad way to kill 100 minutes of your life. Could've used a bigger budget, but it does fine with what it has. Now if I could just figure out who's dumb enough to do anything a text message tells them I'll be set.

This film got a 5 out of me, because in the end I realized this movie is a lower budget, straight to DVD version of other movies in its genre and subject matter. The film itself seemed hastily put together with what scenes they shot to muster up a simple and digestible, even if disagreeable film.

The Pros: I'll name these first to be kind. -Story and characters make sense... more on this later. -It's international, but mostly American. They travel around the world (or so they say in the film but mostly in Prague, Moscow and somewhere in the US).

The Cons: -Too many holes and unanswered questions in the script and story line. -The main character lacks intelligent initiative. -The script itself is lacking in many areas and just assumes things without presenting them to the audience. -They give too much credit to the computer and to the characters without establishing any premise.

Straight to DVD in my opinion and not worth a watch in the theater. However the premise and subject matter is somewhat realistic with the findings of Ghostnet and other information gathering computer attacks found by Canadian and US university researchers.

Max (West) a computer security installer gets telephone messages telling him when to play blackjack at a casino and wins. The messages keep coming everywhere he goes. Who is sending these messages? The casino and the FBI are concerned. The previous recipients of those messages have all died. Max is concerned too.

This movie is like War Games 1, and EagleEye. Very good, suspenseful, keeps you guessing and moves at a good pace. The acting by all is excellent. It's a good story. Not much in the way of stunts or CGI, but it keeps you engaged.

I believe that most of you know what Echelon is all about. It's real, but in this story who is using Echelon to send the messages? Do I hear the word "conspiracy?" Inquiring minds, you see.

Now, I couldn't help noticing that Shane West bears some resemblance to the actor who played Doogie Howser (character in the TV show: Doogie Howser, MD). And, also Edward Burns does resemble Brian Williams (TV News Anchor) somewhat. If you look hard enough at someone you will see yourself in there. Try it. Got to look hard though. Of course, some make it easy to look like someone else because they do. Ha ha.

Anyway, all is good and worth the price of admission or DVD rental

Violence: Yes. Sex: No. Nudity: No. Language: One F-bomb was heard

Man, I cannot believe how so MANY here just stupidly mention things in their summary COMPLETELY giving away a VERY major plot point in this movie. Thank GOODNESS I didn't read any of these before watching the film or it would have totally ruined it for me...

Idiots...

Anyway, you won't get that here... There are indeed other films that really remind me of this one, but I have enough sense NOT to mention them here so as not to spoil anything for you.

Not a whole lot to say that hasn't already been said by others here. I fully enjoyed the movie. Sure, it wasn't exactly the most polished film out there, and there are some slightly awkward sequences of dialog and plot progression. The acting is not stellar, but it is okay with the script they had to work with. I really like Ed Burns and I also enjoyed the story because I like these types of themes. BUT... with that said, there ARE other films out there that tell this kind of story better.

It helps if you can forgive some of the clunky dialog and character interactions and just concentrate more on the action and story. Without giving anything away, I DO have to tell you something that I thought was kind of funny and probably a bit corny, but I have a soft spot in my heart for this. Towards the end, there is a Classic Captain Kirk moment. I won't say any more, but those of you who like the Original Star Trek Series will know exactly what I mean.

So, we are definitely not dealing with Oscar material here and there have quite honestly been other movies about this subject that are far better, but if you don't take it too seriously or expect it to be of full-on 'BOURNE' or 'MISSION IMPOSSIBLE' caliber, then I think there's a good chance that you can just sit back and have fun watching this.

I DID give it a '7', which is probably a little generous. Maybe around a 6.5 might be a bit more accurate...