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SYNOPSIS:
Val Kilmer stars with Jennifer Esposito and Gary Cole in this
explosive action-packed film about a former Special Operations
United States Marine who brings justice to a small border
town. After he's wounded during combat in Iraq MacPherson
(Kilmer) reluctantly agrees to join a fellow soldier at his
Arizona ranch. But when MacPherson arrives his friend has
mysteriously disappeared and no one will admit to knowing
him. When he discovers that a corporate entity is running
illegal aliens out of town by any means possible MacPherson
decides to get revenge and won't stop until everyone involved
has been punished for their crimes.
MOVIE
REVIEW
Top Gun probably summarizes Val Kilmer's career of
late, that he's rarely been seen as the lead in a movie these
days, and is flying as a wingman. Big screen outings
have been limited, and no doubt the modern audience of today
might find it hard
press to recall when they last saw him on the big screen.
In
Conspiracy, he stars as an ex-US Marine and a Desert Storm
veteran who's living
his life in a waking nightmare, unable to shake off the bad
memories that come part
and parcel with his service, tainted by his unit being taken
out by a suicide bomb.
His William MacPherson withdraws into a hermit's life, until
his buddy Miguel (Greg
Serano) coaxes him out to visit him in New Lago city. Reluctantly,
he visits the
town and is surprised that it resembles a film set right out
of old Western movies,
and to his surprise too that the small, closely knit community
had not heard of his
friend before.
So
the paper thin plot has him going around town trying to seek
his friend out,
while slowly unravelling that the town is nothing but a facade
for some patriots
with big money and shady government links to live out their
lives in a fantasy like
world, where the sheriffs are the law and the town ruled by
the nozzle of guns. At
times it plays out the lawlessness of the wild west, but it
pretty much resembled,
structure wise, like Dwayne The Rock Johnson's movies like
The Rundown and Walking
Tall. There's nothing too conspiring in the movie too, despite
the title, though
there are moments which seek to preach about how military
companies have their hand
in all the pies and both sides of the equation, supplying
the US government with
weapons, and also being involved in reconstruction efforts
after their bombs rain
down on property.
Here,
the villains are Halicorp the military company that is the
prime mover of the
New Lago city in building the town up using illegals and dirt-cheap
labour, helmed
at the top by the corporation's CEO and his cronies of sheriffs
and deputies who
term themselves as patriots dishing their personal brand of
the law. It takes of
course our hero to knock some sense into them, but not before
he gets pushed to the
limits and miraculously recovers from the ghosts of his wartime
past and only
requires the last 20 minutes to set things right.
I
had come to enjoy a specific Kilmer movie where he stars as
a one-man army in
Spartan, but the cheaper production values here take a little
bit of the shine off
the story, which is riddled with loopholes that even Rambo
will find no difficulty
in exploiting and dispatching his opponents with. And of course
there's a little
surprise to Kilmer's MacPherson character here which I will
not reveal, but does
give him some challenge in overcoming, and for his enemies
to exploit.
Conspiracy
doesn't take a lot of brain power to decipher its message,
if there's any well meaning message to begin with, and plays
out perfectly as a lazy Sunday matinee movie with popcorn
in hand, cold soda on table, and comfortable couch to slouch
in.
SPECIAL FEATURES :
Only Trailers are offered, featuring
mostly direct to home video market titles like The Shepherd,
Missionary Man and Pistol Whipped. The others included are
Vantage Point and up-and-coming summer movie Hancock starring
Will Smith. And since the Blu-Ray format won the high-definition
DVD war, there's also a clip to toot the horn called "Blu-ray
Disc is High Definition".
AUDIO/VISUAL:
Nothing
too fantastic in the audio and visual department with decent
anamorphic widescreen presentation for the DVD movie.
MOVIE
RATING:
 
DVD
RATING :
Review
by Stefan Shih
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