I presume Wesley Snipes was at his tax trial and unavailable so Val Kilmer stepped into his shoes for this action flick. Kilmer stares a lot as an Iraq vet who goes to meet up with his buddy only to find that his buddy has disappeared and no one has heard of him. So it’s time to uncover the conspiracy and kick some butt.
Sgt. “Spooky” MacPherson (Val Kilmer) is an Iraq war veteran that has come home. He’s not a real talkative fellow and is prone to sit staring as he’s in shellshock. He keeps getting phone calls from his fellow vet Miguel (Greg Serano). We find out that Miguel saved Spooky’s life in Iraq and they spend months together in the hospital. Miguel wants him to come to Arizona and join him on his ranch and he’s prepared to call every day until MacPherson agrees to join him.
MacPherson relents and takes the bus trip to New Lago, Arizona. However, when he gets there nobody will admit to knowing Miguel. He finds that the Halicorp Company, run by John Rhodes (Gary Cole), is developing the town and may have other sinister purposes as well as having something to do with the disappearance of his friend.
Halicorp? Hmm, could they be trying to say something with that one? Well, that may be the more creative parts of the film. It’s not exactly a plot that’s anything new. Like I said, the plot seems like something that Wesley Snipes has been making lately. Val Kilmer seems a little chunky to be playing a Marine and spends most of his time staring, silent, and trying to adopt a husky “Dirty Harry” growling voice. Gary Cole chews the scenery as the sinister CEO with an obsession in creating Western towns right out of John Ford.
I guess calling him Mick Cheney would’ve been too obvious. The rest of the cast is pretty terrible and has the attitude found in films about the racial old south. There’s a tendency for the bad guys to call Spooky “boy” and generally mistreat him for no reason. He lost a leg in Iraq and in a show of rottenness they take his prosthetic leg away from him to keep him from skipping town. Ouch.
I guess somebody might enjoy all the swipes at right-wingers but they’re in such a terrible film why bother?
Conspiracy is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Special features include previews for other Sony DVDs, sadly none for Wesley Snipes vehicles.
Conspiracy is guilty of a conspiracy all right, stealing a night’s worth of entertainment from you or your hard earned rental fees. I’d never thought I’d see Val Kilmer stepping into the “poor man’s Wesley Snipes” shoes, but I guess he had to pay the bills somehow. Not worth the time, go and rent some Charles Bronson instead.
Conspiracy is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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