Conspiracy (2008)

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.System Requirements:Run Time: 90 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE/CRIME Rating: R UPC: 043396228092 Manufacturer No: 22809 Product Description

 Funny Piece of Garbage
This movie was down right horrible but it was funny cause it was so bad. Val Kilmer is washed up and I don't mean his character. Gary Cole is the only 'real' actor in the movie that even acts like he is trying. The movie is so heavy handed in its left wing politics that it is hysterical. 'Halicorp' is the bad corporation. And it is so obvious that it is a schlock remake of Bad Day At Black Rock. I laughed a lot during the movie cause it was just so ridiculous and horrible. May 11, 2008

 The cripled hero over comes
Sometimes we really do need a hero.
In this case a very unlikely one of a marine
with one leg, hearing loss and a severe head ache!
Val Kilmer is over weight and plays the role as a method actor.
The bad guy is just the same guy as in most westerns.
I give it four stars mostly for political attitude
and the guts to have it during the Bush years. April 19, 2008

 It's Not a Conspiracy!
This movie vanished without a trace--but it's not a conspiracy. It's just no blockbuster. Adding to what has already been written above: Kilmer plays "MacPherson", an Iraq war veteran (I wasn't even sure which Iraq war he was in, but does it really matter? Presumably it was the latest one). His unit gets hit by an explosive device in a particularly nasty fashion, a bunch of men die and others are badly injured. He and another man spend months recuperating and become best friends. He returns home (somewhere in CA I think) and has PTSD. Friend keeps bugging him to come down to AZ. Finally he goes down, only to find said friend gone, and nobody admits to having heard of him, or that his address even existed. Meanwhile the only news in this 2-bit town is all the new construction going on by--like the man above said--Halicorp. Yes the bad guy is sort of a cross between Cheney and Erik Prince or something. He's virulently xenophobic but there must be more than that going on in his plans (exactly what is never quite made clear) because his construction project seems pretty big.
Well this really isn't much of an action film--it starts slowly and then--well kinda stays slow because Val Kilmer just isn't an action hero anyhow. The best we get is some closeups of his face changing emotion as he somehow transforms from a PTSD wracked vet going nowhere, to a man with a mission again--to figure out what happened to his friend--and then, to pay back a debt of gratitude to him. Gary Cole plays the villain "Rhodes". Greg Serano plays "Miguel", Kilmer's wartime buddy. Jennifer Esposito plays the romantic interest. The music isn't too bad. If you watch this with zero expectations, it's not too bad a film...
April 18, 2008

 Get "Bad Day at Black Rock" Instead
After reading the "official" reviews at Amazon, et al, it is of great concern that no credit was given to "Bad Day at Black Rock" (1955). Kilmer plays an ex-soldier; so does Spencer Tracy. Kilmer lost a leg; Tracy lost an arm. Kilmer found out his Mexican friend went missing (Hispanic American bias message); Tracy went to look for a Japanese friend (post-WWII/Japanese internment bias message). Both protagonists check into a hotel after being met with resistance by the hotel manager. Both get hassled by town bullies who receive unfortunate consequences for their brutishness. Both towns have an all-powerful boss as the spider at the center of the web. Both town sheriffs get demoted after disobeying the boss's demands to kill the protagonist. Ad infinitum.

A corpulent Val Kilmer is no match for Spencer Tracy. It is sad to see Kilmer's decline in appearance from his more photogenic days of "The Saint" and "Tombstone." The dialogue is straight out of a Steven Seagal movie: dull, testosterone-laden and predictable. There are overly-blatant references to the current, politically-correct bad guys like Haliburton (Halicorp in this movie) and the cynical abuse of our servicemen by the military-industrial-political complex, which is only seeking to make money by starting wars. (I was surprised there wasn't an "Impeach Cheney" poster hiding somewhere in the backdrop.) Halicorp's "patriots" were patrolling the borders ostensibly to assist the Border Patrol keep out illegal immigrants, but were shooting border crossers instead. This was an oblique, derogatory reference to the Minutemen organization, except there is one problem with the writers' implication: The Minutemen are documented to truly work in an auxiliary function and have not been documented as having harmed anybody, much less shot at anybody.

This movie is nothing more than the writers' attempt to promote their political views. As a result, it is laughably trite and full of shallow, stereotypical characters. If they truly wanted to do a good job entertaining while promulgating a valuable message, they should have "borrowed" more ideas from "Bad Day at Black Rock."
April 7, 2008

 Unexpectedly exciting and thought provoking film
When we got this film, we expected it to be an action movie, something to pass an evening without much thought. We were wrong, this is an action drama with a really interesting take on immigration and the war in Iraq, government and so much more. We really enjoyed it. I would highly recommend it to all audiences. April 2, 2008

More reviews at Amazon.com ...