Conspiracy Theory

Mel Gibson gives a great performance here, as well as Julia Roberts! The story is really good, and the movie has some great plot twists. The only thing I disliked was the fact that Patrick Stewart didn't have a bigger role...

The movie also has quite some funny moments and lots of action. This definately is one of Richard Donner's best films to date, due especially to the outstanding performance of Mel Gibson! If you haven't seen it yet and if you're looking for an intelligent, well-acted movie, this is the one!

This movie could be classified into different genres - suspense, romance & thriller. Not many films can say that, or if they can, many do not succeed. Conspiracy Theory, however, did.

The first time I saw this, I was on the edge of my seat. It was very suspensful. I won't go into details if you haven't seen it, but it's really one of the best suspense films I've seen.

This wasn't a completely romantic film, no. In fact, I wish it would've touched on the romance more than it did. Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts had great chemistry. Although nothing really happened between them, the audience could clearly see Jerry's (Mel Gibson)love for Alice (Julia Roberts.)

Now, the plot. Jerry Fletcher has many wild conspiracy theories - including one that NASA is trying to kill the President with earthquakes. He's a cabbie & tells lots of people his ideas. But the one person he seems to tell the most to and thinks can help him is Alice Sutton, an attorney. He saved her months before the movie takes place when she was mugged. He seems to get on her nerves, but she puts up with him. He goes to her office all the time. He's obviously in love with her, but she doesn't feel the same way. Well, somehow "they" (CIA, FBI, you know "they") find out about Jerry's crazy conspiracies & they go after him. He and Alice are in danger.

The acting in this movie was terrific. This may be Mel's best. His portrayal of a crazy cabbie was so good and believable. It's not really like any other role he has played. He did it so well & the audience sympathized with him completely. Julia was good too. Her role wasn't really difficult to play, but she made it believably nevertheless. Patrick Stewart also stars in this. He made a great bad guy.

Overall, this movie was great. It was very suspensful & the acting was outstanding.

I found this film really hard to focus on, there was Mel Gibson playing a paranoid crazy guy, being dragged off by government/non-government 'spooks' and having some sort of weird obsession with Julia Roberts. But as the film unfolded, and the storyline, a complex one, began to unravel it all started to make some kind of sense. My favorite part has to be the self destruction of his apartment, that was quite imaginative. Before I saw this i was expecting something along the lines of Lethal Weapon, being the same star, and same director. But it was so completely different from what I thought it would be and it actually ended up being a better film as a consequence. Mel Gibson played a completely different character than what we usually see, which worked to his benefit and Julia Roberts proved with this film, that she still had star power. Definitely worth a look.

Let me say immediately that I would recommend this film to almost anyone but the most literal-minded. This film will be different things to different people. It can be a macho thriller, a subtle romance, an ironic look at ourselves, or a combination of all these things. The great thing about this movie is not so much the plot, but the individual situations and scenes. What is meant to be portrayed as paranoid behaviour by Mel Gibson's character, Jerry Fletcher, becomes quite funny when the viewer recognizes his or her own self doing similar things, but in a context that is supposedly "normal." Jerry's having a padlock on his refrigerator and a combination lock on his coffee will bring a smile to the lips of anyone who has to deal with numerous computer "logons" and passwords to gain access to even the most mundane things in our computer-dominated workplaces. Likewise, the writers and director are spot on when they show poor paranoid Jerry going to separate mailboxes to post his various letters, while many of us here in the on-line world will routinely use pseudonyms, proxies, remailers, etc for the very same reason that Jerry takes his seemingly abnormal precautions, i.e., to avoid potentially prying eyes. So, who's paranoid? I thought this was very insightful. As for overt humour, perhaps my guard was down, but I laughed until tears came to my eyes when Jerry tossed off joke about a man who had only three minutes to live. Mel Gibson's delivery of the punch line was perfect. As for pathos and those human moments, scenes in which Jerry would gladly die for just a brushing kiss from his worshipped Julia Roberts might bring back memories of anyone's naive, tender years and momentarily make your heart ache. And a scene in which Jerry is unable to explain why he compulsively buys copies of the same book over and over again is very poignant, indeed. Mel Gibson put a lot of energy into what was obviously a demanding role and, as usual, Julia Roberts lights up the screen in every scene she's in. The film might be a fantasy, but it's the sort of fantasy many of us can appreciate.

Mel Gibson is most sympathetic as conspiracy theorist Jerry Fletcher, who lives in a ultra-secure, booby trapped apartment where he publishes his newsletter critical of the government. Ironically, he loves government employee Alice Sutton(played by Julia Roberts) from afar. One day, their worlds collide when one of Jerry's theories seems to be true, as he becomes the target of assassination, and Alice helps him to go on the run from the unknown government forces. He thinks that Dr. Jonas(Patrick Stewart) will help him, but it turns out that was one conspiracy he didn't anticipate...

Entertaining thriller is well directed by Richard Donner, with a good pace and reasonably believable story, though it does go on a bit too long, and becomes a bit too convoluted, but otherwise this film works well, and some of Jerry's theories may not be so nutty anymore...