Shadow Conspiracy

1st watched 2/25/2002 - 4 out of 10(Dir-George P. Cosmatos): Predictable action thriller where any frequent movie goer could guess what was coming next. Charlie Sheen is the good old boy to the President who just happens to be not liked by the rest of the presidential staff. Of course, he gets involved in a situation where he's framed over and over again and he has one friend in the White House, played by Sutherland, who naturally doesn't stay that way for very long. His other friend is a reporter played by Linda Hamilton(who has very little to do or say in this meaningless role), and of course his biggest and bestest friend is the President himself(Sam Waterston) who stays his pal till the end despite everyone else being killed around him. Brainless yet action-packed meaningless trife despite loads and loads of acting talent(all pretty much wasted.)

One wonders how did this screen play got to be made into a thriller movie. The writers had no clue into the many holes they were creating in a story so predictable as this. At the same time, one has to question the studio as to why this movie was approved. The director George Cosmatos must have a more clout among the Hollywood bigwigs than we can think.

I never saw this film when it had a commercial run. It was recently shown on cable, and not having anything better to watch, decided to take a chance. Wow, it's that bad.

The film could have used a more likable hero than Bobby Bishop, blandly played by Charlie Sheen, who whispers his lines incomprehensibly. The pairing of Linda Hamilton with Sheen doesn't add anything to the movie. Donald Sutherland must have a lot to explain to his friends in how he accepted to appear in this picture.

Bobby Bishop's role in the White House was never made clear, but when they needed him, they sent a helicopter, and he arrived in a conference room full of suits still wearing his sweaty Princeton sweatshirt. Once he cleaned up and put on his own suit, Bishop went before the press to clear up a public relations problem--after reminding a certain congressman what could happen if said congressman didn't help.

A secret meeting with Prof. Pochenko promised to reveal something not quite kosher in the White House. But a man with a gun wanted the information to stay secret. So Bishop spent the rest of the movie on the run and trying to uncover secrets with the help of Washington Herald reporter Amanda Givens. Meanwhile, someone was capable of monitoring pretty much every phone call that took place in the movie.

I like Charlie Sheen better as a womanizing jerk, but he was just fine here. Both Sheen characters know how to scheme and lie and otherwise be quite charming to get what they want. Donald Sutherland did a credible job as the White House Chief of Staff who didn't have faith in the President's ability. And Sam Waterston didn't exactly inspire confidence as the President. Linda Hamilton was good as Amanda.

This wasn't a great action thriller, but it was good nevertheless. Too violent for my taste (and there was a stern warning on the TV station I watched, even after the movie was cleaned up for TV), but I enjoyed the chases and the occasional comedy.

Bobby Bishop (Sheen) is a close personal advisor to the president but gets out of his depth when shots are fired at him & he learns of a sinister shadow conspiracy within the highest government that is supposed to watch & protect the president.

It's up to Charlie Sheen as Bishop to uncover what is going on & why? Sheen was still a bankable enough star here & i liked 90's Sheen in movies such as the equally awesome & underrated "Terminal Velocity" & the Eastwood Cop Thriller "The Rookie" Sheen was decent back in the day. Here Sheen plays panicked well & he's constantly on the run & the film felt similar to Will Smith's Conspiracy Thriller "Enemy of the State" but that came out later than "Shadow" here. Amongst the cast is Terminator star Linda Hamilton as the local hard-nosed reporter that teams up with Sheen & the veteran movie legend Donald Sutherland as a hugh-up government boss & is supposed to be helping Sheen get to safety!!! Also ww get an unstoppable Assassin role for the scarily intense Stephen Lang (Don't Breathe, VFW) as he pursues Sheen across a rainy Washington DC. I love the 90's look & feel of this comforting Thriller & a decent music score only helps it. There's plenty of action packed scenes that keeps the movie moving constantly & is never boring.

Shadow Conspiracy is a 90's Thriller gem that is probably completely forgotten about today & probably barely made a dent at the box office on it's release way back in 1997 but i like it alot & think it's one entertaining ride. More exciting than it's given credit for.

Also this was director George P. Cosmatos last movie, he made the Cult Classic Stallone Thriller COBRA.

This movie is so bad you'll be laughing yourself home. George P. Cosmatos is capable of making a good movie, look what he did with "Tombstone," and this one has all the right elements but falls flat on its face.

It *looks* good, has lots of mistrusting characters and turns of story to keep things going, and creates an atmosphere of deep intrigue and suspicion with bland Charlie Sheen at the center. But all these people running around so deathly serious never seem to stop and realize, "hey, this is really stupid what we're doing!"

A lot of the problems relate to the central assassin/hit man, a mute iron-eyed killing machine who runs around in a tan duster that makes him stand out like a sore thumb. He draws the line at shooting a defenseless puppy, but otherwise he kills everything that moves and is such a bad guy that he LITTERS!

It's easy to compare this movie to better efforts like "In the Line of Fire" or even the remake of "The Jackal." All feature a ruthless assassin constructing a secret weapon. "In the Line of Fire" had a plausible and realistic one, "The Jackal" was overkill, but this one is ridiculous. You have to see what the killer actually does at the end of the movie, it blows what little seriousness the movie had and turns it into a farce.

If you miss seeing this movie, don't worry about it.