Conspiracy

DVD review Sending a vigilante to kill everyone is not really the best way to try and deliver a liberal message, writes Chris Pyke.

Treachery: Val Kilmer fronts this poor man's Steven Segal movie.

There have been many films about a loner wandering into town and sorting out the mess: Mr Majestyk, Bad Day at Black Rock, Rambo - even Knight Rider and The A-Team did it on a weekly basis. Unfortunately, Conspiracy doesn't live up to any of them, coming across as little more than a poor man's Steven Segal movie. Val Kilmer plays a former US Marine who has come back from his time in Iraq mentally and physically damaged. We know this from the number of brooding shots and flashbacks to the war. After a phone call from a former war buddy he makes his way to a small Arizona border town. Here he is immediately confronted with suspicion from the town's deputies and the owner of the company that is building the town, Halicorp, a not so subtle stand-in for Haliburton. As Kilmer starts to scratch the surface of the town he unearths a murky conspiracy. The film seems to be making a statement about how Iraq is bad for America and how certain companies are profiting from the war, but sending a vigilante into town to kill everyone is not really the best way to try and deliver a liberal message.
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