the audience applauded

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

"Conspiracy" has Val Kilmer playing an traumatized Marine who searches for his best friend, another Marine, who disappeared in a small town where no one seems to know about him and are not warm in terms of welcoming people who are not from there. The local residents of this city à-la Old West style built by a powerful businessman (Gary Cole) will do anything to bother Kilmer and his obstinate search.An more experienced viewer will have one title popping on his head while watching this: "Bad Day at Black Rock". Yes, "Conspiracy" amazingly resembles the 1955 film directed by John Sturges starring Spencer Tracy as the mysterious one armed man who defeats a whole town just to deliver an medal to an soldier friend of his. Both stories deal with small towners prejudices against foreigners; both stories have an main character who is handicapped in a way and somehow this isn't an adversity at all; and both plots take place in desert areas. What makes the older film better than the new one (this isn't a remake however) is the originality and the tension presented there, the mystery was more gripping. What is presented in this recent project is an action film with lots of shootings, bullets and knives flying, a simplistic story made to please an large audience who enjoys that kind of movie. Nonetheless, it's a decent and enjoyable action film, the required elements for this genre are all present here, Kilmer is quite good as the Marine who needs to put his demons behind him, after an traumatic event that he testified during the war in Iraq, rebuilding himself in order to find out what happened to his friend. Since most viewers really dislike old films, this is a nice substitute to Sturges film. But that one was an complete classic compared to this. 7/10

There seems to be 2 totally different viewpoints in the US. One, that you might call the viewpoint of the lackey and the other that of decency, often referred to as being "socialist" or "lefty". The latter viewpoint does not embrace competition between human beings, where the whole point is to break the spirit of your fellow man, so that he loses the competition. In fact, the decent viewpoint is never to compete with others and instead only compete with yourself for perfection, regardless of what other men or women are doing. The doings of others is then only interesting, when it is a reminder of your own imperfection, such as, for instance, the heroism of the handicapped and downtrodden who do not give up on living decently, which always brings a decent man to shame, who is not handicapped in any way. The doings of the others, the rich of birth and their lackeys, who are properly portrayed in this film as the villains, is instead a reminder for the decent man, that there is still much to be done. This is an anti-American film, if "americanism" means glorifying business and treat market-economy as if it was a gospel and the measure for all things good. Business-men never invented anything but their money could, so far, always buy the inventors, such as the Germans being bought to land a human being on the moon and all that has followed since. But maybe will the time come when the inventors will not let themselves be bought... Let's hope so and let then the only important fight begin, which sadly, judging from some of the reviews on this film, will be necessary.

I was very curious about this movie, because it contained two names: val kilmer and jennifer esposito. but after the first 20minutes i was very sad: this movie is a waste of time. really. now if u wonder why i watched it until the end (cause i did), that has only one reason: jennifer esposito. she is a way more better actress than val kilmer ever be. his acting is awful, and he can't carry the movie. this can only be done by jennifer esposito, who plays kilmers love interest...sadly she has not so many scenes. so i only give this movie 3 out of 10, which is the best i can do.. it's a waste of time, and it's boring, sometimes even ridiculous.

This is one of the worst movies I have ever seen. I was HIGHLY disappointed by the acting, especially from Val Kilmer....he's a much better actor than the job he does in this movie.I was also disappointed in the so-called special effects they had in this movie. To me, this movie looked like a garbage low-budget 80s flick that we can definitely live without.I think this movie even gives small, corrupt, towns a bad name because the acting was so bad in it, lol. I honestly can't recall a worse movie, acting-wise, than this one since this movie was supposed to be a serious movie.I just want to know what was going through Val Kilmer's mind when he accepted this role. He's far too talented to lower his standards so much....at least I thought so.