Film
What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases
Bookmark this pageShadow Conspiracy (1996)
Director: George P Cosmatos
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
An action movie for the wannabe liberal '90s, this tracks the political awakening of slick but decent presidential aide Bobby Bishop (Sheen). Right-wing traitors are at work in the White House - when Bobby starts to investigate, all hell breaks loose. His only allies are an ex-girlfriend (Hamilton) and the paternal Chief of Staff (Sutherland), but can they be trusted? Shadows are a bit of a theme here, and Washington, DC, provides plenty. Unfortunately, the movie has no such murky depths. Instead of an atmosphere of corruption, we have repeated shots of a cinema showing Touch of Evil. Similarly, there's no deep dialogue, just lots of deep faces: Sutherland, with his bulging, psychotically innocent eyes; Hamilton, with her rawhide skin and generous, manly mouth. Meatiest of all is Vidal, who pops up as a Southern politician. Sadly, Sheen doesn't even look profound. Like a zombie who's spent too much time in the gym, he blunders heavily from one stunt to the next, his pursed lips conveying nothing more than pique.Author: CO'Su
Cast & crew
Director: George P Cosmatos
Producer: Terry Collis
Cast: Charlie Sheen, Donald Sutherland, Linda Hamilton, Stephen Lang, Ben Gazzara, Nicholas Turturro, Theodore Bikel, Sam Waterston, Gore Vidal full cast
Genre(s): Action/Adventure
Duration: 103 mins
Most popular on this site
Top Stories
Time Out's 101 Films of the Decade
Ten years, thousands of movies and millions of dollars in international box office, and it all boils down to this
Martin Provost discusses 'Séraphine'
Trevor Johnston talks to the director of 'Séraphine' about bringing a little known French painter back to life
Our verdict on Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones
Peter Jackson ends a triumphant decade with a sentimental misfire with this lush Alice Sebold adaptation
On the set of Ken Loach's 'Route Irish'
Dave Calhoun meets Ken Loach on the set of his forthcoming Iraq war movie
Stephen Poliakoff discusses 'Glorious 39'
Stephen Poliakoff’s ‘Glorious 39’ is his first film for cinema since ‘Food of Love’ in 1997. Dave Calhoun met him
Is 'Paranormal Activity' the new 'Blair Witch'?
How does a film go from DIY experiment to box-office smash? 'Paranormal Activity' director Oren Peli explains
Steven Soderbergh on 'The Informant!' and 'The Girlfriend Experience'
We talk to Steven Soderbergh about his two forthcoming films: one featuring a porn star, the other a chubby Matt Damon
A gateway to all things 'New Moon'
In anticipation of 'The Twilight Saga: New Moon', Time Out is offering the chance to pick up a limited edition pack with three exclusive magazines and a free poster.
The films that deserve a TV spin-off
With Roland Emmerich suggesting he'd like to make a '2012' TV spin-off, we propose some more movie-to-TV serialisations
Time Out's 50 greatest animated films with commentary by Terry Gilliam
In celebration of the release of Pixar's 'Up' and Wes Anderson's 'Fantastic Mr Fox', read our rundown of fifty classic feature length animations
What do you think?
Post your review now