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Directed By
Greg Marcks
Written By:
Kevin Elders, Michael Nitsberg
Cast:
Shane West, Edward Burns, Ving Rhames, Martin Sheen, Steven Elder, Jonathan Pryce, Tamara Feldman, Todd Jensen, Marianne Stanicheva, Andrea Enright, Mike Straub, Vee Vimolmal, Danko Jordanov, Sandra De Sousa, Greg Donaldson, Trevor White, Ilan Goodman, Danko Jordanov, Yuriy Kutsenko, Sergey Gubanov
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Echelon Conspiracy (2009)
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Movie Review by Jarrod
March 2nd, 2009
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‘Echelon Conspiracy' is a preposterous, shallow thriller that more or less plagiarizes the equally preposterous Eagle Eye. Instead of Shia LeBeouf in the lead, we have Shane West, who has been off the radar for quite some time now; his last feature of any relevance was A Walk to remember, where he co-starred with Mandy Moore. And even that was not very good. West plays Max Peterson, a computer security expert who has recently finished a job in Thailand; he receives an anonymous package, inside in a state-of-the-art cell phone, and he starts getting bombarded with text messages from an unknown source. These messages contain warnings and suggestions that save his life (for instance, one of the first messages tells him to book another flight home, and once he does so, the plane he was originally scheduled to take crashes, and presumably kills most of the passengers).
Another message urges him to buy shares of a particular stock; its price subsequently skyrockets, and he makes a lot of money. He is then led to a casino in Prague; there, the messages recommend to him certain slot machines and blackjack tables where he is guaranteed to win. Of course, his winning streak earns the suspicion of security chief John Reed (Edward Burns), and FBI agent Dave Grant (Ving Rhames). They pull Max aside and become interested in knowing where these messages are coming from. Max discovers that the phone has a fairly troubling history, has left bodies in its wake, and that he is just a pawn for whoever (or whatever) sent it to him in the first place. The movie taps into anxieties and concerns about government surveillance, and the ramifications of the Patriot Act, themes that have been addressed in much better films, and are handled sloppily here.
The premise occasionally heads away from reality into the realm of what I would classify as semi-science fiction; rational explanations are minimal, director Greg Marcks tries to maintain interest and build tension with chases, explosions, and loud music, but this is not an engaging or terribly exciting cinematic experience. West is a boring protagonist; Burns delivers laughably bad dialogue with a straight-faced seriousness I must admire him for, as it certainly must not have been an easy feat, but then the tone of his voice never changes, and the same is true of his facial expressions.
Tamara Feldman is the requisite eye candy, as the elusive and flirtatious Kamila; Martin Sheen is Raymond Burke, NSA chief; his organization is also trailing Max. Notice the irony of Burke having a picture of George W. Bush in his office; I wonder how Sheen, a prominent liberal, felt about this, given his frequent criticism of and immense disapproval with Bush's policies, in the Middle East and elsewhere (remember Charlie's rant about how 9/11 was an inside job, Sheen partially echoed that sentiment). Jonathan Pryce has a thankless role, as Mueller, shady billionaire with a large book collection, which means he cannot be trusted, and could be a little funny in the head, but he has no apparent connection to any of the major factions or characters, and so I wondered why they bothered introducing him at all.
Some conversations employ technological jargon that is likely intended to enhance the overall sense of authenticity, or, in failing to achieve this objective, just make these dull exchanges sound more intelligent than they are actually are. Russians are thrown into the mix, along with ample doses of globe trotting; it becomes clear that Marcks and his screenwriters were inspired by the Bourne franchise, as well as Eagle Eye, but is limited by a lack of talent, self-awareness, coherence, and obvious budgetary restrictions that render it wholly unimpressive.
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