A review by Brooks Rich
I want to share a memory with all of you. It's 1997. I am standing at my local theater after my showing and waiting for something. I don't remember what. I think my mom was talking to a friend. They had seen something different from what we had. I don't remember what we saw. They were saying how they really liked their movie and it had just gotten out. I looked back and saw a sea of old people walking out of a theater. That theater was showing Conspiracy Theory.
In 1997 this movie made 137 million dollars on a budget of 80 million dollars. That's fairly successful. It stars two of the biggest Hollywood superstars of the nineties, Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts. Roberts probably can still be considered a megastar but Gibson's star has faded since then. But at this point there's no one bigger. These two are clearly what attracted people to this movie. Yes some of the things Gibson has done and said are awful. But the man was a movie star in the classic sense. People wanted to see him on screen.
Gibson is Jerry Fletcher, a paranoid cab driver who has an unhealthy obsession with a Justice Department worker named Alice Sutton, played by Roberts. He shares his variety of conspiracy theories with her and she does her best not to file a restraining order. When government agents capture Jerry and interrogate him, he and Alice must for together to discover what one of his theories set off the bad guys.
It's a plot that is not as simple as that but I don't want to ruin anything here. I'll say there is something very familiar to the plot here, especially to the reveals at the end of the second act, start of the third act. But for the most part this movie works. Gibson and Roberts have great chemistry together and director Richard Donner manages to balance the movie's romance with the paranoid action thriller. This is not the only Gibson led action film with a romantic undertone. Also check out John Badham's Bird on a Wire from 1990.
I like Gibson as the broken paranoid man, vaguely reminiscent of Riggs from Lethal Weapon, minus the extreme suicidal nature of Riggs. Jerry Fletcher is more of a sad sack as Riggs was legit just insane. This is also just another great role for Roberts as it seems from Pretty Woman on she was just knocking it out of the park. Romantic comedies were her wheelhouse so it's no surprise she works in this as well. Also major props to Patrick Stewart as the villainous Dr. Jonas, the film's antagonist. I love when Patrick Stewart plays a villain. He always brings gravitas to the film.
This is a fun film I'm sure some people remember seeing or at least remember it's existence. Check it out.
I want to share a memory with all of you. It's 1997. I am standing at my local theater after my showing and waiting for something. I don't remember what. I think my mom was talking to a friend. They had seen something different from what we had. I don't remember what we saw. They were saying how they really liked their movie and it had just gotten out. I looked back and saw a sea of old people walking out of a theater. That theater was showing Conspiracy Theory.
In 1997 this movie made 137 million dollars on a budget of 80 million dollars. That's fairly successful. It stars two of the biggest Hollywood superstars of the nineties, Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts. Roberts probably can still be considered a megastar but Gibson's star has faded since then. But at this point there's no one bigger. These two are clearly what attracted people to this movie. Yes some of the things Gibson has done and said are awful. But the man was a movie star in the classic sense. People wanted to see him on screen.
Gibson is Jerry Fletcher, a paranoid cab driver who has an unhealthy obsession with a Justice Department worker named Alice Sutton, played by Roberts. He shares his variety of conspiracy theories with her and she does her best not to file a restraining order. When government agents capture Jerry and interrogate him, he and Alice must for together to discover what one of his theories set off the bad guys.
It's a plot that is not as simple as that but I don't want to ruin anything here. I'll say there is something very familiar to the plot here, especially to the reveals at the end of the second act, start of the third act. But for the most part this movie works. Gibson and Roberts have great chemistry together and director Richard Donner manages to balance the movie's romance with the paranoid action thriller. This is not the only Gibson led action film with a romantic undertone. Also check out John Badham's Bird on a Wire from 1990.
I like Gibson as the broken paranoid man, vaguely reminiscent of Riggs from Lethal Weapon, minus the extreme suicidal nature of Riggs. Jerry Fletcher is more of a sad sack as Riggs was legit just insane. This is also just another great role for Roberts as it seems from Pretty Woman on she was just knocking it out of the park. Romantic comedies were her wheelhouse so it's no surprise she works in this as well. Also major props to Patrick Stewart as the villainous Dr. Jonas, the film's antagonist. I love when Patrick Stewart plays a villain. He always brings gravitas to the film.
This is a fun film I'm sure some people remember seeing or at least remember it's existence. Check it out.
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