The Echelon Conspiracy

I had never even heard about the Echelon Conspiracy, but my Netflix account recommended it to me as a movie I might like. The Netflix computer got it right that I like conspiracy movies but it must have forgotten that I hate crappy movies.

There were several elements in this movie that reminded me of other films. It had some Mission Impossible overtones with Ving Rhames bossing everyone around and much of it taking place in the Czec republic. There were some James Bond wanna be scenes in the casino, but the biggest similarity was the nearly exact same plot as Eagle Eye featuring a young guy getting framed for something he didn't do by a rogue computer giving him orders over a cell phone while being chased the whole time by government agents. Everything bothered me in this movie, even the noise his cell phone made each time a new text message appeared.

The main character really bugged me. This was my first exposure to Shane West and I was not impressed. I've seen better acting Hamburger Helper commercials. My favorite scene was when the lead character and a female spy were together in an apartment. A sniper opened fire on them from the rooftops across the street while two other armed attackers broke in to kill them. The lead character took cover in a bathtub and cowered while the wounded lady fought off the bad guys. He finally got out and helped her but I have never seen such role reversal in a movie before.

I'll admit I was tired while watching this and that didn't help my review any. I wish I would have fallen asleep during the opening credits. I'm sorry for being so critical. I'm sure this will come around full circle someday when I make a movie and it gets bad reviews, but I can only give this 4.9 Stars.