Conspiracy (2008)

Val Kilmer gets to play out his most unresponsive face ever in a movie with a somewhat generalizing and cliche name considering it's really a captivating tale of vengeance and justice, and the final showdown left me in a dilemma when I reached it, as I really had to go to bed and get up early for work but could barely leave this for another day... when was I last that captivated by a fight that hadn't even started?

It takes a while to build, and I doubt Kilmer's acting capabilities for the longest time (didn't realize it was him!), but when you get into this for real then there's no stopping it. Good ol' Western vibe too, but with a modern twist, and Gary Cole plays a convincing - albeit maybe not overly strong and emotional - villain.

I guess the movie is like that too. It's great, all the way, just never so overly strong or emotional it stands out as much as it maybe should.

There's a very stylistic; sensual bedroom bit in the beginning too. And a well-deserved nod to the consequences of PTSD. And war overall. The motives. The everything behind it. It's got good things going for it from the start, and it builds up nicely.

They just took it a bit further than they needed to with the title.

 rated 4/5: fo shizzle