Comments on: XIII: The Conspiracy http://wewantinformation.com/commentary/xiii-the-conspiracy/ A Guide to Information Mon, 02 Jan 2012 16:44:39 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Edward S. Brown http://wewantinformation.com/commentary/xiii-the-conspiracy/comment-page-1/#comment-958 Edward S. Brown Thu, 29 Jul 2010 12:30:09 +0000 #comment-958 <br />The saying, "If you can't beat them, join them" used to be an homage to the power and majesty of a phenomenon. In "13: The Conspiracy," it is the boilerplate for Pop Culture. Instead of "13..." being influenced by The Bourne Trilogy, "24" and "Shooter," it takes pieces of each concept and attempts to fuse them into a flawless synchronous film without anyone noticing the plagiarism. This movie turns Pablo Picasso's dictum "Good artists copy, great artists steal" on its head. By stealing from the better of the action genre, "13: The Conspiracy" bombs. <br /> <br />The influence of one movie on another should never be so blatant as to remind and compare the knock-off to the original. Not only does remembrance promote a competitive product, it raises the expectations of the knock-off. Although "13..."keeps the interest of the audience, if offends the intellect. <br /> <br />"13: The Conspiracy" offends the intellect of action movie connoisseurs, but gets you through the night if you don't have anything else better to do. <br /> <br />Edward Brown <br />Core Edge Image & Charisma Institute <br /> Rating: 2 / 5 The saying, “If you can’t beat them, join them” used to be an homage to the power and majesty of a phenomenon. In “13: The Conspiracy,” it is the boilerplate for Pop Culture. Instead of “13…” being influenced by The Bourne Trilogy, “24″ and “Shooter,” it takes pieces of each concept and attempts to fuse them into a flawless synchronous film without anyone noticing the plagiarism. This movie turns Pablo Picasso’s dictum “Good artists copy, great artists steal” on its head. By stealing from the better of the action genre, “13: The Conspiracy” bombs.

The influence of one movie on another should never be so blatant as to remind and compare the knock-off to the original. Not only does remembrance promote a competitive product, it raises the expectations of the knock-off. Although “13…”keeps the interest of the audience, if offends the intellect.

“13: The Conspiracy” offends the intellect of action movie connoisseurs, but gets you through the night if you don’t have anything else better to do.

Edward Brown

Core Edge Image & Charisma Institute

Rating: 2 / 5

]]> By: M. Ornellas http://wewantinformation.com/commentary/xiii-the-conspiracy/comment-page-1/#comment-957 M. Ornellas Thu, 29 Jul 2010 10:52:53 +0000 #comment-957 I don't know what movie the previous reviewer watched, but it didn't seem like the one I just watched. I thought it was pretty good. Evidently is was a TV mini series in 2008. Don't know how I missed it back when. I would have prefered it wasn't a made for TV flick cause then it would not have to have went through the censors. The language could have been more lively if you know what I mean, a little less TVish. Rating: 4 / 5 I don’t know what movie the previous reviewer watched, but it didn’t seem like the one I just watched. I thought it was pretty good. Evidently is was a TV mini series in 2008. Don’t know how I missed it back when. I would have prefered it wasn’t a made for TV flick cause then it would not have to have went through the censors. The language could have been more lively if you know what I mean, a little less TVish.
Rating: 4 / 5

]]> By: S. grant http://wewantinformation.com/commentary/xiii-the-conspiracy/comment-page-1/#comment-956 S. grant Thu, 29 Jul 2010 10:30:38 +0000 #comment-956 This is fashioned after The jean Van Hemme comic series. And that was lifted from a book but embellished into separate issues. Bourne flix work the same story. This version suffers from TV ism which is too bad because Dorff makes a strong Xlll and people are pretty good overall. But the shots are wrong. Just poor cinematography which makes everything flat & overall predictable. The sequencing is low key, with no tension. The weird sepia tones add ziltch to the story. That was sort of a fad to make everything brown. All the same. Doesn't do much when you want to build suspense. Scenes don't end making a statement but jerk into the next one. It gives the plot away twice killing any chance at suspence. That is just poor scripting. But you get the idea which is a good one and could be great if only... Rating: 3 / 5 This is fashioned after The jean Van Hemme comic series. And that was lifted from a book but embellished into separate issues. Bourne flix work the same story. This version suffers from TV ism which is too bad because Dorff makes a strong Xlll and people are pretty good overall. But the shots are wrong. Just poor cinematography which makes everything flat & overall predictable. The sequencing is low key, with no tension. The weird sepia tones add ziltch to the story. That was sort of a fad to make everything brown. All the same. Doesn’t do much when you want to build suspense. Scenes don’t end making a statement but jerk into the next one. It gives the plot away twice killing any chance at suspence. That is just poor scripting. But you get the idea which is a good one and could be great if only…
Rating: 3 / 5

]]> By: Jasper Marion http://wewantinformation.com/commentary/xiii-the-conspiracy/comment-page-1/#comment-955 Jasper Marion Thu, 29 Jul 2010 09:43:37 +0000 #comment-955 I am stunned at the many 4 and 5 star reviews for this tragically stupid movie. While the movie did contain a number of bright spots -- specifically the filming, editing, music, and acting -- these elements alone will not float a movie to success. I could even forgive the blatant rip-off of the Bourne Identify series if the story itself was okay, but, alas, no dice. The action sequences are decent and the main actor, Stephen Dorff did a superb job considering the horrid dialog he was presented with. Val Kilmer is in the movie for maybe 10 minutes, so don't expect much from him. The plot reads like something a 5th grader put together with help from MSNBC's Keith Olberman (only not funny). Essentially, (spoilers beware -- though if you watch the first 5 minutes of the movie, you pretty much know all this already), the first female president is shot by a sniper while she is presenting her plan to bring the troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan... Then it turns out that this is all part of a larger government conspiracy planned by the evil republican GOP to bring the government to their knees and basically enslave the human race. Now don't get me wrong -- I am no George W. Bush fan. I am also a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, so I have some idea about how the military and government works. I could even support a movie that presented an intelligent conspiracy with the military/republicans as the bad guys, if it was done realistically or plausibly. This movie, on the other hand, would have you believe that every person with any conservative leaning is a neo-Nazi seeking to recreate the government into Hitler's vision of a new race. To make up for all the plot holes, the movie jams in sequences where various people suddenly find themselves spending 5 minutes explaining what the hell is going on to you, the audience. These sequences are so laughable and obvious, it becomes difficult to stay even mildly entertained. Even the action sequences suffer from stupidity. (like one scene when both Kilmer and Dorff somehow lose their handguns and proceed to duke it out for a bit before finding random pieces of glass that just so happen to have broken into 3 inch wide by 3 feet long sword shaped pieces. They then pick up these "glass swords" and have a sword fight. Seriously.) <br /> <br />Bottom line: if you absolutely hate republicans and think they all work for Nazis, enjoy very bad dialogue, long-winded movies with overly complicated plots designed to make up for the movie's own shortcomings, then by all means, buy this movie stat. Otherwise, save your money and just buy or rent the Bourne Identity. Rating: 1 / 5 I am stunned at the many 4 and 5 star reviews for this tragically stupid movie. While the movie did contain a number of bright spots — specifically the filming, editing, music, and acting — these elements alone will not float a movie to success. I could even forgive the blatant rip-off of the Bourne Identify series if the story itself was okay, but, alas, no dice. The action sequences are decent and the main actor, Stephen Dorff did a superb job considering the horrid dialog he was presented with. Val Kilmer is in the movie for maybe 10 minutes, so don’t expect much from him. The plot reads like something a 5th grader put together with help from MSNBC’s Keith Olberman (only not funny). Essentially, (spoilers beware — though if you watch the first 5 minutes of the movie, you pretty much know all this already), the first female president is shot by a sniper while she is presenting her plan to bring the troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan… Then it turns out that this is all part of a larger government conspiracy planned by the evil republican GOP to bring the government to their knees and basically enslave the human race. Now don’t get me wrong — I am no George W. Bush fan. I am also a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, so I have some idea about how the military and government works. I could even support a movie that presented an intelligent conspiracy with the military/republicans as the bad guys, if it was done realistically or plausibly. This movie, on the other hand, would have you believe that every person with any conservative leaning is a neo-Nazi seeking to recreate the government into Hitler’s vision of a new race. To make up for all the plot holes, the movie jams in sequences where various people suddenly find themselves spending 5 minutes explaining what the hell is going on to you, the audience. These sequences are so laughable and obvious, it becomes difficult to stay even mildly entertained. Even the action sequences suffer from stupidity. (like one scene when both Kilmer and Dorff somehow lose their handguns and proceed to duke it out for a bit before finding random pieces of glass that just so happen to have broken into 3 inch wide by 3 feet long sword shaped pieces. They then pick up these “glass swords” and have a sword fight. Seriously.)

Bottom line: if you absolutely hate republicans and think they all work for Nazis, enjoy very bad dialogue, long-winded movies with overly complicated plots designed to make up for the movie’s own shortcomings, then by all means, buy this movie stat. Otherwise, save your money and just buy or rent the Bourne Identity.
Rating: 1 / 5

]]> By: Maria Lourdes Gumersell http://wewantinformation.com/commentary/xiii-the-conspiracy/comment-page-1/#comment-954 Maria Lourdes Gumersell Thu, 29 Jul 2010 08:22:38 +0000 #comment-954 It's a great movie full of action and suspense... and is nice to find a movie with action that is not full of cursing and sex... if you like the bourne movies you'll like this... Rating: 5 / 5 It’s a great movie full of action and suspense… and is nice to find a movie with action that is not full of cursing and sex… if you like the bourne movies you’ll like this…
Rating: 5 / 5

]]>