The Mel Gibson as Star/Richard Donner as Director movies - i.e. the Lethal Weapon series - have been a money tree for both parties. Mel was reportedly paid $20 million for his latest collaboration with Donner, Conspiracy Theory.... he plays Jerry Fletcher, who on first meeting is the sort of cab driver you most want to avoid; he never shuts up and he doesn`t seem quite all there. He`s become a bit of a nuisance to Alice Sutton - Julia Roberts - who works in the justice department, but she listens to him because he once saved her from a couple of muggers. Then Jerry is abducted and tortured by a man, played by Patrick Stewart, who turns out to be a psychologist with the CIA... things start getting more and more dangerous for both Jerry and Alice as the forces of law and order gather en masse to capture him....Undoubtedly this will be a big box office success, but it barely warrants it; the story has enough holes and omissions to drive a truck through, and motivations are obscure. However Donner is a very slick director and here he manages to build a degree of tension and elicit adequate performances from his two expensive stars - and Mel turns on the charm with some rather obvious humour. Some fans of Patrick Stewart might be disappointed to see him cast as just another bad guy - what does Hollywood have against the British? Conspiracy Theory is just another fairy floss film, it disappears while you`re consuming it. Where did those two hours of my life go?
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