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Conspiracy Theory
Metascore
49 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 21 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 21
  2. Mixed: 13 out of 21
  3. Negative: 2 out of 21
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  1. Dallas Observer
    Reviewed by: Michel Sragow
    90
    Even when Conspiracy Theory is jammed or rushed or overly jittery, Gibson's command--of Jerry's fractured psyche, his freak perceptions, and his ardor--gives the picture blue-eyed soul.
  2. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: David Sterritt
    75
    Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts contribute major star power to the uneven tale, but it never becomes as convincing as a real conspiracy theory should.
  3. San Francisco Examiner
    Reviewed by: Barbara Shulgasser
    75
    The good guys metamorphose into bad guys and back into good guys with dazzling efficiency in Brian Helgeland's disturbing, comic script.
  4. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Rita Kempley
    70
    With it's many knotty connections and complex exposition, the movie is definitely something of a muddle, but for that matter so are most conspiracy theories.
  5. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Lisa Schwarzbaum
    67
    You're set up for when director Richard Donner -- who worked with Gibson on all three audience-pleasing Weapons -- switches the movie from a really interesting, jittery, literate, and witty tone poem about justified contemporary paranoia (and the creatively unhinged dark side of New York City) to an overloaded, meandering iteration of a Lethal Weapon project that bears the not-so-secret stamp of audience testing and tinkering.
  6. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    63
    Unfortunately, the parts of the movie that are truly good are buried beneath the deadening layers of thriller cliches and an unconvincing love story.
  7. Empire
    Reviewed by: Kim Newman
    60
    Though it tries to be different, with hair's-breadth escapes that don't depend on implausible stunts or Bondian-scale explosions, Conspiracy Theory is an uneasy mix of laughs and thrills; suspense and soap.
  8. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    50
    Instead of a scalding brew of mirth and malice, served black, Donner settles up a tepid latte, decaf.
  9. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Mick LaSalle
    50
    It's just a simple thriller whose goal is little more than to keep moving.
  10. ReelViews
    Reviewed by: James Berardinelli
    50
    In the end, Conspiracy Theory fails to work as an action film, a romance, or a mystery -- all of which it aspires to be.
  11. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Rick Groen
    50
    With a plot that thickens like congealed stew, this movie about a harmless nutbar, an attorney and a cabal can leave you lost in banality.
  12. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Maitland McDonagh
    50
    Not a terrible movie exactly, just a dark, edgy idea relentlessly worn down into mildly diverting blandness by the mega-wattage presence of stars Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts.
  13. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Steve Davis
    50
    Taking its cue from the notion that American society is obsessed with covert political intrigues and machinations, Conspiracy Theory is an interesting but flawed thriller in which the wildly paranoiac is something really real.
  14. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Charles Taylor
    50
    Conspiracy Theory doesn't know whether it wants to be a comedy, a political thriller, a romance or a satire.
  15. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Hazel-Dawn Dumpert
    50
    The film isn't really about much and so feels patchy and forced, with elements more calculated than inspired, more urgent than exciting.
  16. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Elvis Mitchell
    50
    The only sneaky scheme at work here is the one that inflates a hollow plot to fill 2 1/4 hours while banishing skepticism with endless close-ups of big, beautiful movie-star eyes.
  17. Newsweek
    Reviewed by: Corie Brown
    50
    Roberts and Gibson form a "pas de deux," two lonely urbanites fighting vague yet common enemies in a plot that never quite comes together.
  18. Variety
    Reviewed by: Todd McCarthy
    50
    A below-par star vehicle for Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts, Conspiracy Theory is a sporadically amusing but listless thriller that wears its humorous, romantic and political components like mismatched articles of clothing.
  19. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Stephen Hunter
    40
    It is one of those soap bubbles of a film, fleeting, ephemeral, seemingly there when it is not. As you leave the theater, it diminishes with each step, collapsing into shards of imagery and sensations of movement. It's the film that never was.
  20. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kenneth Turan
    30
    It might even have made a good film, but it hasn't. In the hands of stars in denial about their stardom and a director who can't be bothered to take things seriously, it has come out implausible and unsatisfying, a comic thriller that is not especially funny or thrilling.
  21. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Lisa Alspector
    30
    The story--written by Brian Helgeland and directed by Richard Donner--was just dumb.
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User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
6.6 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 5 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 1
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 1
  3. Negative: 0 out of 1
  1. nutterjr
    7
    People are suckers for conspiracy theories. This film is quite entertaining as it tickles the notion through this conspiracy obsessed protagonist. Gibson seems to play well the guy verging on insanity.… Full Review »
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