Worst of the Worst movie reviews - Shadow Conspiracy (1997)

Every week I’ll be watching the worst rated movies on Rotten Tomatoes so you don’t have to. I’ll be doing one every week until the final issue where I’ll review the worst movie ever made (according to a random article I found). What are my qualifications you ask? I took Introduction to Media Studies in my first year and got a B average, so I think I know what I’m talking about. I’m going to watch each of these movies and decide whether it is rightfully on the worst movies of all-time list, based on my expert opinion.

Worst of the Worst movie reviews - Shadow Conspiracy (1997)

This week I’ll be reviewing Shadow Conspiracy (1997), starring Charlie Sheen. Wikipedia described this one as a ‘political thriller’ which I found hilarious. A New Zealand version of a political thriller would probably be a smackdown between Ashley Bloomfield and Brian Tamaki, that’s something I’d watch.  

It features everything you’d want in a late 90s movie: Charlie Sheen, an attempted presidential assassination, and a three per cent Rotten Tomatoes rating. It’s quite off-putting to see Charlie Sheen in a serious role. I kept expecting a laugh track to start after saying a line that definitely wouldn’t fly in 2022.  

Essentially, there’s a plot to assassinate a high ranked member of the US Government. Bobby Bishop is an aide to the president and has to figure out the conspiracy plot before another murder is committed.  

The plot of the movie isn’t actually terrible. In fact, when I read the synopsis, I was pretty excited to watch it. There’s a journalist who plays a role in the investigation and it’s always nice to have a bit of representation in a random 1997 movie for my chosen career. The script is what kind of lets this movie down, the dialogue seems really ridiculous when you weigh up the actual situation they have on their hands it feels a little inauthentic.  

There are a few action scenes that were pretty enjoyable without being hideously long. They don’t try to drag the movie on too long (I’m looking at you, Batman 2022), and it comes in at a tidy one hour and 45 minutes. It kept my attention, even if it was mostly to cringe at Charlie Sheen.  

Overall, I’m not sure if this movie got the terrible reception it did at the time. It had a budget of $45 million and only made $2.3 million at box office, so it’s clear to say the people did not love it. All of the other movies I’ve watched so far have had between a 0-1 per cent rating on RT, and I actually did notice a slight step up, with a remotely interesting plot.  

That being said, it’s not by any means a good movie. I can think of worse movies, but I can also think of many, many better ones. I don’t think this movie deserves to be on the worst movie list, but probably on the most underwhelming list.  

I give it a strong 3 out of 5, 5 being the worst movie I’ve ever seen.