Product Description

When Max Peterson (Shane West) receives a series of mysterious cell phone messages that promise him untold wealth, he soon finds himself the victim of a deadly international plot. Chased by a lethal team of government operatives, Max races across the planet in a desperate attempt to unravel a conspiracy that threatens the stability of the entire world. Edward Burns, Ving Rhames and Martin Sheen co-star in this techno-charged edge-of-your-seat action thriller!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5906 in DVD
• Brand: PARAMOUNT HOME VIDEO
• Released on: 2009-07-21
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, French, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Running time: 105 minutes

Amazon.com
In the taut thriller Cellular, a cell phone saves Kim Basinger's life, but the cell phones in Echelon Conspiracy work more like homing devices for a killer. Security consultant Max Peterson's (ER's Shane West) problems begin when he receives a new one while on assignment in Bangkok. The sender is unknown, but their anonymous text messages prove beneficial to his physical and financial well-being, so Max follows the advice they provide--not a particularly wise move considering that Max's job is to "protect data from hackers" (but there'd be no movie otherwise). When he wins three million euros at an upscale casino in Prague, Max comes to the attention of Reed, the Head of Security (Ed Burns), who reports to business tycoon Mr. Mueller (Jonathan Pryce), and FBI Agent Grant (Ving Rhames), who reports to NSA Director Burke (Martin Sheen). Max also meets the doe-eyed Kamila (Tamara Feldman), who may or may not be part of the conspiracy against him. Together, Reed and Grant try to help Max unmask the player behind a plot to turn the world into a global police state, and speed is of the essence since the previous cell phone recipients have all met their respective makers. Despite the name cast, Greg Marcks's follow-up to 11:14 never hits the same dramatic heights as similarly-themed techno-thrillers like Eagle Eye and the Bourne series, but it's a reasonably diverting entertainment, especially if you like a healthy dose of paranoia mixed in with your gunplay and car chases. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Customer Reviews

hardly revolutionary, but a fun thrill ride nonetheless
Very similar to last year's "Eagle Eye," but with Shane West instead of Shia LaBeouf. This movie has a bit more intelligent script, but contains a lot less special effects (although there are several pretty good car chases). The theme of the U.S. government creating a machine for "national security" that then turns against them is nothing new and hardly science fiction these days, but the movies about it seem to be abundant. "Echelon Conspiracy" doesn't strike too far from the herd but it's still quite entertaining.

Unbelievable plot!
Even though it looks like an important sum of money has been spent on making this movie -having been shot in Thailand, Prague, Moscow and the U.S.A.-, that isn't enough to keep the audience interested in following the unbelievable and typically low budget plot.
Not even Martin Sheen's, Edward Burns' or Ving Rhymes' appeareances help this undoubtedly forgettable film.

Maybe a 3 star movie - but another bad Blu brings it down
I went in with no expectations and thought I might get lightly entertained. Instead I was subjected to a slew of poor to average performances, DVD quality on a Blu, no special features whatsoever, bad sound, the re-done story mentioned here and everywhere, the best performance not even being credited on the cover art, this constant location/text thing on the screen telling us the coordinates of each sequence (uh - who cares?), this bad freeze frame editing mixed with 1990s MTV music - wow I could keep going.

The performance to watch for is the great little seductress and lethal weapon role filled by the elegant Tamara Feldman. She gets to show her skin in the love scene but it still gets a PG in Canada and a PG13 here - gotta love it. The Blu had no selling point to voice here since it failed on picture quality, sound, lack of features supplemented by a film that would have been cool right after Enemy of the State, not Eagle Eye and ten others.

Normally, I do not go off on a movie this much but each sequence would get steadily worse than the previous. When you find yourself laughing at that 90s music score, bad action scenes, and fluffy writing, things begin to snowball. Maybe it is good for a rental, but do not test your new Blu system with this one; At the most a slow Sunday evening where you might want to see Martin Sheen or Ed Burns fill some roles.