A so-so thriller which starts off brilliantly and yet come the end, has bombarded us with so many clichéd plot twists and frankly stupid explanations as to the motives of the characters that it quickly becomes unbelievable and almost unwatchable. The first half hour, though, is great entertainment, with Mel Gibson taking his psychotic persona from the LETHAL WEAPON films one step further in his manic portrayal of a conspiracy theorist.

In fact, it is Gibson's presence which makes this film shine and he is perfectly cast - I don't think any other of today's actors would fit the role as well as he. Julia Roberts is the love interest, and she is, well...Julia Roberts. I may be biased but I really do hate that woman. Patrick Stewart lends sinister support as the chief villain, but he never really does anything that villainous, he just walks around and looks mean.

What this film is worth watching for are some surprisingly insane set pieces, such as the moment where Gibson torches his entire apartment, or the bit where he flees from the bad guys while strapped to a wheelchair! There are a few good action bits as well, but nothing spectacular. For an interesting spin on the old action formula, this is worth watching, even if only for Gibson.

Jerry Fletcher (Mel Gibson) is a paranoid NYC cabbie. He sees conspiracy theories everywhere and is willing to tell everybody about them. He has a troubled past and is obsessed with Justice department lawyer Alice Sutton (Julia Roberts) whom he rescued from a mugging 6 months ago. Then he gets kidnapped by spooks, tortured by Dr. Jonas (Patrick Stewart) and it's a matter of figuring out which theory of his got him into trouble.

This movie wants to be and NEEDS to be a paranoid thriller. The audience has to question Jerry's sanity. However it never shows that he has hallucinations. Therefore it's never questioned that those things actually happened. Also his escapes come off as really silly and extremely unbelievable. I kept wanting the inner dark gritty paranoia conspiracy 70s drama to rise up but it's constantly stuck in a 90s action movie. There is an interesting idea of a movie. However there is light tone in the movie that is perpetuated by Mel Gibson's jokey performance and the FUN action scenes. This is not dark enough. If it wants to be a fun action movie, the lead should really be Julia Roberts. Mel should be the wacky co-star. My last complaint is the awkward attempt at romance. They have no chemistry at all and are better off not even going down that road. It cheapens Jerry's protection of her. The movie just wears down until the story becomes meaningless.

I probably should stop thinking about this film too much or I might talk myself into disliking it. There's a lot of disbelief to suspend in this one, the biggest one occurring when Jerry (Mel Gibson) stopped his car on the bridge with Alice (Julia Roberts) along, hopped across the divider, and found an abandoned car up on a jack that looked like it was ready to go just for him when he got there. If you were a gambler in Vegas, what odds would you take on that one?

Then there was the whole business at the stable when Jerry began remembering or mis-remembering the circumstances of Alice's father's murder. He started out thinking that he did it, that he might have done it, and then in a moment of clarity, knew that he didn't do it. How was Alice supposed to figure out which version was correct? But she did it - remarkable!

I guess what you have to do here is go with the flow of Jerry Fletcher's wild and random musings until the whole back story of Dr.Jonas/Henry Finch (Patrick Stewart) plays out. His diabolical experiments in mind control with Jerry as his prize specimen was a well constructed plot device, as Jerry in turn is followed closely by Lowry's (Cylk Kozart) shadow organization.

I imagine there are conspiracy theorists who approach Jerry Fletcher's level of paranoia, and it must be a tough way to live. The film would have raised a whole lot of eyebrows after the fact if one of Jerry's predictions had been the destruction of the World Trade Center. Released four years before 9/11/01, the movie had a couple of clear shots of the Twin Towers during the first half as Jerry advanced many of his astounding theories.