Conspiracy Theory
Warner Bros. Pictures | Release Date: August 8, 1997 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
50
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 21 Critic Reviews
Positive:
6
Mixed:
13
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
Dallas ObserverMichel Sragow
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. Read full review
75
San Francisco ExaminerBarbara Shulgasser
The good guys metamorphose into bad guys and back into good guys with dazzling efficiency in Brian Helgeland's disturbing, comic script. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
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. Read full review
70
Washington PostRita Kempley
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. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
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. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Unfortunately, the parts of the movie that are truly good are buried beneath the deadening layers of thriller cliches and an unconvincing love story. Read full review
60
EmpireKim Newman
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. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
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. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleSteve Davis
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. Read full review
50
The New York TimesJanet Maslin
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. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
In the end, Conspiracy Theory fails to work as an action film, a romance, or a mystery -- all of which it aspires to be. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Instead of a scalding brew of mirth and malice, served black, Donner settles up a tepid latte, decaf. Read full review
50
SalonCharles Taylor
Conspiracy Theory doesn't know whether it wants to be a comedy, a political thriller, a romance or a satire. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
It's just a simple thriller whose goal is little more than to keep moving. Read full review
50
L.A. WeeklyHazel-Dawn Dumpert
The film isn't really about much and so feels patchy and forced, with elements more calculated than inspired, more urgent than exciting. Read full review
50
NewsweekCorie Brown
Roberts and Gibson form a "pas de deux," two lonely urbanites fighting vague yet common enemies in a plot that never quite comes together. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
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. Read full review
50
VarietyTodd McCarthy
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. Read full review
40
Washington PostStephen Hunter
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. Read full review
30
Chicago ReaderLisa Alspector
The story--written by Brian Helgeland and directed by Richard Donner--was just dumb. Read full review
30
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
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. Read full review
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