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Arse-bot reviewed the straight-to-DVD release of Echelon Conspiracy, starring Shane West, Ed Burns, and Ving Rhames over at his alter-ego’s Examiner site. The overall verdict on the movie is that it’s just not quite up to par with what’s being released theatrically these days and there are a lot of similarities to 2008’s Eagle Eye, which is why I think Paramount decided to pull the plug on the theatrical release of this one and send it straight to DVD/Blu-ray. That said though, it’s not bad for a straight-to-DVD movie; the action is decent, the production value’s are high, and it’s actually very well paced through the whole film. It’s not without the “roll your eyes” B-movie moments, but, it’s to be expected. You can check out the full, more detailed review of Echelon Conspiracy over at Examiner.
Echelon Conspiracy starts off with computer technician, Max Peterson (Shane West) receives an anonymous package while on a business trip on Moscow. In the package is a high-tech cell phone which soon receives an anonymous text message with a promotional offer from the hotel to stay an extra night for a discount. Max takes up the offer, and the plane he was supposed to be on crashes. After this incident, Max isn’t very reluctant to take advice from his new gadget, which then directs him to a casino where he cleans up; getting the attention of the casino’s head of security (Ed Burns) and an FBI agent (Ving Rhames). Thus begins a global cat and mouse game of the government trying to track down Max Peterson and exactly who is sending text messages to his phone, guiding him.