XIII

All in all, this isn't a half-bad political thriller. It just would have been better had it been about half as long.

It's good, hammy fun, if you give in to the nonsense.

What is obvious to viewers after only a few minutes is not obvious to the supposedly crack investigators dispatched to untangle the conspiracy, whose Ludlumesque layers they fail to see.

It's the kind of story that asks you to either take off your thinking cap or be bored and indifferent.

I imagine that there is some sort of mathematical correctness to the plot, but as a viewing experience it is vague, confusing and preposterous to the point that by the time all was revealed--or nearly all, since the film ends on an unresolved note--I had long ceased to care.

Poorly cast and performed (including an embarrassing turn by Val Kilmer), XIII is shot so murkily and staged so badly, you can hardly tell where people are, let alone where they're going.