**1/2 - Over the past couple of decades the power and speed of computers have increased at such an extraordinary rate that it has had the dual results of alarming the security-crazed right-wing jagoffs of the world and giving Hollywood screenwriters an absolute goldmine of movie ideas. The 2009 film “Echelon Conspiracy” starring Marcellus Wallace, the jerky guy from “Saving Private Ryan”, and some other guy takes advantage of the situation by making a movie about security-crazed right-wing jagoffs. Much like “Enemy of the State” and “Eagle Eye” this movie posits that there is an intricate and all-knowing set of computer programs housed somewhere in Washington that are hooked into wired and wireless networks all over the globe via satellite and are able to take control of anything plugged into any sort of network grid. And guess what? Yes, it has evolved to the point of being sentient and is now out of control and killing people and becoming a threat to national security and the people of the world. As it turns out, the omniscient computer system that has become so self-aware and powerful that it is on the verge of taking over the world can be easily taken care of and shut down by a wormy incompetent guy who uses the old logical paradox angle to cause the system to shut itself down. I’m going to go on record here and saying that any artificial intelligence that is advanced enough to commandeer a government is also going to be advanced enough to not fall for the logical paradox gag. Anyway, this movie was relatively boring and the plot was derivative, but I’ll give it some extra points for not relying too much on action and gunfights like a lot of these films end up doing.
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