User Reviews

I saw the first part of 'XIII' this week on french TV, and I can't wait for the second part to be broadcast. Of course some will think of Jason Bourne, but the plot isn't the same and the original comic book was released in 1984 ! there are some differences between the movie and the book, but it is not easy to resume 19 books in a two-part movie. Without spoiling the story, I can say I didn't expect the end of the first part before seeing it. Stephen Dorff is good in the main character, but it is more pleasant to watch Val Kilmer as the villain who is, in my opinion, an excellent actor who's not enough seen in theaters.

I love the show 24. This is close but not a duplicate --

I love the movies of Bourne Identity, again close but no cigar.

This is an original story line depicted in the make-up of a very talented director and writer.

If you want action, adventure, excitement, intrigue then this is the movie for you. I don't understand all of the negative feed back on this movie. I really enjoyed it.

Its a lot better than most of the so called action adventure movies out so far.

Thumbs up -- 8/10

I've been a fan of the comics since I first read them years ago, so I've approached every adaptation I have found with a hope that it would do them justice, and a fear that it wouldn't. And yes, this is similar to the Bourne series, as I understand it, Van Hamme, the author, liked the Ludlum book(s?), and used some of the same ideas. This and the 2003 video game both get certain(but not necessarily the same) things right, whilst failing on others. In tone, this comes fairly close. It's disturbing, dark and, at times, the ideas in this are brutal. The humor in this, while it's relatively limited(and, frankly, doesn't all work, it can feel forced), is perhaps a tad much. The overall accuracy is reasonable, and several changes do make sense. They updated the story to present day(it was, when it was a graphic novel, as well, but the first one came out 14 years ago), and thus also made it more modern, adding tech and such, without that taking over. Several of the characters are changed(a couple are combined, as well) and not all of the casting makes perfect sense(what on Earth happened to Jones? Sure, she looks the part, but that's about it). The plot is interesting and captured and kept my attention throughout. It doesn't develop entirely the same, though a good bit of the core of it is intact. The awesome abilities are definitely still there. Dorff and Kilmer are great. I've heard this compared to the television show 24, and I suppose I can see why. It should be noted that not all of those aspects were foreign to this franchise before this hit small screens. Episode 1 ends in a way that ought to get viewers back for the second half(which starts with repetitions of plenty of what happened in the first one) of the three hour running time. The ending is not going to satisfy everyone, however, the source material taken into account, and the fact that it isn't easy to finish it, especially in this amount of time. The cinematography and editing are excellent, the action is very well-done and exciting. The music is well-done. The production values leave little to be desired. The acting varies, as does the dialog, but there are cool moments in this. This isn't terribly graphically violent, and there's no sex. Still, it is not intended for children, and it doesn't feel like it was made to be less strong. Language is mild and infrequent, if even that. I recommend this to fans of the original(as with any other translation from one medium to another, do not expect everything to be the same), as well as anyone who enjoys this type of film/mini. 7/10

I just watched this as they aired the series as one 171-minute long movie, but it didn't feel long at all since there's always something interesting or at least exciting going on in this show/movie. Honestly, I'm not that familiar with the Bourne character or saga (I've only seen one of the installments, plus the older TV show with Richard Chamberlain as Bourne) but I think this one is enjoyable on its own terms.

The premise is similar to "Bourne": a man wakes up suffering from heavy amnesia, unable to remember his name or any whereabouts about his life before that moment. He soon finds out that the president of the US has been assassinated and that he is being chased after, and that he has a tattoo on his upper chest with the number "XIII". From that on, he will have to survive and find out who he is and why he has so many and such fierce enemies.

The plot is quite smart, it does not provide (or need) many cliffhangers or unexpected turns until the final part. It is also a smarter-than-average plot for what you would expect from an action movie. The characters are not terribly well developed, but all or most main actors do a good job.

I saw this 2 part "movie" last night on French TV.

I obviously can't comment on how the actors "sounded" as I was seeing it dubbed into french.

In the french version however, all the characters sounded like they where in character (earlier reviews suggested that Dorf didn't sound like he cared!?).

I admit that I was often thinking "oh it's Jason Bourne", but really it is just the amnesia (and trained assassin) that link the 2.

But this didn't detract from the experience, they are different enough not to step on each other's toes.

Some have complained that the distances traveled are "unbelievable", remember TV and Cinema is about suspension of disbelief, so these things generally don't worry me too much.

Val Kilmer (we don't see him enough) was excellent as the bad guy. Good on him to take the plunge into "evil parts", I look forward to more "evilness" from him, which should be good.

I haven't read the comics, but I would agree that the end of the 2 part series leaves me wanting to know what happens from here. So I guess a full mini series is on the cards at some point in the future ??? Who knows.

I enjoyed the plot, and it was a good way to spend a few hours in front of the TV.

This plot is more true to life than you may know. At the end of part two there is mention of a "need for a crisis" to move the American people.

Check out the documentary "Terrorstorm", it shows a similar document, written by Dick Cheney, calling for the need of "a Pearl Harbor type crisis" to move the American people to get behind a war with Iraq......this memo was written in "January" 2001! Makes you think huh?

The Republican desire to restart war with Iraq was being planned long before 9/11, they just needed a way to sell it to the American people. Why do you think that despite all of the evidence that our government was warned about 9/11, that no one lifted a finger to stop it??

Hmmmmmm.....

Political thrillers with high officials and (ex-)soldiers involved tend to exploit clichés or have multiple unrealistic moments due to over-sophistication and references to past mysticism. The series in question includes the above as well, but thanks to many strong performances (Stephen Dorff, above all, but also Val Kilmer and Caterina Murino) and thrilling stalking scenes let it watch and follow without blah! feelings or embarrassment. True, it is no conceptual creation, or if you believe that none or all in the government administration are crooks and power freaks, then you should definitely skip it :) Otherwise, you could ponder on and over events that could happen if/when you get amnesia - it could happen to everyone in different circumstances.

When the first female President of the US is assassinated during a speech, all hell breaks loose. This is the beginning of Conspiracy XIII.

It looks as if the assassin has escaped. Some time later, an elderly couple find a wounded man whose parachute is stuck in a tree. He has no idea who he is. On his neck is a tattoo "XIII."

The assassin is still being hunted, and when the young man uses the computer at the elderly couple's home, the government tracks him there, but he gets away.

Some suggest this is an inside job, not from outside terrorists, possibly to influence the upcoming election.

XIII is desperate to find out who he is, and what he's done. When he is finally captured, he finds out that he has been given a stolen identity, plastic surgery, and gone undercover to expose conspirators who want to overthrow the government. They are right in the government itself, running a secret agency.

Lots of car chases, shootings, torture, the usual thing for this kind of film. It is somewhat interesting, if highly derivative. The first hour was better than the second.

This TV movie, which was a pilot for a series (which I never saw) has been compared to Jason Bourne for obvious reasons. I found it nowhere as exciting as any of the Bourne films.

I really liked Stephen Dorff - he has a quiet, sincere demeanor, and when he has to fight, get out of the way. The rest of the cast was okay, with the standout being Catarina Murino as Sam, a woman who helps him.

Excellent series indeed! The story seems to be very close to the original graphic novel, except for the first part. They head to change the opening sequence in the comic, or the way XIII (Jason, or is he?)lost his memory. The writer of the comic novel (Jean Van Hamme - Belgian)admitted that he stole this scene from the book (written by Ludlum)that was the original story line for the Jason Bourne-trilogy.

In pre-Obama times, the producers dared in their future to have a non Caucasian male for a president. Good on them!

Must see for all graphic novel lovers! This one will put Belgian graphic novels on the international map again. Tintin with an attitude!

If I had not watch Bourne Identity, I would have enjoyed this more. It does have a pretty good conspiracy plot but it's too close to the Bourne Identity. If only it has more originality. It is quite action packed and it did capture my focus for the first 90 seconds but many things contributed to a loss of focus. I really didn't like the shaky scenes where they occur whenever our male lead tries to recall his memory. Those scenes are frequent and gave me headaches with the shaky camera. The acting is not great - a lot of stereotype characters and some exaggerated acting. I thought Stephen Dorff. Acted his character pretty well. One reviewer mentioned that this is not actually a mini-series, it's more like a long movie split into two. I agree with that. I watch a lot of long movies (lasting 2 to 3 hours) and this one is just a long movie. All in all, it's watchable, entertaining but not stellar.

The quality of this should be expected. For a TV mini-series, it's not terrible, but it's not that great either.

The Jason Bourne comparisons are warranted, as we open with an event, and then a trained assassin is found with no knowledge of who he is, or how he got to where he was dumped.

Then follows a bunch of action, a lot of discovery, and some pretty unbelievable set ups & sequences.

I'm just amazed at how bad Stephen Dorff is as an actor. I really enjoyed him in Blade, and I liked him in a few other movies that I saw after that. In this, he's just plain bad. He says all of his lines in a strained manner, as if he's trying to show that he's just a general bad ass. I couldn't grasp why he was trying so hard to prove that he's a tough guy. If you want to compare Bourne to this, Damon plays Bourne with restraint. He doesn't need to prove he's a bad ass by speaking. His actions do that. Dorff shows no remorse for anything he does. In this type of movie, we have to believe that Dorff's character wants to really find out what happened to him, but because of the way he delivers his lines, it's almost as if he doesn't really care, he just wants to kill anyone involved in putting him in these situations.

I had to remind myself continually that this is a made for TV mini-series, which is credit to the cinematographer, and the director. Most of the action sequences are pretty intense, and not campy. The hand to hand combat scenes are especially crisp, and were a highlight for me.

There were still many sequences of events that were just terrible, and didn't fit any sort of realistic time line, Dorff recovers from major injuries in record time, people travel massive distances in 30 minutes as if they were telaported there. Again, it's TV so I can suspend my disbelief a little for these types of things.

One major plus is Catrina Murino as Sam. She is GORGEOUS and worth watching. I couldn't take my eyes off her every time she was on the screen. I wish they would have done more with her character, and I really hope to see more of her in upcoming movies. Her acting was also very believable, even though there's no way someone that good looking just lives in New York as a resident, and isn't a model or celebrity. I remember her from Casino Royale, and she did well there also.

Val Kilmer also does a pretty good job in his role. He's more of a complimentary player in this movie. He's generally ominous as the bad commander, and it's a pretty believable turn.

If you have nothing better to do but watch a fun little mini-series, I would say go for it, but I can't recommend you go out of your way to find this thing, as there's nothing special to report.

Several reviews compare this to the Bourne series and I don't think it makes sense. This is not a super production and you cannot expect the same level of detail than the million $$ Bourne series. However, the plot is very good and really gripping plus the characters are quite interesting. In addition there is a good amount of action - maybe not the most revolutionary action scenes - and enough to keep you gripped from the beginning to the end of the show. The acting is good but don't expect anything too deep with complex personalities and characters. Someone compared this to Blade with Stephen Dorff, and IMO the acting is globally way better than Blade.

I read some of the bad reviews there and I was worried something would be silly in the middle of the plot, but no. This is one of the best spy/action TV miniseries I have seen.

Ok as a straight to TV type movie - not a series or mini series, simply a movie in 2 parts! Pure entertainment in its whole, nothing to make your grey cells work too hard. The start was pretty abysmal I won't deny it and I was ready to turn it off after only 10 minutes. Complete with the worst wooden acting ever, phenomenally poor really. Still, I watched in hope of it improving. And it did. The story line, far-fetched of course, was interesting enough. The action was ok, the hero hits everything, the baddies could hit a barn. Nothing too flashy. Some great moves sprinkled here and there. The flashbacks were just about passable. The acting/filming improved as the movie went on. It did start to gel and capturing interest as it went on. Episode 2 started as Ep 1 finished. At the end all, the story line tied together cohesively (still far-fetched) nothing left untold. Could've, should've, well, certainly left a door open for an Ep 3 continuation. Lacking that, served as a pilot for the XIII series in 2011 which has a similar rating, different actors, further episodes. To watch sometime.

I loved the comic. Really nicely done and interesting story where we followed XIII through the painstaking puzzling to understand what he went through and who he was.

Here we're presented with everything from the start, so the surprise effects are all gone. This of course makes the whole setup vanish, and suddenly the miniseries is nothing more than just a Bourne-copy - and very mediocre one too.

The miniseries has sloppy editing, bad acting, a tremendously stupid and boring "conspiracy" and some really nutty 1980's styled scenes. We have a professional "agent" leaving a trail of bodies behind him for anyone to see. He calls up his enemies so they can know he's coming for them. Basically, he's so stupid that we just stops to care.

There are a few nice things in this series though. Stephen Dorph is on his way to become a new Jason Statham. His stunts are good, and he's doing the best he can with the material he has.

Best is however Greg Bryk as Amos - the only intelligent person in the whole thing. I both like the actor AND the characters, which is saying a lot when it comes to this mess.

Overall, this is just something you'd see if you don't have anything else to watch. Otherwise, skip it. It's not worth the time investment.

Good movie worth watching for entertainment. I liked Shooter, so this is a excellent concept. I has lots of suspense, excellent combat moves, and the plot is interesting. I love these type of movies. I am watching it now as I post this comment. Micheal and Val I have always been a fan on their work. The Val character is similar to the role be played in "Spartan". Steve shows the perfect style of a efficient killer with a heart of gold. I think this movie was made with the concept the Hillary would have won the election. I believe the same thing happen with "24" using a female in the "Oval Office" Oh well who knew. Anyway, so far I have been totally entertained. Look forward to more drama and high adventure.

I began watching this thinking it had potential. The plot starts almost identical to the Bourne Identity film. Special ops guy, mad skills, lost his memory, taken in by kind strangers, people trying to kill him, meets strange but beautiful european chick who helps him. But its badly filmed and badly acted. the emotion is not there, the suspense is missing, and the dialogue is diabolical. When you see actors tying hard to act, rather than characters in a show with substance, you dont buy the story. This had potential but has been let down by poor script writing and really bad directing.

I have never played the computer game and haven't read the comic series yet, but after watching this movie, I will surely try to check both things out! It is true that this movie has many similarities to The Bourne series and that many films have the same concept and that's the reason why I don't give this movie a top rating.

But the story is well thought, there are many nice action elements, a lot of tension, some surprises and a little twist in the ending. The acting is well done, especially by the bad boys, but not outstanding. The movie is well directed and has some really good images and the dialogues are also well composed unlike many other films of the genre, you can really see that there has been some budget in this movie and that it is a high quality product. It is sad that the movie hasn't been in every country's cinemas though. I watched the about 180 minutes long version in one shot as it came out on DVD and I didn't find a single minute of boredom in the film what is quite exceptional.

In conclusion, this movie is more creative than many other similar movies with the same ideas and very entertaining so that I can't understand most of the negative critics. This movie is nothing revolutionary, but still one of the best of its kind.

Definitely Jason Bourne + Shooter. Maybe they should've called it "The Bourne Conspiracy"? They even use the same music FFS!

So apart from ripping off two excellent movies to make this hotch-potch, they didn't even get a decent dialogue coach.

After 1 hour 15 minutes, Jessalyn Gilsig starts explaining exactly what's been happening, what happened to the guy and how he's got to where he is, but she whispers it and mumbles it!

Why don't director's get these useless actors/actresses to do the scene again so we can hear what the hell she is supposed to be saying?

Overall, well worth watching, but it could've been so much better.

The story line is very good. There are holes but for the sake of keeping the viewer intense, it is okay. The actors are quite believable. The action scenes are good.

I really enjoyed this movie.

If you like conspiracy stories - this one, is one of the best, and very well delivered.

The character I liked most was of Greg Bryk playing Colonel Amos running the government intelligence. This character is just brilliant!

Stephen Dorff could have been better. It seems as if he tries to imitate Jason Statham, being a bad ass. But all and all I liked him.

To sum it up - I really hoped there would be another sequel.

I normally shy away from "video game based" and "comic book based" movies. However since I never read the comic or played the game, allow me to be the unbiased opinion. This TV mini-series was much better than I expected for anything on TV or Cable. If you want much more violence than the censors allow you will have to get a movie ticket to the theater. So all the critics that whine about action and violence aren't considering the limited media format. This movie has a fair amount of action although some technical aspects are off, I would say the acting was very above the standard. Since the movie was shot in 2008, I can only assume they made the president female assuming that Clinton was heading for the White House and ahead in the polls early on in that year. I enjoyed the movie and have ordered the game from a used software store online. Who knows maybe I can find time to read the comic too.

If you're into action-thrillers that are full of all the clichés of the genre, then this one is for you. Everything is in there...from the main character delivering random justice in the street to him taking out pursuers with household items. The frame is...you guessed it, a conspiracy that goes high up in the government in order to take over the world, of course. Couple that with mind-numbing dialog, once again full of clichés, as well as characters full of clichés, and you have XIII. The worse part is how seriously this thing takes itself. It's presented as a serious and intelligent film, but falls really short of it. The main problem really is the way the story is structured...the revelations seem random, incoherent and completely random. Not to mention the annoying and completely unnecessary shaky cam constant flashbacks that are abused throughout the whole movie. If you want to see an action-thriller miniseries that lives up to the genre, watch the State Within instead.

just finished watching this... it didn't take long before i realized, 'oh...'24' clone....dorf playing the sutherland role... i'd like to use the pun that the reason it's called '13' is because it's about half as good, but that wouldn't be true...it's almost as good or better than some of '24'. but, still, a clone...lots of what you'll see here, you've seen before... but it's not bad for television... the irony i speak of in the heading is that when i came here, to IMDb, to comment, the first recommendation from 'the database' towards the bottom of the title page of 13 is, of course, '24'... parts of it were ridiculous...people don't have conversations in a life or death hand to hand combat situation...they just try to survive...there were other moments i found ridiculous to the point of comically amusing... but not enough for me not to recommend this if you don't mind what i've already stated... it seems to be a cut above 'regular TV fare'. as is '24'.. just don't expect anything new here...

In trying to update the story from the great comic book series, they ruined the plot. XIII was and is a great comic book series. I just reread it again. But the TV series tried to make it into a different story, yet using the character names from the comic book and adding a few. The suspense is missing. The humor is missing. Jones's character is diminished. In the comic book she also quite a fighter and love interest. The photo shop business was all added and not needed. XIII figures it out.

It should have been a weekly series sticking to the original characters and plot.