DVD Review – The Burma Conspiracy

The Burma Conspiracy is being released this month on DVD, but is this sequel up to scratch? Teri Investigates

The Burma Conspiracy, sequel to Largo Winch and based on the Belgian comic books by Philippe Francq and Jean Van Hamme, is a bombastic, over the top international action film with more plot holes than you can shake a stick at, and not much of a leap forward from the first film in the series. Based on the life of titular Largo – son of dead businessman, multi-millionaire Nerio Winch, and sole inheritor of all of that money – the film takes place in two eras: three years before the first movie and roughly a month after.

In the past, Largo is shown in – you guessed it – a Burmese village, living and working with the townspeople, involved in a relationship with local teacher Malunai. As the film unfolds, it’s revealed that, after Largo’s departure, the village is attacked and wiped out by a general financially involved with Largo’s late father. However, none of this is very clearly or cleverly explained, and therein lies one of my many frustrations with The Burma Conspiracy, as well as my failure to really connect or care for its leading hero.

We soon enough meet up with present-day Largo – the film see-saws between the years in an odd, cut and paste sort of way that is a lot less clever than it thinks – who is in the process of converting his fortunes into a charitable trust when light is shed on his father’s shady past, tarring his son’s reputation. This is where one Sharon Stone comes into the picture – a rather ridiculously stereotyped and cringey attorney who does little more than sit around in short skirts and tight shirts (sans bra), pouting and waving her pen in Largo’s general direction, threatening to prosecute him for crimes against humanity. This is where I sort of lost interest (and the plot), and found myself shifting around and waiting for things to move along, even though I cared very little if Largo would keep his millions or not. There’s a twist at the end too – that unfortunately I saw coming from a mile away.

At the end of the day, The Burma Conspiracy is a bit of a hammy feature with some very questionable and cheesy acting, but its saving graces are in its technical make-up. The action scenes can be lengthy and tedious (not to mention laugh-out-loud – look out for the sky-dive fight), but most are quite cleverly shot and, for the vintage hero-driven popcorn flick fan, quite fun – in a guilty pleasure sort of way.

FRC Rating

[starreview tpl=16 size='30']

THE BURMA CONSPIRACY IS RELEASED ON DVD IN UK ON 23RD JANUARY 2012 BY STUDIOCANAL

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