The host of an investigative news show is convinced by the CIA that the friends he has invited to a weekend in the country are engaged in a conspiracy that threatens national security in this adaptation of the Robert Ludlum novel.
The structure is a mess (the film was recut against Peckinpah's wishes), which ultimately makes it difficult to tell whether its oddly compelling qualities are the result of a coherent artistic strategy or the cynical carelessness of a director sidelined.
– Dave Kehr,
Chicago Reader,
1 Jan 2000
rotten:
Some individual sequences -- including a car chase early in the film - have the lunatic humor that might have made the rest of the film bearable, though probably nothing would justify the film's final blood bath.
– Vincent Canby,
New York Times,
20 May 2003
rotten:
I don't demand that all movies make sense. I sometimes enjoy movies that make no sense whatsoever, if that's their intention. But a thriller is supposed to hold together in some sort of logical way, isn't it?