CINEMA: FULL-SERVICE PARANOIA

We meet Jerry Fletcher (Mel Gibson) in mid-rant, and our first impression is of a typical New York City cabbie of the old, or native-born, variety, full of mis- and disinformation delivered in a rush that permits no quibbling interruption. Assassination plots both current and historical, a unique slant on the militia movement, even (heaven help us!) inside dope on the Vatican's plans for world domination--the man's a full-service paranoid.

Then, having frightened his last fare witless--he drives as wildly as he talks--Jerry pulls up in front of an apartment house, trains his binoculars on a window behind which a woman,...