There's a pretty good essay to be written about the proliferation of Clinton fantasies in the films of the '90s. In addition to the obvious surrogate played by John Travolta in Primary Colors, there have been the good Clintons who've turned up in Dave, Independence Day, and The American President. These Clintons are usually liberal fantasies, more ideal and action-driven variations on the actual president who also tend to lose their wives during the course of the film—if they have one when it starts. Then there are the Clintons who emerge from the dark right-wing conspiracy theories that populate Murder At 1600 and Absolute Power: sinister, womanizing types who either commit, cover up, or endorse violence. Made in 1997 before the Lewinsky flap, but just now receiving a video release, Executive Power presents a Clinton surrogate (played by William Atherton) who is clearly in the latter category. After a White House staffer with whom he was having an affair dies in the Oval Office (on the Great Seal, no less), Atherton calls on his close Secret Service officers, including Craig Sheffer, to cover things up. Three years later, a guilt- and prosthetic-beard-afflicted Sheffer is called out of retirement, only to discover that those connected to the cover-up have begun to die off. Could Atherton be behind it? How about castrating, ambitious First Lady Joanna Cassidy? It might matter if Executive Power were the tightly wound suspense film it aspires to be, instead of the dullest, most muddled high-end direct-to-video political thriller since Charlie Sheen's Shadow Conspiracy, which at least spent several days in a few theaters. It does have moments of unintentional entertainment—Sheffer shouting, "With all due respect, Mr. President, fuck you!" into a phone ranks pretty high on that scale—but it doesn't present enough of them to warrant recommendation to anyone but the most gullible G. Gordon Liddy listeners.