Enemy of the State

Dir Tony Scott

Written by

Will Smith, Gene Hackman, Jon Voight,  Lisa Bonet, Regina King, Stuart Wilson, Loren Dean, Ian Hart, Jake Busey, Scott Caan, Jason Lee, Jack Black, Gabriel Byrne, Dan Butler, Jamie Kennedy, Anna Gunn.

When an NSA boss Thomas Reynolds (Voight) has a congressman murdered by his team, in order to get a Bill passed in congress, they discover it was secretly filmed by a nature photographer. When his it was possibly passed to a lawyer Robert Dead (Smith), Reynolds and his team, believing he is holding on to the tape to extort them, start to destroy Dean’s life. Dean, now unemployed, broke and homeless must go to extreme measures to find out what it is Reynolds team want, and to get his life back.

While it is somewhat aged now, when this was released near the end of the 20th Century – the ‘technology’ used in the film was futuristic at the time of release.

There are plenty of action scenes, as it comes from producer Jerry Bruckheimer, who is the super producer of action films like this, and from such films as Con Air, The Rock, Armageddon, and Bad Boys just to name a few.

The cast are all fine, with Smith in his prime popularity. He handles the action scenes well, and he is able to hold his own as the lead star. Voight, who too was in his resurgeance as the ‘go to villain’ of the late 90s is also fine. It is Hackman who, despite not appearing on screen until an hour into proceedings, really lifts the tone of the film, and strengthens it.

There are plenty of ‘that guy’ as part of Reynolds team, and it’s fun to see people who had not quite made it yet in their early role. One notable mention goes to Jack Black, who was really coming into his celebrity status in the late 90s.

The screenplay is okay, and does what it needs to. There are lots of ‘tech’ talk that worked for the time. The technology is still fairly silly, with the ability to rotate a CCTV to see something the size of a phone drop into a bag. Even 26 years later technology probably couldn’t even do this.

The score is quite engaging and dynamic, and complements the film well.

This still holds up, but obviously due to the current controversies of lead star Will Smith, this might be a turn off.

Seth Green, Tom Sizemore, Jason Robards and Phillip Baker Hall (RIP to the last 3) all appear unbilled.

3/5