RELEASED IN 1998 and directed by Tony Scott, "Enemy of the State" is an action/crime/thriller starring Will Smith as a DC lawyer who unknowingly apprehends evidence of a serious crime involving a formidable politician (Jon Voight) and is subsequently targeted by his NSA goons (Jack Black, Seth Green, etc.) and heavies (Scott Caan, Jake Busey, etc.). He ultimately partners with an ex-NSA surveillance curmudgeon (Gene Hackman).The quick-editing is akin to other popular action flicks of the era, like "Armageddon" (1998), but it's done expertly and there are enough lulls in the relentless action and character-developing moments to prevent it from being overkill. The surveillance element and Hackman bring to mind Coppola's "The Conversation" (1974), but the story moves way faster, has more thrills and the characters are more interesting.Lisa Bonet (Jason Momoa's babe) is stunning as the protagonist's secret connection and former woman-on-the-side while Regina King is capable as the wife. There are several teases of ravishing women on the periphery.This is a gripping, action-packed thriller that has quality characters and is entertaining throughout. The creators took the time & effort to throw in inspired little gems, like "Baby" the friendly orange & white cat (I have a cat just like him). Smith and Hackman have great conflict-habituated but respectful camaraderie. THE MOVIE RUNS 2 hours, 12 minutes and was shot in Baltimore & Phoenix, Maryland; Washington DC; and Southern Cal (L.A., West Hollywood and Pasadena). WRITER: David Marconi.GRADE: A-

I loved this movie.Watched it in geo class this past week to learn about geo surveillance, DMS tracking, and geo referencing points with raster data. Very interesting from a geographical standpoint and discusses the ever-increasing concern about how much access should be granted to agencies to survey people, and what effect it has on them. Also, this principle is very relevant in apps like Uber today, that sell your location all the time and sell this data to other companies for profit.Not cool, but worthwhile for Enemy of this State to show the effects of surveillance even 20 years ago, but what is most concerning is how it has evolved since then.

A successful lawyer finds himself the target of a treacherous NSA official and his entourage after receiving evidence to a politically motivated murder.The only man that can help him is a now retired cranky actor posing as a former government operative turned surveillance expert...........Throwing all aspects of subtlety and realism out of the window from the get go, Enemy Of The State doesn't pretend to be something it isn't, it's nothing more than a flashy, wannabe high tech thriller, that hasn't aged well thanks to its moronic use of security cameras and wanting us, the audience to believe that technology could do that sort of stuff, even 20 years ago.It's the perfect vehicle for Will Smith, this is when he was a major box office draw, but in hindsight, any actor could have played his role, tens years earlier, it would have been Douglas or Ford, now it could still be Smith, Cruise, Hanks. The character is just so one dimensional.Scott's use of quick editing makes the film seem a little more urgent than what it is, but it's still quite spectacular to see a director make decoding something seem so thrilling.Voight plays the spook in the suit, and he does okay, and this film confirms that Seth Green and Jamie Kennedy are not the same person. Hackman, as expected, is the best thing in the film, basically playing an older version of his character from The Conversation, and really puts Smith in his place.Sizemore shows up just to spice the plot up a little at the end, but he looks so ill and obviously on something, he literally sits down in every scene he's in.It's nothing more than a cat and mouse chase film, the catwalk model of cinema, very beautiful to look at, but surprisingly shallow and not as clever as it thinks it is.

It's hard to believe that this film is eighteen years old! While technology has moved on a tad, paranoia of being watched & listened to by the government is still just as prevalent as it was then.In this conspiracy thriller Will Smith plays a high flying lawyer who unwittingly becomes the recipient of a tape which documents the murder of a politician by some FBI members.What follows is a cat-and-mouse chase - the kind of story that we've seen many a time before. Smith teams up with ex spook Gene Hackman and tries to turn the tables on his pursuers.Some of the dialogue, particularly in the first quarter of the film, is a little on the nose - I'd gone into this expecting an intelligent thriller (which I guess it is in many ways) and this put me off a bit. But I prevailed, and things seemed to get better. There's a good ensemble cast when it comes to the bad guys - Jon Voight, Seth Green, Jack Black, the sniper from Saving Private Ryan and Ace from Starship Troopers! However, as nice as it was to see these actors on screen, they interacted like juveniles at times, and while I'm no Andy McNab, I can't imagine that covert operatives would talk like fratboys pulling an all-nighter in the library the night before an essay is due in.Also, when they chase a witness to the murder near the start of the film they are unbelievably blatant about it and cause havoc across a big city. How their faces didn't end up on the news or at least spotted by a lot of the general public I do not know. This scene should have been so much slicker - there are about six of them and they can't catch a guy on a bicycle! As sheer luck (for them) would have it he ends up being squashed by a fire engine.Hackman is good in this, although when he met up with Smith I was worried it might turn into one of those tired-out 'mismatched duo on the run' films - but the interplay between the two was good, a personal highlight for me.There's a good use of aerial shots here, which adds to that whole 'everyone is watching you' feel - and for me worked very well.I also wasn't keen on the way Smith's wife was portrayed, she's supposed to be a barrister (or so I thought) but behaves like a grumpy teenage girl and is more worried about the underwear he bought her for Christmas than the fact his life is in danger. All in all, this whirrs along at a nice pace and keeps you going until the end - but, ultimately it's nothing we haven't seen before and suffers from poor dialogue in patches.