Ennemi d'État

Enemy of the State (1998)

Review: This is a different direction for many. Will Smith for one and some noticeable comedic actors are here, but this is no comedy.

Enemy of the State is quite a movie. What is the main point of this is the plot. It works in many ways. In a situation like this, anyone with connections and power can have access to such technology to track down anyone who knows far too much. It's quite real. Scary in a real sort of way.

Another truly strong point here is the acting. Will Smith and Gene Hackman deliver excellent performances. Smith showed great emotion and Hackman had conviction. Not just these two were great, we have Jon Voight as well. But what really got me is the acting from other characters as Seth Green, Barry Pepper, Jake Busey, and even Jack Black. These people are great especially Black who is really acting here! Black should have realised that comedy is not his thing if suspense and drama are as he is great here.

Overall, we get great acting, a fine plot, and fast, character development and fast and intense action as well. Sound like a winner to me. Enemy of the State is fresh and original and clever. One of Smith's finest movies.

The Last Word: Don't miss. Gripping and Suspenseful.

Well, I like this one. I like the cast, the visuals are well done, but what is more important is the plot that I like really much. It's not the most sophisticated plot of all times, but I think it's quite good, and to some degree, realistic. Of course it's not possible to move sattelites that quickly, or zoom in on a videotape that much and still have crystal-clear visual, but quite some technology seen is realistic today, or in the near future. This is an hollywood flick, all right, so they have quite much action and everything looks very easy, steering a sattelite seems to be no harder than playing a video game, what makes it all seem a bit unrealistic/sci-fi-like, but today's technical posibilities are quite large, and continue to grow, so informing oneself about the issue (I mean the real world issue) is not a bad idea.

To give you some points to think:

• It's routine for the credid card companies to document every transaction made with the cards, go figure who gets the docs if police is investigating.

• Every call / fax done is documented for billing, go figure, who...

• At least for your ISP it's possible to read every unencrypted email you send or receive, go figure ...

• Today there are MANY cameras in public areas in Great Britain, with numbers still growing.

• Face recognition software is already being used in combination with some surveillance cameras.

• Dictation software that can interpret your spoken word and convert it into written text is being sold to you today, maybe some organisations have much better versions at their hands ...

The list could go on, but what I want to say is that one should think about the posibilities and listen to what the politicians say, and what they want to allow the federal organisations.

You want to be able to still _enjoy_ the movie in some years time, not thinking of it as being somewhat normal just as everyday life, all right?

This is a pretty good flick that I caught at the time in my room at the Pittsburgh Hilton. A really good cast helps it along, aided by a very small but effective (if not completely soaked in sweat) role from Tom Sizemore. What really gets me now is what followed in the few years after its' release. The motivation for the story is the ruthless push by the NSA to get approval for a bill that would allow them to spy on anyone at anytime using any method they deem necessary with unilateral and total approval issued by the NSA itself. Little did we know at the time that just a few years later President George W. Bush would do that very thing, with a nice, catchy, flag waving title. We all know it by its' minuteman moniker - The Patriot Act.

Hi - really latetotheshow once again As for my review title . . . I edited it and my rating from a 5 to a 7 after watching special features - an action I often take once I view them and get more insight into the impetus behind the movie.

I also find that anything Jerry Bruckmeyer is behind is often top notch.

Of course, Gene Hackman could make any movie worth a high rating - and I still think there are a lot of unrealistic extremes that make this borderline comedy. And maybe they should've made this a more obvious dark comedy.

Some reviewer on here said it was 'informative & educational' . . . Good grief.

I think there are more informative & educational sources out there than a entertainment piece. That's the only thing that worries me about movies. So many people use movies for school rather than ENTERTAINMENT.

However, this subject matter is something we all think about when we zoom in on our own home in maps . . .

There's several good suspenseful moments, and again Hackman was the draw for me. I really liked how he portrayed being both very helpful while also couldn't care less about Robert at first, in one a particular fast-paced scene.

He played paranoia very realistically. Also played a highly intelligent nerd really well too. Seemed a really different character from the tough guys he usually plays.

Now I really want to see him in The Conversation, which is allegedly the prequel to his Brill character here.

Anyway, this movie provides a lot of food for thought . . .

Why? Well for starters there is the best chase sequence since The French Connection. Then there is Will Smith as an actor - not just a star, though later in the movie he is admittedly overshadowed by veteran Gene Hackman.

There are two layers to this movie: On the surface is a pacy thriller with edge-of-the-seat chases but underneath lies a telling commentary on government surveillance. It is one of those truth-in-fiction stories which makes its point about government intrusion into privacy dramatically and effectively.

There are references to the classic, The Conversation: The surveilled couple talking in the park, and the Hackman character's premises are an obvious recreation of his workshop in the earlier movie. If you haven't yet seen The Conversation - see it before you see this one - you will understand the Hackman character a lot better (besides, it is a superb movie in its own right).

Oh, and Jon Voight is terrific as the bad guy...