Enemy of the State

Rating:
Summary: I Wish We Had This Stuff
Review: "Enemy Of The State", is a good piece of entertainment from a duo of filmmakers that have brought many such pieces to the screen. Having said that, if we had 1% of the gee-whiz gadgets that this film had, and they worked with 1% of the efficiency that the film portrays, Osama Bin Laden would have been apprehended before midnight on September 11th. The balance of Al Qaeda would have been rounded up within a day or two. Orwell's vision in, "1984", is tame when compared to the absolute instantaneous control this film portrays the US Government as having over any citizen they pick.

A good story needs good actors and this film has at least a trio of fine performers. Will Smith is a man whose career is still just in the early stages of what should prove to be decades of success, and he already has one Oscar Nomination to his credit, Jon Voight already has an Oscar on his shelf, and one of my favorite actors without condition, Gene Hackman, adds yet another great performance to his resume of films.

There are real government agencies portrayed in the film, but they are portrayed in a science fiction like manner. No film crew is going to get inside of The NSA, and no amount of name dropping of publicly known satellite names, like "Keyhole", make this film's portrayal of data gathering any more believable. The NSA wishes they could do what this film gives them credit for. However if you really want to know what they can and cannot do, there are many very good books that share the little information that is in the public domain. Much of it is dated, but like the first Stealth F117-A fighter, when we (the public) were finally shown the plane, it was already an antique, an incredible and still very useful aircraft, but one that had been around for many, many years, and was already several generations old.

Watch this film for the pace and entertainment of a great chase from beginning to end. Just do not take the technology too seriously, and don't allow it to raise any level of paranoia you may have. One fact about The NSA that has been documented is that they can review less than half of what they collect. This is not due to their competence level, rather the shear volume their systems flag for review.

Rating:
Summary: great acting, intriguing script set in nation's capitol
Review: Will Smith is a DC lawyer who, while shopping for lingerie for his wife (of all things), gets a tape of a senator's assassination. From there, he is prey for the NSA agents who are following his every move -- to the point he cannot even go home to see his wife and kid for fear of putting them in danger. He enlists a former NSA agent and his ex-girlfriend (apparently, he and his wife went into couples' therapy over her in the past) to help him out.

Will Smith, Regina King, Lisa Bonet and Gene Hackman are great in this movie. The DC setting is beautiful and authentic (I actually saw some of the filming -- where Jason Lee is escaping his pursuors on bicycle) -- perfect for such a film. The use of spies dressed as homeless people is inspired and could well be real -- they have microphones attached to them and lay in the park as Smith and Bonet discuss his plans, thus transmitting their conversation to the NSA.

This is a great film! Rent or buy it today!

Rating:
Summary: Good Movie - Bad DVD
Review: I'll be brief. Enemy of the State is a good action flick with a lousy transfer to DVD. If you have a standard television stop reading this review now: you won't notice what I'm talking about. If you are running a 16:9 TV then read on.

Like many before, this supposedly "wide screen" version is nothing of the sort. The DVD is encoded in a standard 4:3 image, with black bars matting the top and bottom. In other words, this is a non-anamorphic transfer. What that means is that the image you are seeing is lower resolution than a standard NTSC TV signal because of the fewer vertical lines present. On a 16:9 TV the image looks "squished" shorter and "stretched" longer. Most 16:9 TV's have a mode that can re-stretch the image to achieve the proper aspect ratio. The problem there is now the horizontal lines are clearly visible throughout the film.

I wish studios would stop the absurd practice of releasing "matted" widescreen transfers, and only call a DVD "Widescreen" if the transfer is anamorphic. But as long as they're doing it, hopefully enough people will protest to get the studio's attention.

Rating:
Summary: Everybody say "money"! Everybody say "not guilty"!
Review: Robert Clayton Dean is a D.C. lawyer who's about to get some kind of twisted Christmas present from an old friend of college: a tape, which reveals a political assassination. Dean doesn't know he has it, but the people ivolved in the murder do know. And they are prepared for anything in order to get back that type, even if that means destroying Dean's life. But Dean isn't willing to let that happen, even if he doesn't know why they want to destroy them.

What we got here is an intelligent film directed by Tony Scott and for my taste, the best of his career. But that's just my opinion. I was a little skeptical at first, because I didn't think Will Smith could deliver a dramatic performance, but he surprised me, and I am sure I wasn't the only one. Of course, Gene Hackman, Jason Lee, Jon Voight, Barry Pepper, Jack Black, Seth Green, Jamie Kennedy, Scott Caan, Tom Sizemore and Gabriel Byrne have their good things, too. It's an awesome cast in my opinion and they all do their job better than one would expect. I can only complaint about the little screen time Gabriel Byrne has, but it's really ok. And Tom Sizemore, wow, he's great in this one as an italian mobster and who, in my opinion, has the greatest line in the film.

Note that I only give this film 4 stars, but that's because of the DVD edition. It is so lame when it could have been so great. The film gets 5 stars, not the DVD.

Maybe the technology shown in the movie is a little overwhelming and for those who are not into the state of the art electronic devices, this film may seem too far-fetched. The music is superb and the main theme is really a beautiful music piece that really grabs the essence of this movie, which is, in my opinion, the end of privacy. How your actions, even in the privacy of your bedroom, your computer, phone calls, e-mail... everything, can be tapped just to ensure national security. Of course, it's a step beyond, but definately, very plausible.

What's more important to you? Privacy or safety? And if it is indeed safety, how do we know that the people monitoring us aren't using that power for selfish purposes, like depicted in this film. Are we willing to give up our privacy just to feel safe? And how safe would you feel knowing that someone is watching you or listening to everyword that comes out of your mouth? "Only privacy that's left is inside your head and maybe that's enough" one of the characters says. And after September 11, after many of us lost that sense of security, I am quite sure that this would be an interesting debate. To paraphrase another of the characters, "when buildings start blowing up, people priorities tend to change". He's got a point there. But who's there to tell which person is trustworthy enough for me to trust him my privacy, my life?

As Larry King says in the last line of the film: "how do we draw the line between protection of National Security, obviously the government's need to obtain intelligence data, and the protection of civil liberties, particularly the sanctity of my home? You've got no right to come into my home".

Rating:
Summary: WOW!
Review: Enemy of the State is exhilarating to the very end. Will Smith is nothing short of perfection in his struggle to clear his name and save his life. Not only is the mafia in on it but they have a priceless showdown at the end of the movie with NSA agents. (National Security Agency) This movie took me to the edge of my seat and kept me there until I fell off!!!

Rating:
Summary: Will Smith and Gene Hackman take on Big Brother
Review: Will Smith is Robert Clayton Dean, a young yet prominent labor attorney in the DC area who suddenly finds his well ordered life going to hell. Unknown to him, he's accidentally received a video disc implicating the Deputy Director of Operations of the NSA (Jon Voight) in the suspicious death of an influential senator - a disc passed to him moments before its owner's untimely death. Unable to locate the disc, the wicked Dep decides to take Dean's life to pieces - finding much in Smith's character that isn't as ordered as it appears. In fact, Dean's adventures as a labor lawyer frequently have him run up against organized crime bosses, including one played by Tom Sizemore. Worse, to get his information, Smith relies on a shadowy figure named Brill, a man he's never met. Instead, he maintains contact with Brill through a former lover (Lisa Bonet). Drawing a line between Smith and Bonet using their ban accounts, the NSA wreck his personal life and implicate him in embezzlement. On the run from the super-secret NSA with its satellites and its surveillance gear, with nowhere to turn, Dean's only hope is to find the mysterious Brill himself, learn the secret driving his pursuers and hope to fund some way to put his life back together.

Not a lot in "Enemy" makes sense, but it's fast and, with Will Smith, often funny. He's got a flip sense of humor that saves the movie that otherwise has few surprises. Gene Hackman enters the scene as the shadowy Brill running, and he never stops. Brill is essentially paranoia incarnate - though by the time we've met him, we know enough about the Government's surveillance methods to empathize with his fears. Jon Voight plays the latest in a long line of heavies (he was the evil lawyer in "Rainmaker") but otherwise never connects as a villain. But the real star of the flick is the direction, which is fast and coherent at the same time. Otherwise, the flick pays lip service to Hollywood's need for an apparent message (beware nig government's intrusion on your privacy) without making the movie deep enough for you to care. Watch it for the fun.

Rating:
Summary: DO YOU TRUST OUR GOVERNMENT?
Review: This was a very good movie about being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

In the overview of this movie this poor man, in the wrong place at the wrong time, loses his life. He was given something, which he doesn't even know he has. Which implicates a high ranking government official in something that he does not want public. Consequently his life is taken away. His credit cards cancelled, his friends murdered (he is framed) and the one person who can help him does not want to get involved because he knows how the government works. The non-helpful person was part of a government agency in the past. Insights into the NSA and what they are capable of make this movie an eye opener.

Highly recommended movie. Watch it, think about it, worry about it. You must get the movie for the details but this movie is one worth watching and one that will make you think. Along with entertaining you while it is one.

Rating:
Summary: Will Smith's best movie
Review: I think the Net was better than this, this was an exact copy cat, not exactly, but really close. It's only problem is it's predictable. Well, not really, but it's good and you know what the ending will be. But, what else is new. There is a killing of a mayor, and a guy gets it on tape. Then, he hands it to his old friend, which of course, his friend(Will Smith) doesn't know that he did. Half of the FBI are bad guys chasing after Robert Dean(Will Smith), after Robert's friend died. The other half are good guys who have nothing to do with this. Then, Robert loses all his clothes, except one suit which is bugged. His whole house is bugged, with tracers. They can hear everything he does. One day, he runs into a guy named Brill(Gene Hackman) who helps Robert, in a rather unkind way. The story builds up like that, and it's really good, I recommend this, but I recommend the Net even more!

Rating:
Summary: Identity Crisis
Review: ENEMY OF THE STATE is a high-intensity thriller directed by Tony Scott (TOP GUN). Washington D.C. Attorney, Robert Dean (Will Smith) is unknowingly given a piece of evidence that ties a top official in the National Security Agency, (Jon Voight) to a political murder. All at once Dean's life is taken away from him and he is a man on the run. The only way that he can stay one step ahead of his lethal pursuers is to listen to a mysterious opperative (Gene Hackman) and he doesn't exactly trust him either. I think that the movie is saved from being too predictable, thanks to Will Smith and Gene Hackman, you really care about these two characters. Voight's bad guy is your typical bad guy in this film. But he isn't as memorable as, let us say, Dennis Hopper in SPEED or Alan Rickman in DIE HARD. The action is well staged and had enough punch to keep everythings moving. Produced by Jerry Bruckhiemer, the film is better than I anticipated it was going to be when I first heard about it during its theatrical run.

The only extras on the DVD, (aside from the trailer), are 2 mini-featurettes on the making of the film They seem ok but still are nothing more than EPKs (electronic press kits) If you like Smith and Hackman (and who doesn't?) than this is a keeper. This film is what I like to call a "true popcorn eating movie"

Rating:
Summary: An intense 'man on the run' thriller
Review: Enemy of the State may be the best thriller about an innocent man on the run since the movie version of Mission: Impossible. Admittedly, such movies are largely the same story told over and over again with differing interpretations, but director Tony Scott's retelling is one of the most innovative.

These movies almost always revolve around a man caught in the grips of some paranoid government agency. This time, it's the audience that needs to be paranoid, because if such a situation ever happens in real life, we are all up the creek. What makes this one so creepy is the fact that some of the technology depicted actually exists.

The affable Will Smith plays a Washington, DC attorney named Robert Dean. The character is somewhat prone to getting himself into hot water, and when he bumps into an old school chum, he gets some information a federal agency will literally kill to get back. To compound the problem, Dean doesn't even know he possesses such dangerous information. Even when it becomes apparent that some group is after him, as well as his family and friends, he is at first clueless as to what they want and then totally unaware of where what they want is. He's got a definite problem.

The people out to get him work for the Federal Information Agency, which has managed to link together all of our telecommunications technology. They can tap any type of digital telephone and pager at will. They can instantly pull up records on any citizen. They have installed video cameras everywhere and can tap into most private security cameras. If necessary, they can follow people almost anywhere by calling up any of hundred of satellites spinning around Earth. The agency is truly a nightmare come true.

What Dean doesn't know he has is a videotape of a murder. The agency has dispatched an uncooperative Congressman and made it look like an accident. The scene was unwittingly recorded by Dean's old friend, who, realizing what he has and being chased by the bad guys, slips it to Dean moments before his own death.

All of this is done at break neck speed. The movie starts with a bang, and they keep coming until it's over. There is some very fancy camera work and lots of well done special effects. The music is innovative, with a full orchestra playing melodically against an intense electronic theme.

Will Smith seems to be able to do anything. He has been a TV star. He remains a very successful singer. He's starred in two huge hits, Men in Black and Independence Day. This summer he plays in Wild, Wild West. In Enemy of the State, however, the limits of his acting range are more apparent. It's not because this is any more serious than his other films, but because he is playing against two acting giants, Gene Hackman and Jon Voight. Voight is truly menacing as Thomas Reynolds, the man in the agency behind the murder. Hackman is superb as Edward Lyle, the technological master who is Dean's one chance of survival. Not only have these two been making movies since before Smith was born, they both received Academy award nominations when they were about his age. I do like Smith a great deal, and it is possible that he will turn out to be a late bloomer, much like Clint Eastwood and Harrison Ford, who both seemed one- dimensional until they were nearly forty.