Sunday, January 17, 2016

Enemy of the State (1998)

Director: Tony Scott

Writer: David Marconi

Composers: Hary Gregson-Williams, Trevor Rabin

Starring: Will Smith, Gene Hackman, Jon Voight, Lisa Bonet, Regina King, Stuart Wilson, Laura Cayouette, Loren Dean, Barry Pepper, Ian Hart, Jake Busey, Scott Caan, Jason Lee, Gabriel Byrne, Jack Black, Jamie Kennedy, Anna Gunn, Seth Green, Philip Baker Hall, Tom Sizemore

More info: IMDb

Tagline: It's not paranoia if they're really after you.

Plot: A lawyer becomes a target by a corrupt politician and his NSA goons when he accidentally receives key evidence to a serious politically motivated crime.



My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

Tony Scott knew how to make a picture with good action and better pacing.  The performances are good and what you'd expect although they're not going to garner any big time acting awards but that doesn't hurt his films.  On those levels, this film succeeds for me but then it's also over loaded with sound effects for every fucking thing that happens on every computer monitor and electronic device.  That much I hated, as I generally despise Hollywood's tendency to over-use sound.  It's a good enough thriller and I always welcome seeing anything that Gene Hackman is in.  If there's one big positive I can part about this picture is that it makes me want to dust off my copy of THE CONVERSATION (1974), a MUCH better film along the same lines as this one, and give it another spin.  The Touchstone DVD I have/about to be had is in non-anamorphic widescreen (boo) and the extras you get are the theatrical trailer (also non-anamorphic widescreen), two fluff featurettes (with a combined total of a whopping 5 minutes), and trailers for ARMAGEDDON, THE ROCK, and CON AIR. Yawn.

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