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.
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.