merelyaninnuendo Enemy Of The StateThe vulnerability and the intense drama sequences are score on high pitches that speaks to the audience where even its amazing background score too factors in. David Marconi's screenplay is the real gem that bridges between the fiction and practicality in here. The execution by the director Tony Scott fails to justify the script where neither d.o.p. nor editing works on its favor. Will Smith is genuinely good in his portrayal and is supported with a great cast like Jon Voight and Gene Hackman. Enemy Of The State lacks a fresh concept or perspective, but the gripping screenplay and stellar performance is enough to hold the audience for its more than 2 hours of runtime.

shaanhooey 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.

ashleybrownmedia 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.

Python Hyena Enemy of the State (1998): Dir: Tony Scott / Cast: Will Smith, Gene Hackman, Jon Voight, Regina King, Barry Pepper: The enemy in question is not asked within the compounds of the screenplay but rather in our own view on political issues. Will Smith plays a lawyer caught in a scheme where he must clear his name. Recycled plot yet director Tony Scott builds upon mystery elements to render it more detailed and a tad more intelligent than perhaps it is perceived as being. Smith gains accidental possession of a disc containing footage of the murder of a congressman. Gene Hackman appears after a third party is murdered. Scott shows skill here after making the highly overrated Top Gun and the vampire gore fest The Hunger. Smith is effective as a lawyer placed within a dire situation where he must clear his name. We know the outcome to this and that everything Smith lost he will regain. Hackman is in top form as a mysterious contact who has laid low for a very long time. Hackman is the reason to see the film specifically for his methods of outsmarting the enemy. Jon Voight plays the villain caught on camera committing murder and makes Smith's life difficult when he pursues a device placed in his possession. This will ultimately arrive at the standard shootout. Regina King is standard issue as Smith's wife. Pure action that should please fans of the genre. Score: 7 ½ / 10