Enemy of the State (1998, R)
Directed by Tony Scott (Crimson Tide)
Written Don Macroni (The Harvest)
Starring Will Smith (Bad Boys), Gene Hackman (Antz), Jon Voight (Rosewood), Lisa Bonet (Dead Connection), Regina King (Jerry Maguire), Tom Sizemore (Saving Private Ryan), Jason Lee (Chasing Amy)
As reviewed by James Brundage
Well it's about time. Personally, I was getting fed up seeing these bloody MTV directors going around thinking their making art when all their really doing is boring us. Sure, they make great videos, but then they come back and end up not wowing us for the more than three minutes that a music video is supposed to. They have all the technical talent for the job, just not of the creative ability to do the task put in front of them.
But now the reign of terror -- which has been dragging on since the video music era ended and the market for music video directors dried up -- and we're allowwed to finally view good work from the people. Tony Scott (Crimson Tide, Top Gun, True Romance) is back with Jerry Bruckheimer (Crimson Tide, Top Gun) going at forming a cool action flick.
Among the other reunions are Jerry Bruckheimer, Tony Scott, and Gene Hackman (Crimson Tide) and Jerry Bruckheimer and Will Smith (Bad Boys), and all of these people finally sat down, decided to get over the death of Don Simpson and turn out a movie that was more than just spur of the moment fun-once (Armageddon). It's just as cliched as every other flick they've ever turned out, but hell, what is lacking in storyline is made up in the F/Xs and editing, which make the quick cuts of the Aussie Kiss or Kill look like child's play.
Will Smith is a labor attorney who's life is invaded when an old college buddy (Jason Lee: Mallrats, Chasing Amy) passes him a tape in a lingerie store while running from evil NSA agents. The tape contains film of the murder of a congressman who was opposed to a congressional bill that would allow surveillance on everyone, and, of course, Jon Voight, Jamie Kennedy, and a bunch of NSA cronies who look like they need to get laid end up chasing after him.
On the run from the NSA, he hooks up with ex-NSA investigator Gene Hackman, who will together get his life back while the bullets are shooting and the techno-babble is flying. So the plot's straight-foreword? So it rips off of the indie character drama The End of Violence? Who cares? The thing that makes the film cool and stylish isn't the work of Will Smith (which helps), or the MTV-generation surveillance experts, to whom intelligence is just a game. It's the editing that is the music video director's wet dream and the F/Xs that make even the seasoned vetern smile.
They finally put the MTV experience to good use in the elaborate surveillance scenes, in which you do everything from view the world from a satellite's view to the same kind of oddball camera angles (i.e. from buttons) as The Truman Show so wonderfully displayed.
You go through hundreds, perhaps thousands of shots in all of the chase scenes, switching from surveillance camera to surveillance camera. The paranoia is effective and infectious, the angles creative.
They have to start having new Oscars, ones for creativity in Cinematography instead of ones that show just pretty camera angles. Why? Because someone should get an award for this.
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