lukem-52760 What an excellent exciting hi Tec Thriller this is!!! A 90s Classic that i watched so many times on video & absolutely love it. Will Smith gives a BRILLIANT performance here as Robert Clayton Dean a lawyer who's life gets turned up side down when he's targeted by the government!!! Gene Hackman the legendary actor is also fantastic as well as the BRILLIANT John voight this movie is full of great actors a really good cast & it introduced me to the BRILLIANT BARRY PEPPER & JACK BLACK!!! ENEMY OF THE STATE is a real exciting chase Thriller with tons of Action & great performances!!! One of Smith's best movies & one of the best Thrillers ever MADE!!!

Nadine Salakov First things first, the film score composed by Harry Gregson-Williams is catchy and suits the motion picture.If you're paranoid do not watch this movie, if you love an entertaining techno-thriller, then this should be watched more than once.The most recent movie that is similar to this is "Snowden" and it is nothing new, we've seen that type of thing portrayed in this 90s flick "Enemy Of The State", and out of the two films "Enemy Of The State" is so much better in every way, "Snowden" is a drama, whereas "Enemy Of The State" is an action thriller that is fast-paced and lively."Enemy Of The State" has brilliant performances, great dialogue (not all the time though), professional directing and decent scenery. There is a couple of errors, and the first error is when "Robert Dean" (Will Smith) snaps at a couple of people when things are not going well for him, the people that i'm talking about are people who did nothing wrong to him at all, it's understandable that he's under pressure and him snapping at the people who are causing him grief is fine, he's not perfect and we have to see him stressed at some point, but the writers/editors should have excluded those two scenes where he is snapping at people who were innocent - the scenes are when his assistant tells him twice that there's people there to see him and he replies very rudely with "I heard you the first time, thank you", the second scene is when he leaves his briefcase on the floor by his feet while trying to check into a hotel, one of those CIA guys walks past and very discreetly picks up "Robert Dean's" briefcase and walks out of the hotel with it, "Robert Dean" then says to the hotel receptionist that his briefcase was right there and that it just disappeared, she asks him "Are you sure you brought it in?" and he replies very angrily and shouts at her saying the words "YES I'M SURE I BROUGHT IT IN!", (the question she asked is a little silly, but he told her his briefcase is missing, so what is she supposed to do? ignore him? plus it is "Robert Dean's" own fault that his briefcase got stolen, you never leave your briefcase by your feet while being preoccupied with something else) and if you watch that scene carefully - even the lady beside him who is checking herself in looks round shockingly at him because that is just a natural response to outrageous unnecessary over the top behaviour. The writers need to keep in mind that if they want viewers to like a character, make sure that he is likable from start to finish.Another error in this movie is to do with some character's faults and some of the faults of the script/writing, and that's when "Robert Dean" is arguing with his wife "Carla Dean" (Regina King), she speaks truth about him going behind her back and having business-type meetings with "Rachel F. Banks" (Lisa Bonet) - (a woman who "Robert Dean" had an affair with in the past) and while on the subject of "Rachel F. Banks" she is unlikable, her death scene is not sad because the movie fails to make her someone we should even care about (we see that she is a selfish woman who only goes after married men, clearly women like this don't care about the affects that an affair will have on people's families) the writers do not give viewers a reason to like her, she's cold and standoffish and when she's not that she is paranoid and talks down to the only person that is giving her the time of day. They did not continue the affair, their meetings were business only, but considering their history it is understandable why "Carla" lost it and kicked "Robert" out, you don't have to be married to know that it's a bad idea to have business meetings with the person you used to have an affair with, you'd think a lawyer would know that."Enemy Of The State" also brings humour in the right places mainly between "Robert Dean" and "Carla Dean", small amounts of humour always works well in thriller movies.The mob aspect isn't that bad, if they'd have had more screen time it would have ruined the movie, mob depictions are extremely boring, thankfully that aspect took a back seat as a supporting role/circumstance.This cine is set around Christmastime which is a nice touch, there's just something about thrillers set around the holidays that makes them much more fun.

seymourblack-1 A nightmare-vision of "the surveillance society" provides this political thriller with its sinister backdrop. Spy satellites, hidden cameras and all sorts of high-tech paraphernalia are seen being used by the National Security Agency to routinely monitor and even destroy the lives of the individuals they're watching. Their power and efficiency are awesome but when, as in this story, the staff involved are taking their orders from a top official who's gone rogue, things soon get very threatening.A U.S. Congressman, who's opposed to a new Bill that's designed to make government snooping more extensive, is met at a lakeside location by high-ranking NSA Officer Thomas Brian Reynolds (Jon Voight). When Reynolds fails to change the Congressman's voting intentions, one of his operatives kills the politician and makes his sudden death look like an accident. Shortly after, when the authorities arrive on the scene to investigate, a nature photographer is seen removing a videotape from a nearby hide and the NSA immediately swing into action to locate the recording in case it contains any incriminating evidence. Photographer Daniel Leon Zavitz (Jason Lee) soon discovers that his tape contains a full recording of the murder and quickly makes a computer disk copy before going on the run from the NSA agents who are already pursuing him.During the high-speed chase that follows, Zavitz bumps into an old college friend who's doing some Christmas shopping and drops the disk into one of his bags before running away. Successful Washington DC lawyer, Robert Clayton Dean (Will Smith) doesn't realise that he's now carrying the disk and watches in horror as his old friend's attempt to escape his pursuers ends in his death after he's knocked down by a fire truck. The NSA rapidly realise that Dean probably has the disk and take swift action to hunt him down. In order to discredit him as forcefully as possible, they spread false information that leads to him being fired from his job and his wife being given the impression that he's still in a relationship with one of his ex-girlfriends. Suddenly unemployed and thrown out of his home by his wife, he then discovers that his credit cards have been cancelled and his bank accounts have been frozen.Dean, who doesn't know who he's being chased by or why, remains bewildered until he meets up with a former NSA agent called Edward "Brill" Lyle (Gene Hackman) who'd spent time working for the Agency in Iran during the 1979 revolution. He's an irritable and belligerent man who, having been a recluse for many years, is reluctant to get involved in Dean's problems, but is in reality, the only hope that Dean has of getting himself out of the predicament he's in. After some uncomfortable initial exchanges, Brill explains to Dean exactly what's happening to him before they team up to carry out a series of actions to enable Dean to get his life back on track."Enemy Of The State" hits the ground running and never stops for breath until it reaches its exciting climax. Predictably, for this type of thriller, it's full of well-choreographed chases, well-executed stunts and numerous explosions but also has more substance than the average action movie because of its interesting story and the cautionary nature of what's depicted on-screen. Highly effective editing techniques complement the rapid pace of the action brilliantly and there's a consistent tension that makes it a real edge-of-the-seat movie.The quality of the acting is superb throughout with even the minor roles featuring top-class actors. Will Smith does a great job as an ordinary guy who suddenly finds himself caught up in something he doesn't understand and Gene Hackman and Jon Voight are both excellent in their roles.This movie, which was a great box office success, is exhilarating to watch, visually impressive and simply great entertainment.

breakdownthatfilm-blogspot-com For certain aspects in life, there are specific things the average person has no control of. How other individuals interact with each other, how well a piece of operating equipment works or how technology advances itself forward are just a couple of examples. In the current world of today where computers are basically apart of everyone's lives, it's not that difficult for someone to find information on another person. All anyone has to do is go to any search engine whether it be Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask etc. and they'll at least get 2 to 3 webpages about or are connected to them in some way. It's the scary truth, being on the internet is not always the safest place to be. Looking back on Enemy of the State (1998) it seems that director Tony Scott and writer David Marconi have produced a piece of cinema that is an underrated gem that feels more significant now than it ever was the year it was released.The story is about an attorney/family man Robert Dean (Will Smith) being unknowingly jammed into a big government conspiracy about a rouge senator Thomas Reynolds (Jon Voight) wanting to pass a bill that'll begin invading the privacy of the US residents. What Dean has that he doesn't know about is a videotape that a suspect hid in his bag that had visual evidence that Reynolds is behind the killing of congressman Hammersley (Jason Robards) who supported individual privacy. The idea of homeland security has always been a controversial topic since the concept was ever brought to fruition and using that as an undercurrent for the script's plot was a thought provoking move on Marconi's part. As stated before with technology being a much bigger proprietor for internet access, the ability to be researched is a lot easier than it was displayed in this movie. Dean ends up being hacked from all directions - his house & mobile phone, home and satellite. Now there's that, the internet, social media and a slew of other devices that make it easy to track someone.Another part about the writing that is effective is how many times Marconi will keep the audience guessing. Every time there's a point where progress occurs, Marconi writes in an event that creates a new roadblock and a new solution plan has to be made. It's clever because most scripts are cut and dry with either one or (maybe) two remedies to a problem. This at least has three or four and its uncommon, which is good because it keeps the viewers guessing. The only component to the writing that doesn't make sense is how a supporting character was able to figure out where the FBI was located. Isn't the FBI supposed to be covert in their operations? It's a little weird that their main office doesn't seem to feel so secret. Other than that, almost every step of execution to this story is woven in such a way that'll have the viewer on the edge of their seat.The acting is well done too. Will Smith as Robert Dean plays his character differently compared to other past roles. Throughout the majority of the running time Smith plays his character like an average family man; humble, respectful, caring and not cocky. Occasionally a small bit of the old-school Will Smith humor arises from the cracks but for the situation he's put into, sarcasm sometimes feels like it was needed. Tagging along side later on is Gene Hackman as Edward Lyle, an ex-NSA agent who knows the inner workings of the system and provides some frightening insight to how things run inside the government. With Hackman being a lot older, he plays it up as a grumpy man when he's hungry and although he's not the nicest sounding, he does care at certain instances. Behind these two are a ton of other cast members consisting of Jason Lee, Scott Caan, Jake Busey, Stuart Wilson, Regina King, Lisa Bonet, Gabriel Byrne, Jack Black, Jamie Kennedy, Larry King, Tom Sizemore and even Seth Green.The cinematography provided by Daniel Mindel had a interesting look to it as well. Since this film involves surveillance of various individuals, the camera will have numerous angles to sit at. That means being hidden cameras in various objects, or among the buildings and street property. Then there's also the satellite tracking cameras that usually fly straight down to the location that's being focused on and then watching what's going on from a bird's eye view. Now obviously, the flying down from space to earth is CGI but after that it looks very real. Mindel later worked on other big budget films like Mission: Impossible III (2006), Star Trek (2009), its sequel and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014). The music composed by Trevor Rabin and Harry Gregson-Williams appropriately has the right mix of synthetic and organic sounding orchestra. There are also two main themes, one for the film and another for Hackman's character. They are not that memorable but they do show up more than once and that's good. The action cues aren't as well developed but they do elevate the experience.Besides one plot hole being a bit too noticeable, the rest of the film is fine. The large cast of actors are effective in their roles, the cinematography carries lots of bird's eye view shots, the music is appropriate and the writing has smart context in its narrative.