Enemy of the State (1998, R)

Enemy of the State, the 1998 action-politicial-thriller directed by Tony Scott, is an exciting, pulse-pounding movie. Most of the time. The plot is quite overused, the camerawork is shaky, and the end comes off in cheapy fashion.

Will Smith was an action-hero long before this pic came out. The difference is that he either had co-starring roles (Independence Day is one example), or shared the starring role (Bad Boys and it's sequel are another example). On the cover of the movie, it makes clear that Smith and Gene Hackman are the stars. Hackman does not appear until approximately an hour into the movie, and even afterwards, he isn't given alot to do either then to guide Smith the rest of the way. That's a shame, because Hackman is such a fine actor.

An American senator wants to pass a legislation allowing the NSA to expand it's surveillance powers. A congressman, Phil Hammersley (Jason Robards), disapproves, and without his vote, the legislation cannot pass. NSA official, Thomas Reynolds (Jon Voight), has Hammersley killed in a park; however, a video camera deployed by a wildlife researcher to research the local waterfowl gets the incident on tape. The tape winds up in the hands of family-man/lawyer Robert Dean (Will Smith), and what follows is the NSA trying to catch Dean in a series of chases and shootouts while he manages to outsmart them and runs away not knowing what the heck to do next.

The camera work is often shaky, so that a lot of the time it's hard to comprehend what's going on. The plot, at least for an action-film, is overused. I could figure out after the first hour (when Hackman finally appears on screen), that Voight's character would either be arrested or killed, the bill would not pass, and Smith's character would return a happy man to his family.  Turns out, I was right.

The best thing about this pic is Smith's performance. Many just might as well dismiss Smith as simply an action-star. His performance does rise above the material in Enemy of the State quite a bit, and enough to prove to me that's actually a good actor just as well as he an action-star.

Intricate is what it wants to be. Partly entertaining it is most of the time. But an overall good flick it is not. I can think a lot of other movies, action films or not, that I could take over Enemy of the State, although then again, I can think of a lot of other movies that I couldn't take over this one. Either way, this is an overrated film, as it was released to positive critical reviews, and yet another action hit at the box-office. For me, there's nothing special here.

                          ** ½ /5