Enemy of the State

First of all, they showed the Star Wars trailer before the movie, which alone made Enemy of the State worth checking out. Only six months until the Stars Wars movie actually opens...

Enemy of the State is being billed a techno thriller, and I suppose that's accurate. But the fact is, it's John Grisham run through the Tom Clancy blender. The plot line is what Deb refers to as "Run, Lawyer, Run!" with some nifty surveillance shots. In other words, enjoyable, but they didn't exactly reinvent the genre.

Will Smith stars as Robert Clayton Dean, a successful attorney in the wrong place at the wrong time. He runs into an old friend from law school, who's being chased by goons after discovering one of the video tapes he collects from this nature preserve captured the murder of a Congressman by the director of the National Security Association (Jon Voight wholly enjoying his career renaissance as Movie Villain). The friend drops the tape into Dean's bag when he's not looking, and before he knows it, Dean is being railed by the government. They break into his house and rip the place to shreds, but not before installing some tracking devices to some of his clothes.

Accused of cheating on his wife (something he had actually done a few years back) and a whole laundry list of other things in the paper, Dean is fired by his law firm and is thrown out of the house by his wife. With his credit cards and bank cards already canceled (a la The Net), Dean is running out of places to go and people to turn to in order to get his life back. And he still has no idea why he's being dogged like this. In steps Gene Hackman as a former NSA goon who reluctantly helps Dean stay alive and figure out how to get the government back.

Enemy of the State was directed by Tony Scott, who is batting around .500 in my book. When he's good, he's really good (Top Gun. Crimson Tide, True Romance). When he's bad, he's unbelievably bad (The Last Boy Scout, Revenge, The Fan). This movie winds up closer to the former list, though it's really somewhere in between the two lists. One of the good things about it is it has a relatively low body count, which is very atypical for a Jerry Bruckheimer production. One of the not so good things is that it seems to be more impressed with its gadgetry than its story line. The opening sequence looks like it was guest directed by Oliver Stone, with loads of time lapse photography that's dizzying. The rest of it is vintage Tony Scott, with odd camera angles, lots of computer babble, and his old standby, a Mexican standoff.

Another cool thing about Enemy was that there are tons of people in this movie. I was having lots of fun trying to figure out who was who. You have the sharpshooter from Saving Private Ryan, Jake Busey from Starship Troopers, Jason Lee from Chasing Amy, James LeGros from Living in Oblivion, Jamie Kennedy from the Scream movies, and a whole bunch of others. It was a smart move; he probably spent a million or so getting a bunch of good actors in his movie, which is very economical. Ultimately, however, the movie is hampered by the familiarity of the story line. How many more movies are they going to make about lawyers on the run?

I can understand Will Smith taking this part. He's a very likable actor and he needed to broaden his adult appeal after Independence Day and Men in Black.  Smith made this movie more watchable than it otherwise may have been. In the end, it's just eye candy. Tastes good, but not very good for you.