Enemy
of the State
(1998)
Rated: R
Runtime: 2 Hour and 12 Minutes
Reviewer: Dale
Grade: FTo label this movie as a "thriller" is the ultimate in false advertising. There is nothing thrilling in this movie. There is nothing fun about this movie. There is nothing particularly entertaining about this movie. This movie is, quite frankly, a mess from start to finish.
"Enemy of the State" is about this guy who gets some government material and..blah,blah, blah. Apparently some guys start doing round the clock surveillance on him and Seth Green sits in a van and... yada, yada, yada.
Here is a synopsis of my reactions during "Enemy of the State".
Hey, wow! Jason Robards is in this! Cool! Oh, wait. He's dead.
Hey, neat! Jason Lee is in this! Watch out for that bus! Oh, wait, he's dead.
Hey, Gabriel Byrne is in this..... well, not anymore.
Isn't Gene Hackman supposed to be in this?
I didn't care about the characters, so therefore I did not care whether they lived or died. I did not care how the plot turned out. I was not "riveted" by the premise. I had already seen "The Truman Show" and "Mission Impossible". Thanks anyway. Will Smith coasts through this movie on auto-pilot. He tries to make you laugh, but the jokes just don't work. Gene Hackman just sits around looking like a refugee from a Metamucil ad (he would be playing the "Before" character). You can tell that he is in this belabored exercise solely for the paycheck. Hackman must have a hell of a coke habit, that's all I can say. The cinematography reminded me of someone's vacation videos. If you rent this movie, invest in some Dramamine first. The editing, the camera angles, the entire thing seems to be ripped from a page of "Paint By Number Action Movie" and the director does not imbue the film with any semblance of style or mood. Who was the director, anyway? Michael Bay? Tony Scott? Simon West? I can't keep track any more. They all have the same mood lighting, the same frenzied, what-am-I-supposed-to-be-seeing, hummingbird camera movement and the same dark, "Look, Ma, I'm Blade Runner!" production design.
Rent at your own risk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!