Review of Enemy of the State

Introduction

Jerry Bruckheimer movies serve an important purpose in my life, that of mental chewing gum. You don`t have to put any effort in, the characters are nice and 2-dimensional so you don`t have to think and the story is nice and predictable. The end result is 2 hours of pure relaxation with a nice happy ending.

Enemy of the State sticks to this tried and trusted format. Good guys versus the bad guys. What more do you need? I feel that someone else could take the theme of 1984 and Big Brother and make a really good paranoid suspense thriller, but that`s an argument for another forum.

Will Smith is the put-upon lawyer who`s chased by Jon Voight`s NSA man for a video of an assassination. Gene Hackman steps in as the ex G-Man to pull his proverbial nuts out of the fire. Loads of car chases, explosions and shootouts later, cue happy ending.

Video

The Video is anamorphic widescreen, and what can I say? It is the clearest, sharpest transfer possible, no artefacts, no problems whatsoever. At times the picture looked hyper real, perfect for this kind of tech freak film. You could count every zit on the teens running the NSA surveillance.

Audio

Again there is no problem with the sound, a DD 5.1 soundtrack, with everything as clear as a bell. Just one thing though, why is it that every Bruckheimer production since Bad Boys has the same soundtrack? Seriously, check out Bad Boys, Crimson Tide, The Rock and all the others that I`ve forgotten. They all have the same music. They`re hard enough to tell apart as it is. But they all have the same musical themes, the same militaristic music, the same music in the chases, and the same dramatic interludes. Come on Jerry, get the chequebook out and hire a composer.

Features

Features: Buy the DVD and get an Amaray Case absolutely free, also comes with picturesque cover and chapter insert.
That was sarcasm....

Conclusion

In my opinion, this is Will Smith`s best role to date. He`s called on to look scared and perturbed for most of the film and this he manages, but he also creates a believable character as the Lawyer, Robert Dean. This is in contrast to Nic Cage in The Rock, who played Nic Cage. The beauty of these films is that they bring in experience to lend gravitas to a flimsy and usually recycled script. The Rock had Sean Connery, Enemy of the State just brims with talent. Gene Hackman plays "Brill", an ex-NSA man who has been hidden for 15 years, and helps Dean get his life back. Gene Hackman is just doing the day job in this movie yet he still owns the screen. Jon Voight makes a great bad guy, but again he doesn`t seem too stretched. These films always under use the talent and this is no exception. Gabriel Byrne has a blink and you`ll miss it role, Jason Robards gets a needle in the neck, Lisa Bonet gets to look pretty and the supporting cast of every teen TV show (Buffy etc), get to be the NSA computer geeks. Like I said, mental chewing gum.

Overall, it`s a great waste of 2 hours, and you will be entertained. Just don`t expect to learn anything. Great picture, great sound. No extras, but I only paid a tenner for it. FUN!