Enemy of the State 

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Director: Tony Scott
Cast: Will Smith, Gene Hackman, Jon Voight, Regina King, Jason Robards Will Smith and Gene Hackman
Genre: Action

There's a new kind of action flick out, folks, and its genre is something like this: "Serious Action Movie That Doesn't REALLY Take Itself Seriously So You Shouldn't Either." I doubt Blockbuster or Visart will go ahead and print up those plaques, but they might as well. Movies like "Enemy of the State" seem serious enough, but there's just too many pyrotechnics and unbelievably cool satellite shots for you to feel any other emotion besides "yowza!"

The infinitely-likable Will Smith stars as a lawyer who, as the movie begins, is finding himself embroiled in a bad Mafia scene. Meanwhile, uber-baddie Jon Voight (borrowing his attitude from his turn in "Mission Impossible") is trying to get a bill passed through Congress that will end an American's right to privacy as we know it. Someone accidentally records one of his transgressions, the tape accidentally ends up in Will Smith's Christmas bag, and then... it's off to the races!

Sure, it sounds silly, and it is. The movie tries to raise important questions about satellite surveillance and electronic invasion, but those homilies feel forced and flat against the backdrop of Will Smith scaling the walls of hotels in nothing but a pair of boxers. The more interesting stuff lies, of course, in Gene Hackman. As the movie progresses, we begin to like the hypoglycemic nut that may be the only way Will Smith can get out alive—and better yet, movie fans will recognize his character from somewhere else. Living in a warehouse cage, expertly deciphering audio and visual code, emotionally cut off from the world while still monitoring its every move... yep, it's Gene Hackman's paranoiac character from "The Conversation," the 1974 movie that is a forgotten jewel in Francis Ford Coppola's crown. It's an inside joke that the movie is just smart enough to acknowledge, and it keeps this thing relentlessly fun.

—Ian Williams

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