Enemy of the State . Tucson Weekly . 01-04-99

Enemy of the State

DIRECTED BY: Tony Scott

REVIEWED: 01-04-99

This tribute to Francis Ford Coppola's early masterpiece The Conversation takes the star of that film, Gene Hackman, and hands him a heavy-handed action script, Will Smith's bubbly Mr. Goody-Two-Shoes as a co-star, and lots of explosions in order to deaden any of the impact that Coppola's film had. Enemy of the State tries to raise questions about the surveillance society through a story wherein a young lawyer (Smith) is observed and undermined by the NSA, which utilizes every security camera and spy satellite in the world just to track one guy who's running around D.C. in his pajamas. For good measure, it throws in offensive stereotypes of Asians, Italians and Mexicans, as well as some unconvincing speeches, a cute little boy and a series of deus-ex-machina rescues. No doubt Coppola's aesthetic sensibilities are spinning in their grave.

--DiGiovanna

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Enemy of the State

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Enemy of the State
Enemy of the State
Enemy of the State

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Crimson Tide
The Hunger

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