20 november 1998		enemy of the state: the review a ken starr kind of thing.
Running news: None.		Enemy of the State is a very good, very tight thriller from, of all people, Jerry Bruckheimer and Tony Scott. I was amazed at how tight the script was, actually, except for one major coincidence that bugged the hell out of me but didn't bother either Darin or Harry, with whom I saw the flick. A rogue faction (of course) of the NSA murders a Congressman who opposes a bill that would undermine personal liberties and security. (And it's a Republican congresscritter. Bwah hah hah.) The murder gets recorded on tape, and the tape gets passed to Will Smith by accident. The NSA--or, rather, its rogue faction--destroys Smith's life in order to get that tape back. How Smith fights the Power with the help of Gene Hackman (more specifically, his character from The Conversation) makes up the bulk of the movie. This movie totally coasts on Will Smith's likeability. If you don't like him, you won't like this movie. I happen to like him a lot. He and Cuba Gooding Jr. have made a lot of bad experiences into tolerable ones through sheer force of likeability. Gene Hackman is perfect as the schlumpy security expert. Everybody else is pretty generic. Darin and I enjoyed watching Seth Green, who didn't make it into the credits but is just as great as Jamie Kennedy, who clearly has the better agent because he does make it into the credits. The ending is ridiculous--shades of True Romance and every Hong Kong film that ripped off--but fun nonetheless.
		Copyright 1998 Diane Patterson Send comments and questions to diane@spies.com