Enemy of the State

Despite being over 25 years old, Tony Scott's 1998 action thriller Enemy of the State remains highly topical as it covers privacy and security in a world of increasing surveillance but might not be one of the most talked about films of the 1990s. It had been years since I had last seen this but feeling determined to get some value out of my Disney+ subscription, I wanted to go back and see how this held up today. I couldn't recall it being one of the director's best but still had some positive memories from the first time watching this.

The story here follows Will Smith's lawyer getting accidentally caught with incriminating evidence proving a government official had a congressman assassinated. With the power of the CIA's latest technology, the shady official turns Smith's life upside down and forces him to go on the run with very little to aid him in any way.

Released three years after Crimson Tide, Scott reunited with the late Gene Hackman and stars Smith in the leading role. The story, just like I remembered, is very quick to engage with as we see Smith's character forced to leave their family in order to protect them. The wrongly accused man having to fight in order to put wrongs to right has been done many times before but Scott handles it all with ease in a number of exciting action set pieces.

There are the odd moments where the 1990s stylistic choices somewhat show their age but they never detract when the chase is on, but the film does faulter towards the end in the final act when everything draws to a close. The suspense is still there but, without spoilers, the culminating events just felt a little too convenient and small scale when the film should leading towards a grander, more thematic conclusion instead of a messy shootout. 

Nit-picking the end aside, Enemy of the State still boasts great performances from Smith and Hackman who are great together, and will be more than enough to keep you entertained over the two hour running time. It's not Scott's strongest entry in his filmography but this is still a fun one to recommend.