Enemy of the State

For the second week in a row, an action movie has opened that, in addition to delivering the explosion/chase/unnecessary gunfire goods, attempts to deliver a Message. In addition, both of these action movies feature charming, intelligent black leads (Will Smith, of course, this time) trying to extract help and information from aging white folks from the higher echelons of the government (Gene Hackman here) to deal with situations they don't entirely understand. The similarities end just about here, but that's more than you'll get with most movies. You know, maybe these movies about government secrets and misdeeds are just what the government wants us to think that it does in its spare time. Maybe what they really do, at the highest levels, where accountability is spread thin and egos take over the reins of our most crucial policy decisions, they're playing a truly endless game of...contract bridge. (Cue monodic minor-key piano music.)

No, actually, this movie is a lot sillier than "The Siege." The commercials feature people talking, but the real soul of this movie is in its electronics fetish. Contrapositing Yossarian's famous line "Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get me," this movie says "It's not paranoia if they're really out to get you" and then shows exactly how they would go about doing that, if they felt like it. This is a horror film for Luddites, and frankly it fills the bill okay for everyone else too. Although guns are displayed in a very casual manner throughout the movie, very few of them are fired until the last twenty minutes, and the massive fireball that has been showing up in previews and commercials (and what would an action movie be without a massive fireball?) also comes toward the end of the movie.

The tension comes from the effortless ruining of Will Smith's life using technology, and then of course the effortless endangerment of it by people running after him with guns (which, again, aren't fired for a while). It's a neat little package the movie delivers: Will Smith is affected by technology that the National Security Agency wishes to be able to use to affect anyone they damn well feel like (which is the plot engine, such as it is, of this movie). Tony Scott's hyperkinetic direction, perfectly matched to its subject, helps a lot with creating the proper atmosphere of invulnerable technology vs. vulnerable guy.

This movie relies very heavily on Will Smith to be a charismatic yet communicative person, so that we can admire him while thinking that someday we could be in his position of arbitrary persecution by an enormously powerful government agency if we too were highly paid Hollywood action stars. In fact, the only way anything scary is ever scary is if we can identify with the menaced person somehow, and Will Smith is absolutely effortless at letting the audience identify with him. The thing about it is, if Arnold Schwartzenegger was having his life ruined by allegations of mob ties and cheating on his wife, he might act sad, but you'd know he really welcomed the opportunity and motive to hunt down and kill bad guys. Will Smith lets the movie work and helps it out, as he has done with every other movie he's been in. The Fresh Prince may be ready to ascend the throne of action moviemaking.

This movie has some fairly obvious flaws. For one thing, although the message that "Rogue white guys in our government have too much power" is a very salient one, it is also turf that has not been unexplored by previous movies (and the attempt to wrap it in devilish references to the Clinton-Monica morass did not go unnoticed by anyone in the theater, as far as I could tell). Also, its ending is really really stupid (remember: the guns start firing towards the end), and extremely disappointing after the high-tech hijinx and thrills of the first three-quarters of the movie. (In case you think I am making some kind of unsupported personal judgment here, I heard someone say as I came out of the theater, "The ending definitely could have been better." So it's only every other opinion in this review that is unsupported.) But the stupidness of the ending did not stick in my craw like with "Zorro," probably because although it's stupid, it's at least not protracted. This movie, although it's intelligent and well-made, is not going to change anyone's life. But it is a damn entertaining couple hours at the multiplex.

Attractive Man Count: An obvious 1. Someone in the local paper said Gene Hackman is "sexy," but I don't see it nowadays, and Jon Voight looks like a blowfish, so we'll stick with 1.

Attractive Woman Count: Lisa Bonet is in this movie! Remember her? And Will Smith's wife, while not a bombshell or anything, is pretty nice to look at. 2

Overall Grade: B+.

Extra Bonus Stuff!

• Gary Hart has been waiting ten long years since the press ruined his presidential campaign by taking his dare to follow him onto a boat to prove his adultery. Now he's lean, mean and thirsty for blood in... "Enemy of the Fourth Estate."
• An Italian immigrant gets to travel the corridors of power and hobnob with the famous when he is selected to supply the President's colonic irrigations, in the heartwarming and touching tale of the American Dream gone right, "Enema of the State."

Yep, I said "Enema of the State." The 2000 elections not having happened yet, I couldn't see how to get to "Enema of the Fourth Estate." Also nowadays I would probably give more props to Gene Hackman's continuing sexiness, but I have to go with what I thought when I saw the film.

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