Review of Enemy of the State (1998) by Spangle — 09 Jan 2015

Enemy of the State is a very slick political spy thriller directed by Tony Scott, the late director who certainly could be called a master of thrills. He does a great job here creating an entertaining and well made thriller that certainly keeps you on the edge of your seat for the most part as every twist and turn really grabs you.

For the first three quarters of this one, it certainly does not break much new ground, but is very entertaining and contains great performances from Will Smith, Gene Hackman, Jon Voight, and Barry Pepper.

It does a great job creating thrills without having to resort to guns for the most part, which is always a breath of fresh air for me. However, towards the end, it all goes off course and it really puts a damper on the movie for me.

One scene in particular kind of hits the breaks and felt very, very Hollywood. Throughout all of the preceding elements, this one felt very realistic, which is what really contributed a lot to the thrills provided, but the ending, again, kind of kills that a bit for me.

However, this one is still very timely all the way to 2015, even though it was released in 1998 and really delivers on every front you can ask from a film of this type.