Enemy Of The State

That's the level of paranoia and government intrusion that we're talking about here. When the biologist (Jason Lee) is pursued and plants his mini-camera and the "hot" tape on an old college acquaintance, things really start to mushroom out of control. That acquaintance--a lawyer named Robert Clayton Dean (Will Smith) who's been fearless enough to play hardball with the mafia on behalf of his labor clients--ends up being the target of physical chases and all sorts of NSA sabotage to his career and identity. Not only is his wife (Regina King) put in danger, but his old girlfriend and current undercover contact (Lisa Bonet) as well. It's not all intrigue, either. There's plenty of action and violence.

The NSA goons are played convincingly by actors like Jake Busey and Scott Caan, with a little geek squad help from Jack Black as the ultimate computer hacker and tracker. In "The Conversation" (1974), Gene Hackman played an eavesdropper. Here, he's an eavesdropout, a former agent who knows the game that's being played and who ends up helping the embattled lawyer fight back.

Smith and Hackman are consummate professionals who quickly make you forget that they're actors and pull you into the drama, and that helps, because we're talking about a movie that swells with paranoia and malicious government mischief.

If you believe that powerful government officials are capable of marshalling all of their agency's underlings and resources to perpetuate the kind of atrocities you see in this film and others like it, "Enemy of the State" provides solid entertainment . . . and maybe a few twinges of paranoia.

Video:
This is an older film by HD standards, and there's an ultra-slight graininess that you usually don't see in Blu-ray, which means that the source materials were a little rough. It's a decent but not great picture. The backgrounds tend to be a little fuzzy. Same with hazy daylight scenes and Christmas lights. There's a decent amount of detail in interior shots and close-ups, but overall it's not nearly the level of detail or black levels that we're seeing on more recent Blu-ray releases such as "Superman Returns." The 1080p Hi-Def picture is presented in 2.35:1 aspect ratio,

Audio:
The sound is a little more what we're used to seeing now, with the 5.1 48kHz, 24-bit uncompressed audio sounding pure and robust, as advertised. There's plenty of movement across the speakers to match the movement of sound across your screen (and implied off-screen areas), and a nice balance between the treble and bass. Other language options are French and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1, with subtitles in English SDH, French, and Spanish.

Extras:
The extras are touted as also being in Hi-Def, but they still look a little rough to me. Four short deleted scenes are included, along with a theatrical trailer and two short behind-the-scenes features that show the actors practicing their craft on-set. The bonus features are letterboxed so that they play at a 1.33:1 aspect ratio.

And if the film didn't give you enough to think about, listen to Will Smith talk about the film's level of believability: "Anything that you see in a movie, you have to believe we're 10 or 15 years behind what they actually have." You can bet that the next time a president visits Smith's town, he's going to be on their call-list.

Bottom Line:
"Enemy of the State" is a solid thriller, one which is eerily prescient, given the Patriot Act and all the unauthorized wiretapping and surveillance that the Bush administration has been engaged in. It's a good movie to add to your collection, though the source materials for this 1998 film aren't so pristine that it makes the Blu-ray a must-add.

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