Movie, roller coaster ride

Suspense slowly builds and then comes together in high-flying end

By Jimmy Chai, Online Forty-Niner

November 16, 1998

"Enemy of the State" is a high-action, special effects movie, starring Will Smith and Gene Hackman.

Much like a roller coaster, the movie takes awhile to climb to the top but gives a thrilling ride at the end.

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MOVIE REVIEW

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Director Tony Scott ("The Fan") is the driving force behind this multi-layered movie.

The roller coaster begins moving when the murder of a U.S. congressman is captured on digital video by Daniel Zavitz (Jason Lee), a nature photographer. Running from National Security

Agency agents lead by Thomas Brian Reynolds (Jon Voight), the man responsible for the murder, Zavitz heads into a lingerie store where he runs into hotshot lawyer Robert Clayton Dean, a man in the right place at the wrong time.

Dean is slipped the digital video disk without his knowledge and soon the focus turns to this unsuspecting individual.

Dean, who does not know he possesses the tape, gets fired

from his job and goes through marital turmoil caused by propaganda set up by the agency, which has enough political and

technological power to make two plus two equal five.

But the agency did not account for ex-intelligence operative and underground information broker Brill (Gene Hackman), who knows Dean through a mutual friend, Rachel Banks (Lisa Bonet), and helps Dean discover the people behind his misfortunes.

Using high-tech gadgets, Brill and Dean manages to fight the

agency micro chip to micro chip.

As the movie reaches its peak, all the story lines come

together in a hands-in-the-air thrilling end.

A frightening factor throughout the movie is that cameras are everywhere.

Screenwriter David Marconi does an excellent job of creating an entertaining film without overstating Hollywood's recent agenda with the right to privacy.

With comedy, action and philosophical thoughts, "Enemy of the State" contains all levels of entertainment.