Enemy of the State (1998)

What was just a movie then is quickly becoming reality now. With the erosion of our rights and privacy online, this movie should have served as a harbinger of a world we do not want to live in.
We are introduced to the same arguments politicians, the wealthy and the agencies brought forth after the terror attacks we endured. The exact same rhetoric is used in this film ("if you have nothing to hide..."). At times, it looks like the real world emulates fiction or worse, this film was a blue print.
From a protagonist unaware or unwilling to see the state of affairs, who's unwittingly caught in the path of bad guys, to what might then have been a tinfoil hat wearing, paranoid conspiracy theorist, but would now (post Snowden) be a a very concerned citizen, this film has what it needs to tell a good story.
What's great too is the ending, which is bittersweet. It reflects pretty well what goes on in the highest spheres where the working class has little to no influence.
All in all, a great film for everybody.

Poor Jason Lee ("Zavitz") has only the smallest of parts in this film, yet in the few minutes he is on screen (before he is squished in a road accident) he manages to dump unsuspecting lawyer "Dean" (Will Smith) into an whole world of pain. Why? Well we already know what happened regarding the mysterious death of "Congressman Hammersley" (Jason Robards) but unfortunately for the killers, a video camera used for monitoring bird life caught them in the act. "Zavitz" managed to pass the tape to "Dean" and soon the considerable resources of the NSA are shutting down his credits cards, testing his already precariously balanced marriage and setting him up for a fall as they desperately try to retrieve this incriminating evidence. Luckily, though, he alights on maverick "Lyle" (Gene Hackman) and they start to come up with a strategy to fight back and trap their nemesis "Reynolds" (Jon Voight). There are a few sub-plots - but essentially this is just a vehicle for Will Smith to do what he always does and there is nothing remarkable about that. Hackman joins late and does inject a little class into this otherwise by-the-numbers political thriller that serves as a conspiracy theorist's wet dream and sees Voight just reminding me of his "Mission Impossible" (1996) persona. I did quite like the premiss of the ending, but it really bordered on the spoof upon execution. Nobody can sustain it for 2¼ hours, it sags often and even the tag-team pursuit scenes and the slowest self-destruct sequence I think I've ever seen really don't invigorate it. Watchable on the television on a wet winter's night, but nothing more memorable than that I'm afraid.