ENEMY OF THE STATE (1998)

Cast

Plot

Will Smith wipes that grin off his face and plays it straight in this paranoid action/thriller. If you watch this waiting for Will to break into song you'll be disappointed, but it's got all the impressive stunts and big explosions you'd expect from a Jerry Bruckheimer production. Will plays a lawyer who has a brief encounter with an old college pal in a lingerie shop. So when the lawyer finds himself bugged, unemployed, and hunted by men in black he's determined to find out why. Taking more than just a few references from that classic Seventies paranoia film, 'The Conversation' (including Gene Hackman in that anorak!), the film makes up in performances what it lacks in originality. Jon Voight is convincing as the corrupt politician but it's Hackman's understated performance as the tired, cynical investigator that steals the film.