Date: Fri 04-Dec-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: SHANNO

Quick Words:

Will-Smith-Hackman-Cruise

Full Text:

NOW PLAYING : Smith Cruises Through His Latest Role

By Trey Paul Alexander III

Will Smith is savvy. He has moved the chess pieces of his career with a clever

aplomb that would make Tom Cruise proud. In fact, Smith could be on the same

stellar trajectory as the mega-star Cruise, who has made Hollywood bean

counters very happy with his Tinseltown version of a DiMaggio hitting streak:

five straight (and counting) $100 million-grossing movies. Smith currently has

two in a row ( Independence Day and Men in Black ), and is working on his

third with the current release, Enemy of the State , which is now playing in

theatres.

But there is something beyond bankability that links these two actors. Smith

is reminiscent of Cruise in the high wattage of his charm and winning screen

persona. It is an aspect of Cruise's career that has brought him fame and

popularity but has also masked the talent and hard work behind his legendary

smile: Cruise has had the smarts to work with some of the best people in the

business (ie, Paul Newman, Martin Scorsese, Dustin Hoffman, Oliver Stone,

Barry Levinson, Brian De Palma and Gene Hackman), and this has made him a

better, often underrated actor. Now Smith arrives in his new film playing a

very Cruise-ish part -- a top-flight young attorney who finds himself in the

middle of a political cover-up -- and working with Cruise-tested veterans

(director Tony Scott, who worked with Cruise on Top Gun and Days of Thunder ,

and the aforementioned Hackman, who needs no introduction).

Enemy of the State centers around the chase for an incriminating tape that

captures the murder of a high-ranking D.C. official. It is a tape that could

bring down a lot of people, and it finds its way into the hands of

unsuspecting lawyer Robert Clayton Dean (Smith). While he has no idea he is in

possession of the valued item, Dean does find his life appears to be falling

down around his ears. His credit cards are canceled, his professional

reputation is sullied, and his personal life is questioned, forcing his wife

(Regina King) to ask him to leave her and his young son.

Of course, none of this is coincidental. Dean is the victim of spooky

techno-freaks who use computers, satellites, the Internet and other methods

you will pray are exaggerated, to hunt Dean and procure the damaging tape.

These hackers, under the employ of a Machiavellian bigwig at the National

Security Agency (Jon Voight), and their near omnipresent surveillance

capabilities, appear unstoppable until Dean finds a reluctant ally in a

mysterious figure named Brill (Hackman), who helps him understand what he's up

against and provides a glimmer of hope on how to get out of this mess.

Enemy of the State is a snappy, exciting picture that pushes some hot buttons

-- issues of privacy, the increased role of technology in society -- while

remaining a petal-to-the-metal action thriller (this is, after all, a Jerry --

The Rock, Con Air, Armageddon -- Bruckheimer-produced movie). Smith is sure in

the lead role (dare we say, Cruise like?), a part that asks for little of his

usual witty asides and comic banter, and Hackman is the spice that gives the

picture its different flavor. His slightly eccentric performance gives the

film a nice jolt, but it's also his films past, particularly his pertinent

role in Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation as a surveillance expert, that

gives the film a bit more poignance than one might otherwise expect. It may

not be a bad idea to make your own double-bill by renting Coppola's '74 flick

after you've taken in Enemy of the State .

Enemy of the State is rated R for excessive profanity and occasional, though

not overly graphic, scenes of violence.