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| ENEMY OF THE STATE (1998) - R
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ReviewScore: 66 out of 100
SBD Star Rating:
by Lew Irwin
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Enemy of the State is almost certain to be a friend of the box office this weekend, assuming that the Jerry Bruckheimer action formula has lost none of its drawing power. Rita Kempley in the Washington Post says it "sports all the latest high-tech bells and whistles and sets a pace that Richard Petty would envy. ... The dazzle doesn't make up, however, for the movie's lack of depth." But Janet Maslin in the New York Times suggests it does, saying that director Tony Scott comes up with enough devices "to keep the story moving faster than the speed of scrutiny." And Steve Murray in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution concludes, "the movie's professionalism smooths over the seams in its logic." But Jay Carr in the Boston Globe has no reservations about validating the film as "a skillfully engineered blast that sticks to business, which in this case is hard-driving forward motion." The actors, too, get high marks from the critics, particularly Will Smith and Gene Hackman. "Smith is tremendously funny," writes Carrie Ricket in the Philadelphia Inquirer, "making Enemy of the State almost as entertaining as North by Northwest." And Murray, in the Atlanta Journal, calls Smith "a street smart Cary Grant" while "Hackman is Hackman, and that's high praise." |
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