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Enemy Of The State (Blu-ray)
Blu-ray A - America - Buena Vista Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak/Cameron Murray (28th November 2006). |
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The Film
 "Enemy of the State" is a fast paced thriller that makes a strong political statement without sacrificing action or intensity. The film is about the continuing reduction in privacy that anyone and everyone can suffer in their life, as 'big brother' continues to try and probe into their relevant countries lives under the guise of protection and for the good of the nation. With a talented cast consisting of Will Smith, Gene Hackman, Jon Voight, plus future stars such as Jack Black, Seth Green, plus others and even cameos by Gabriel Byrne and Jason Lee this movie reeks of class from the opening sequence through to its intelligent conclusion. The story takes place amidst a political climate of paranoia and certain members of the government wanting to infringe on its citizens basic right to privacy. A political assassination takes place, and is staged as a suicide/ accidental death. Unfortunately for those who have staged this murder they have been captured on tape by a Daniel Zavitz (Jason Lee) who was studying the migratory patterns of geese. The conspirators find this poor sap and begin to chase him through the streets, where he runs into his old friend Robert Clayton Dean (Will Smith) and he deposits the evidence in Dean's shopping without his knowledge, shortly before meeting with an untimely and rather grisly death. Unfortunately for Dean the conspirators headed by NSA honcho Thomas Brian Reynolds (Jon Voight) find out that he has the evidence and seeks him out to destroy his credibility if not take his life. Through an old college sweet heart Dean is put in touch with an ex-NSA agent (Gene Hackman) and from there they turn the tide on there pursuer and return some of the under hand favors that they have been paid to Smith and Hackman's characters. The acting in this movie was superb especially by Smith and Hackman. I will confess to being a Will Smith fan, and have wasted many an afternoon watching re-runs of "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air"(1990-1996) but his acting has significantly improved since those sitcom days. Hackman is excellent as always, I have seen him better but he is still a pleasure to watch and he plays the reclusive Brill well and seems constantly annoyed with Smith's character which gives the movie a nice dynamic, different from the usual buddy crap. I was a little disappointed with Voight's performance and have seen him do far better.Jack Black, Seth Green and the rest of the geek squad within this movie are enjoyable to watch and they play the rejects from school that haven't grown up but are living and working in the incredibly grown-up world of politics and espionage. The style of this movie is fast paced with many different camera angles and quick cuts. The thing that I found most impressive of this style was that they managed to keep it up from the opening sequence to the rolling of the credits. They intertwine the use of surveillance type cameras seamlessly and it seems less like a stylistic device than a valid plot vessel. Apart from this the style offers nothing incredibly ground breaking. Tony Scott has done better stylistic work for example "Man on Fire" (2004) immediately springs to mind, but that said it is still a thoroughly enjoyable style and easy to watch even if you are not a fan of the thriller genre. Overall, I really enjoyed this movie. The subject of movie intrigued me and brought to light a few scary things that are worth thinking about. The style of this movie was enjoyable and not too overbearing and more often than not suited the situation it was being used in. The acting is first class, and with an ensemble cast of such an amazingly high quality it is a joy to watch. This movie is a bit like watching one of those before they were famous programs and after watching this movie you can see why the actors have gone as far as they have. This is a good movie, rent it, buy it just make sure you watch it.
Video
This is a 50GB Blu-ray disc. Presented in the film's original theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1 this transfer is presented in high-definition 1080p / 24fps using MPEG-2 compression. Considering this is a 50GB disc you'd expect a simply flawless image, it's not, but it comes real close. Considering this is an 8-year-old film there are some issues with grain and sharpness isn't 110% mainly in darkly lit scenes. But what we get here is a transfer that is far better than the DVD counterpart (as expected) with color balance, blacks and shadow detail spot on. The image is clean and crisp most of the time, with wide shots looking simply like visual candy. As far as an older catalogue film goes Buena Vista has done another fantastic job with this near flawless transfer, if you own a Blu-ray player and are a fan of this film you'll be more than happy with this 1080p image.
Audio
Four audio tracks are included here, an English PCM 5.1 Surround encoded at 48kHz/24-Bit as well as English, French and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 surround tracks. For the purposes of this review I chose to view the film with its PCM track and was blown away by its sheer brilliance, this is what high definition should be about, clear dialogue, dynamic range, punchy surrounds, deep bass all mixed to achieve aural greatness. The track is an equal mix of subtle surrounds that heighten dialogue scenes and immense aggressiveness during the action elements, the score also envelopes the viewer utilizing every channel. As far as soundtracks go this is reference quality stuff. Wow. Optional subtitles are included in English for the hearing impaired, French and Spanish.
Extras
Buena Vista Home Entertainment has ported over the DVD extras that includes deleted scenes as well as two featurettes plus the film's original theatrical trailer. Below is a closer look at these supplements. The bonus features on this disc are presented in 1080p and 1080i high definition. First up we have 2 deleted scenes, they include: - "Jones Gets Bitten" which runs for 43 seconds, as the surveillance team break into Dean's house, Jones (Scott Caan) gets bitten by the Dean's dog. - "Confrontation at the Limousine Service" runs for 2 minutes 7 seconds and is an extended scene that shows Dean trying to get a meeting with Pintero (Tom Sizemore). Next is "The Making Of Enemy of the State" featurette, which runs for 29 minutes 14 seconds. This is a basic EPK clip that covers the technology, the story, the actors and key crew telling us about how great this film and also warning us about how technology is taking away your privacy. The clip also includes some behind-the-scenes footage from the filming as well. Next up is the "All Access: The Shootout" featurette which runs for 13 minutes 19 seconds, this is a fly on the wall behind-the-scenes look at the filming of the climactic shootout in Pintero's restaurant. This is quite a cool extra for those film geeks that like to see how a scene comes together and how it's shot. Also included is the film's original theatrical trailer which runs for 2 minutes 31 seconds. Also included is "Movie Showcase" which jumps to three key reference scenes that show off the high-definition quality.
Overall
Overall I'm impressed this the technical aspects of this release, the image and sound are excellent, however just like the previous DVD release we are left with only minuscule extras, perhaps one day we'll get a proper special edition with more extras including an audio commentary which this film sorely needs!
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