"I hate doing this at Christmas." (Jon Voight as Thomas Brian Reynolds, NSA)
'This' pertains to murder, fraud and general evil doings against a gamut of innocents at, worst of all, the festive season. Umm, sounds vaguely familiar, nay pertinent, given recent world events.
Being a Simpson/Bruckheimer production you know this isn't going to be a gradual, thoughtful exposition of American mores. No, this is a loud and crushingly obvious exercise in conspiracy shenanigans. This is not in the same league as All the Presidents Men or the even finer 70s paranoia classic The Conversation. Yet, in times riddled with postmodernism, there are a plethora of direct references to these seminal films.
Jason Robards (star of All The Presidents Men) bites the dust courtesy of one of Voight's wicked charges, David Pratt (played by Barry Pepper, so good as a religious psychopath in Saving Private Ryan). Unfortunately, for the high echelon bad guys a bird watcher has inexcusably videoed the gruesome scene at the lake (De Palma's Blow Out anyone). Said 'twitcher' is chased around the streets of Baltimore (care of some super-duper satellite technology) until he careers into an old Georgetown mate, in mid-chase, in a lingerie store. The friend is top lawyer Robert Clayton Dean (Will Smith) and he's busy trying to spice up his marriage. Are you still with me?
Essentially, this is all about privacy and people's lack of it. As Voight's' bog-standard bad guy makes abundantly clear, "Privacy's been dead for 30 years because we can't risk it. The only privacy left is inside of your head. You think we're the end of democracy? I think we're democracy's last hope."
The crux of the tale centres on the deterioration - he's bugged (mainly by teenage geeks who munch crisps and act like their monitoring a soap opera), battered, fired and on the edge of divorce - of Dean's privileged life, but for film fanatics the real pleasure is in Gene Hackman. He plays Brill, an ex-NSA agent and a dead ringer for the 'bugman' in The Conversation. In fact, a photo of him from Coppola's masterpiece is surreptitiously added to the action and there is a surveillance scene in a Washington park that mirrors the 70s film completely - beggars with mikes in their newspaper, a married man talking to a secret love. Tony Scott (True Romance director) has been excessively referential, but fun.
Ultimately, this lacks the same wit or chemistry of Con Air and The Rock, but it possesses energy and clever gimmickry. Silly, but watchable.
'This' pertains to murder, fraud and general evil doings against a gamut of innocents at, worst of all, the festive season. Umm, sounds vaguely familiar, nay pertinent, given recent world events.
Being a Simpson/Bruckheimer production you know this isn't going to be a gradual, thoughtful exposition of American mores. No, this is a loud and crushingly obvious exercise in conspiracy shenanigans. This is not in the same league as All the Presidents Men or the even finer 70s paranoia classic The Conversation. Yet, in times riddled with postmodernism, there are a plethora of direct references to these seminal films.
Jason Robards (star of All The Presidents Men) bites the dust courtesy of one of Voight's wicked charges, David Pratt (played by Barry Pepper, so good as a religious psychopath in Saving Private Ryan). Unfortunately, for the high echelon bad guys a bird watcher has inexcusably videoed the gruesome scene at the lake (De Palma's Blow Out anyone). Said 'twitcher' is chased around the streets of Baltimore (care of some super-duper satellite technology) until he careers into an old Georgetown mate, in mid-chase, in a lingerie store. The friend is top lawyer Robert Clayton Dean (Will Smith) and he's busy trying to spice up his marriage. Are you still with me?
Essentially, this is all about privacy and people's lack of it. As Voight's' bog-standard bad guy makes abundantly clear, "Privacy's been dead for 30 years because we can't risk it. The only privacy left is inside of your head. You think we're the end of democracy? I think we're democracy's last hope."
The crux of the tale centres on the deterioration - he's bugged (mainly by teenage geeks who munch crisps and act like their monitoring a soap opera), battered, fired and on the edge of divorce - of Dean's privileged life, but for film fanatics the real pleasure is in Gene Hackman. He plays Brill, an ex-NSA agent and a dead ringer for the 'bugman' in The Conversation. In fact, a photo of him from Coppola's masterpiece is surreptitiously added to the action and there is a surveillance scene in a Washington park that mirrors the 70s film completely - beggars with mikes in their newspaper, a married man talking to a secret love. Tony Scott (True Romance director) has been excessively referential, but fun.
Ultimately, this lacks the same wit or chemistry of Con Air and The Rock, but it possesses energy and clever gimmickry. Silly, but watchable.