The Secret Enemy otherwise known as Enemies Among Us is a political thriller directed by Dan Garcia starring Billy Zane and Eric Roberts. Chip Majors, the Governor of Louisiana had it all. In a presidential election year, he is the frontrunner for the Vice Presidential Nominee of his party. Unfortunately, the dark secrets of his past as a covert NSA operative come back to haunt him. He finds himself fighting not only for his political career, but also for his life.
With a level of political discourse found in the dumpster fire that is the comment section of any given mainstream media outlet's website, The Secret Enemy is a hard boiled, yet simultaneously half-baked film that rode the occupy wall street wave and spouted out antiquated talking points (and some not so antiquated) as well as a few conspiracy theories to keep things spicy.
What kills this film ultimately is the numerous talking head scenes featuring crazy, atonal editing that tries to hide the fact as well as wooden acting and stilted dialogue. No matter how many Politico articles the screenwriter read, the seeming smugness is very unappealing and I doubt claims of satire. I mean, satire doesn't necessarily have to be funny, at all, but all I heard in this film was vacuous impressions and lazy stereotyping with no wit, observation or rhythm even to be seen or heard.
There is some action scenes and a bit of southern sleaze even to justify all this hot air, and these elements have their "Dad movie" charm, but it's too little, too late. Throw in porno production quality and stock footage and music, and you have a truly Cajun recipe for disaster. If you want to see a political thriller done on the cheap and done right also, i recommend 2013's W.M.D or President Down as it's known in the U.K. if you want to see a tax break masquerading as a film and have it heavily suggest this to be fact within the film itself, (Yes, that is a thing that pretty much happened), then i advise with caution treading upon The Secret Enemy.
With a level of political discourse found in the dumpster fire that is the comment section of any given mainstream media outlet's website, The Secret Enemy is a hard boiled, yet simultaneously half-baked film that rode the occupy wall street wave and spouted out antiquated talking points (and some not so antiquated) as well as a few conspiracy theories to keep things spicy.
What kills this film ultimately is the numerous talking head scenes featuring crazy, atonal editing that tries to hide the fact as well as wooden acting and stilted dialogue. No matter how many Politico articles the screenwriter read, the seeming smugness is very unappealing and I doubt claims of satire. I mean, satire doesn't necessarily have to be funny, at all, but all I heard in this film was vacuous impressions and lazy stereotyping with no wit, observation or rhythm even to be seen or heard.
There is some action scenes and a bit of southern sleaze even to justify all this hot air, and these elements have their "Dad movie" charm, but it's too little, too late. Throw in porno production quality and stock footage and music, and you have a truly Cajun recipe for disaster. If you want to see a political thriller done on the cheap and done right also, i recommend 2013's W.M.D or President Down as it's known in the U.K. if you want to see a tax break masquerading as a film and have it heavily suggest this to be fact within the film itself, (Yes, that is a thing that pretty much happened), then i advise with caution treading upon The Secret Enemy.