With Billy Zane, Griffin Hood, James DuMont, Robin Givens with Steven Bauer and Eric Roberts
“Didn’t you see I was blowin’ up your phone, Devin? You’d better answer the next time I blow your phone up like that.”
”Enemies Among Us” is an incoherent “political thriller” that doesn’t have direction, nor a linear (or non linear) plot structure. As you can probably imagine from the EXPLOSIVE dvd cover art.
The film doesn’t really have a main character, but if it did, it would either be Governor Chip Majors (James DuMont) who’s the Republican Party’s frontrunner for second spot on the presidential ticket. Who’s the nominee of the Republican Party? Steven Bauer. Obviously.
The other central character would be a state trooper who is assigned to protect Governor Majors, Devin (Griffin Hood) who’s going through a bankruptcy because of a divorce, and he also finds out very quickly in the film that his sister is losing her house and also has breast cancer. Hence, the urgency of the quote that I posted at the top of this post.
Sweet screenplay.
So, who are the rest of the B list actors in the film? Well I’ll tell you. Billy Zane plays someone in the NSA or CIA or some government agency, and he really doesn’t serve a purpose in the film. I’d say his total screen time tops out at seven minutes.
Eric Roberts, who is incredibly fun to watch in this, has a ton of fun with the campy hillbillish state trooper named Cobb (or Cobbs?) who works with Devin protecting the Governor. Robin Givens plays some other covert secret agent in the middle east who you see waterboarding some “terrorist” in what looks like a set for some S&M porn film. She’s in the movie for about seven and a half minutes. Oh, and she’s Cobb’s ex wife. I can buy that.
Steven Bauer is only in the film for about eight minutes. His two scenes in the film are an interview with some female reporter that has some sort of shitty Sarah Palin look, who constantly grills Bauer on his conservative politics.
Bauer gives a very subtle and subdued performance due to the fact that he is probably operating on one or more different anti anxiety meds during the filming of this movie. Or he’s doing what he thinks is his best Mickey Rourke impersonation. He also makes many pauses in his delivery. Perhaps due to the fact that he’s trying to make effect points or maybe because it’s obvious that he’s reading off of cue cards.
This movie is an absolute mess. It’s horrible liberal propaganda (and I love me some good liberal propaganda). It doesn’t know where it’s going, and it tries so hard to be something smart with its conspiracy plot.
Aside from this movie being a totally mess, it is actually fun to watch because it’s just so bad. I love Eric Roberts, and I usually watch just about anything with him in it. He’s just so great, and just has a killer time with his character. His lines are funny, and he delivers his signature over-the-top performance that is always great.
Yes, this movie is available on Netflix Instant. And if you get a chance to watch this, watch it for one reason: Eric Roberts.
Rating: 2.5/10
