CAST: Sean Connery, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Ving Rhames, Will Patton, Maury Chaykin.
DIRECTOR: Jon Amiel
WARNING: Some SPOILERS and one really determined pair of crooks - straight ahead…
IT’S LIKE THIS: After watching THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR (review # 233) and, now, ENTRAPMENT, I have to say that I’m ready to switch careers and become an insurance investigator. If these flicks are to be believed, these folks always get to: (1) wear a lot of sharp clothes; (2) have a lot of hot sex; (3) travel to a lot of exotic places; and (4) look fabulous doing it. In THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR, our sexy sleuth is Catherine Banning (Rene Russo), and she got to play “Cat and Mouse” with a hot billionaire playboy named, ahem, Thomas Crown (Pierce Brosnan) because he was implicated in the theft of a $100 million Monet. If you want to know how that particular “Cocktease/Chase” went, then go read the review.
ENTRAPMENT’s sexy sleuth is Virginia “Gin” Baker (Catherine Zeta Jones), and she immediately suspects Robert “Mac” MacDougal when a priceless work of art is stolen from a NYC office tower. Why? Not much. Turns out Mac is a supposedly-retired thief, but Gin is certain he hasn’t changed his ways one bit. She gets her horny boss Hector Cruz (Will Patton) to send her to England undercover, where she poses as a thief herself - and entices Mac to help her steal a priceless Chinese mask from a local exhibit. Mac falls for it, and before you know it, the “reformed” thief and the “fake” thief are planning a much, much bigger heist than the Mask - big enough to net them both $7 billion dollars, folks.
Think of all the edible body oil you could buy with kind of dough… Mmmmmmmmmmmm…
THE DUDE (OR DUDETTE) MOST LIKELY TO SAVE THE DAY: Mac, with a solid cross (or is that double-cross?) from Gin…
EYE CANDY MOST LIKELY TO FIRE UP A WOODY: Sean Connery and Catherine ZJ, all the way…
MOST INTENTIONALLY EXCITING SCENE: Mac and Gin pulling off the climactic heist at the twin skyscrapers in Kuala Lumpur on New Year’s Eve. Hope no one’s afraid of heights…
MOST UNINTENTIONALLY EXCITING SCENE: Gin tussling with a London thug as a sort of “initiation” courtesy of Mac. And the final confrontation at the Pudu train station in Kuala Lumpur…
HOTTEST SCENE: Gin, in a catsuit, practicing her way through a series of strings meant to simulate a laser net. Yowza!
INQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW: Will Mac and Gin be able to steal the Mask? And if so, does Gin intend to arrest him with his hand in the cookie jar? Or does she have something else up her sleeve? And what happens when she offers him another additional job that will take them both to Kuala Lumpur for a staggering payday? Is she taking the whole “undercover” things a bit too far? Is she playing both sides for her own agenda? Or is she trying to build a better case against Mac? And will Hector pull her out of the field for her own sake? Or will he continue to let her do the “Mata Hari” thang? Will Mac discover she’s a cop? How will this all end? Well, with faces like those on Mac and Gin, I wouldn’t worry about them too much. It’s a proven fact that hotties can pull off two things very well: (1) bald spots and receding hairlines (Mac); and (2) tight catsuits (Gin). They’re gonna be just fine. Emphasis on “fine”. Ahem.
WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH “ENTRAPMENT”: If you like sleek, entertaining, and just a tad contrived thrillers with stunning and charismatic leads. And if you don’t mind turning your brain off for a couple of hours of decent thrills… And if you liked THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR, and don’t mind seeing a similar, if also inferior, film…
WHY YOU MAY NOT ENJOY “ENTRAPMENT”: If you have a hard time suspending your disbelief. And if you don’t allow the sheer beauty of a production and its stars to compensate for some contrived plotting. And if you liked THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR so much that you won’t accept any substitutes….
BUT, SERIOUSLY: In 1998, MGM announced it was remaking the 1968 classic THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR with Pierce Brosnan and Renee Russo stepping into the roles popularized by Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway: a craft billionaire thief - and the cool, equally crafty insurance investigator who pursues him. As usually happens in Hollywood, around the same time, 20th Century Fox announced its own competing “Thief/Insurance Investigator” thriller: ENTRAPMENT - which is essentially THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR with a few minor modifications.
ENTRAPMENT beat THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR to theatres in May of 1999, and opened to solid numbers ($20 million in its first weekend). It would go on to gross close to $90 million in North America - a bonafide hit. A few months later, the THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR remake was released to a smaller opening ($14 million in its first weekend) and a smaller final North American gross ($72 million). So, does this mean ENTRAPMENT is a better film than THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR? In a word, no. Definitely not. That’s not to say it’s a bad film, though. It’s actually a pretty entertaining ride - but it just doesn’t have the solid finesse and charm of THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR.
I have to be upfront and say that the THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR remake is one of my favorite movies. It’s much better than the original, which had some glaring story flaws that always bugged me. Those flaws are fixed in the remake, and additional changes are made to make it a far stronger film than the one before it. I won’t go into those comparisons with the original (read review # 233 for that), but I will say this about how it stacks up against ENTRAPMENT: whereas THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR ‘99 focused on the one-upping “cat-and-mouse” love affair between two opposing but surprisingly similar people, ENTRAPMENT chooses to focus instead on energetic but implausible action setpieces that constantly divert us away from the central relationship of its leads.
Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta Jones are two of the most strikingly attractive folks working in film today. In fact, there are those who say that Catherine Zeta Jones, with her exotic and cat-like beauty, takes the best close-up out of any other actress out there right now. It is the sheer beauty and charisma of these two that help elevate ENTRAPMENT above the average mark. Mac and Gin are thinly-drawn characters, but Connery and Zeta-Jones are expressive and talented enough to hint at deeper layers with small gestures and short words.
Watch for the scene where Mac gives Gin a gorgeous evening gown to wear to their first heist. She reacts with a mixture of shyness and sadness, saying no one’s ever given her a gift like that before. Then there’s the lovely final scene at the Pudu station, where Gin waits to rendezvous with Mac, and keeps glancing nervously at the platform’s clock - each passing second signals the growing unlikelihood of Mac ever turning up. Zeta-Jones beautifully plays Gin’s fear, anxiety, sadness, and dwindling hope with no words - just expressions. Then when Mac finally shows up, the relief on her face is like a bursting ray of sunlight. Essentially, Zeta-Jones takes an underwritten role - and connects the dots in a compelling way. As any good actor should.
Connery is also expressive, but buries it under a more stoic and harder exterior. The more he hides his affection for Gin, the more interesting it becomes. He ably suggests Mac’s growing conflicted feelings for this beautiful woman - whom he can’t determine whether is friend or foe. Connery and Zeta-Jones actually make Mac and Gin’s relationship more interesting by avoiding a more conventional “romantic” path, and portraying it more like “mentor-protégé”. As I mentioned before, the main reason ENTRAPMENT scores a *** (above average) rating is because of their combined “X-Factor“.
Ultimately, what keeps ENTRAPMENT from rising to the levels of THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR ‘99 and is a tendency to move away from Mac and Gin’s relationship and focus on the details of the heists themselves. The problem is, unlike the heists of the MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE and OCEAN’S movies, these jobs are too easy. It’s also highly implausible that both Gin and Mac would get their hands on the access codes and security blueprints to their targets so handily. The result is an artificial feel to the heists which undercuts the suspense. The only thing that keep us interested is Gin and Mac themselves.
Will Patton, Ving Rhames, and Maury Chaykin are vivid in key supporting roles. But, in the end, as with many films that barely avoid being an average experience because of the skill and magnetism of its stars, ENTRAPMENT belongs to Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Without them, this heists would’ve been an average one.
And remember the “Sexiest Eyebrow Brigade” that includes Mark Wahlberg, Michael Keaton, Colin O’Donoghue, Chris Evans, Famke Janssen, Jennifer Connelly, and Russell Crowe? Well, I officially add Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones to that list…
