Entrapment (1999)

Directed by Jon Amiel
Written by Ronald Bass & William Broyles, Jr., based on a story by Ronald Bass & Michael Hertzberg
Starring Sean Connery, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Ving Rhames, Will Patton, Maury Chaykin

My Advice: Wait for Cable.

Mac (Connery) is one of the top thieves in the world.  He's so popular in fact that an insurance firm sends out one of their top agents, Gin (Zeta-Jones), to bring him in.  But all is not as it seems as the two work together on a job with unbelievably high stakes.

That's the studio's synopsis essentially.  Here's mine. 

Catherine Zeta-Jones wants to sleep with Sean Connery.  No surprise there, all of the women I know and some of the men I know want to sleep with Sean Connery.  After all, the man can wear a hair weave like nobody's business.  Sean Connery, in turn, wants to sleep with Catherine Zeta-Jones.  No surprise there, all of the men I know and most of the women I know want to sleep with Catherine Zeta-Jones.  After all, people didn't moan during the trailer's world-famous "ass shot" for nothing.  Now.  Throw in a bunch of stuff from The Sharper Image and maybe Hammacher Schlemmer, and then have them steal stuff.

You know you've got problems immediately when the film incorrectly states the date of the millennium for one thing--in nearly every single scene.  But that's a nit.  Here's some big guns--although there are some revelations early in the film that might fool you into thinking you're about to watch a sophisticated crime thriller, they're quickly dampened by overindulgent gadgetry, bad dialogue, and a predictable final hour and forty minutes.  Here's a few questions too.  How come it takes several days to get ready for a $40K heist but only 24 hours for an $18 billion one?  Why would someone as good as Connery's character ever trust someone like Zeta-Jones' character (unless he just wanted to get laid--see above)?  And am I the only one who expected Connery to say, when he starts kissing Zeta-Jones then stops, "You do realize I'm old enough to be your grandfather?"

Don't get me wrong--the characters that they play are all well and good, they just needed a real script to work with, not some overblown piece of Mission: Impossible wannabe tripe.  But--when all is said and done, it's always good to see Ving Rhames working.