Entrapment

Entrapment (1999)

Runtime: 112 minutes

Directed by: Jon Amiel

Starring: Sean Connery, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Ving Rhames, Will Patton, Maury Chaykin

From: 20^th Century Fox/New Regency Productions

Another movie viewing spurned by messageboard discussion. In this case, it was brought up during discussion of other films & guilt over not viewing certain cult classics when played theatrically. One specific example was someone paying to view Mercury Rising on the big screen instead of The Big Lebowski. Then, someone mentioned Entrapment as silly late 90’s entertainment, which resulted in someone else broaching what is best known about this from those not having seen the film: THAT SHOT in the trailer of Catherine Zeta-Jones… yes, totally gratuitous & showing off her assets because times were different back then.

I don’t know if calling the movie “dumb” is fair; “absurd,” however… it’s slick entertainment featuring beautiful people as Zeta-Jones works for an insurance company and goes undercover to investigate master thief Sean Connery. This involves her becoming his apprentice; is it really a spoiler to suggest that personal feelings become involved? That’s for certain predictable although for many that’s not the key to enjoying a caper picture like this. The characters and seeing how they pull off the heist or heists is.

Entrapment is not a film I need to revisit anytime soon, or ever. Be that as it may, I was still entertained by this nonsense, by seeing the relationship of the two leads develop, by seeing the heists. Most of the movie is either in England or in Malaysia; the latter is still today a fresh location not often seen on film. The then-new Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur plays a key role. Other key supporting roles include Ving Rhames, Will Patton, David Yip, and Maury Chaykin, even if the latter played a rather garish caricature.

Overall, the movie is definitely of its time-another key plot point is that the biggest heist takes place at the turn of the millennium, and yes it involves fears of The Y2K Bug. Even then, given my general opinion of modern genre movies, this not using those terrible modern tropes meant that I was fine w/ this inoffensive decently-made entertainment… as long as you’re not offended by the age difference between Connery & Zeta-Jones, that is.