Entrapment (1999)

reviewed by
Michael Redman


Old man, young babe & life of crime
Entrapment
A Film Review By Michael Redman
Copyright 1999 By Michael Redman
**1/2 (Out Of ****)

If the real world were like some recent Hollywood films, most of the couples strolling down the street would be 60 year old men with women in their 20s. The older women and younger guys would be left sitting around playing euchre.

This does happen occasionally although not at the frequency that Sean Connery and Clint Eastwood would have us believe. What is the appeal? Freud suggests that women look for their fathers and older men make good big daddies.

The more likely explanation, according to some theories, is the biological hardwiring left over from prehistoric days. Subconsciously, men seek childbearing potential and women look for protection from the dangerous beasties for their offspring. In our society older men are the more powerful. As Henry Kissinger supposedly observed, "Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac."

(Of course Kissinger's comment was self-serving, he being an extremely powerful man at the time. It would be like me proposing the idea that writing movie reviews is the ultimate aphrodisiac - and I can assure you that has _never_ worked.)

In the alternate dimension of cinema, the explaination is a bit simpler. A young romantic interest asserts the virility of the leading man and gives the males in the audience something to look at. As the adventure heroes age, they still have a box office draw, but need some propping up.

The film industry is slower in recognizing the appeal of mature women. There are a few roles available (Sigourney Weaver is over 50), but they are rare.

I could go on about this topic and am tempted to. It's much more interesting than the film this column is supposed to be about.

Connery is Robert "Mac" MacDougal, a famed art thief so successful that now he pulls jobs just for the thrill of it. When insurance investigator Virginia Baker (Catherine Zeta-Jones) convinces her boss that Mac is behind a recent theft, she's on his trail.

She teams up with Mac to catch him in the act. Or is she actually a thief herself and needs his help? Or is something else entirely going on?

And it's all just so-so.

The opening sequence involves a high-tech heist with the thief hanging upside down outside a skyscraper and breaking in to a heavily protected room. A half hour later one of the characters drops a supposed bombshell about that scene that anyone with eyes and half a brain has already figured out.

Connery is a charismatic as ever. As he ages, he is no longer the agile James Bond, but his acting skills have only increased. This is certainly not his greatest role, but it's virtually impossible for him to be uninteresting.

Zeta-Jones captured the imagination of the movie-going public in last year's "Zorro". She appears to have some talent, but here she's mostly eye candy for the males in the audience. A scene where she's clad in a skin-tight outfit and moving snake-like through a series of security lasers appears designed primarily to show us what an impressive posterior she possesses.

Surprisingly, most of the time there's not a great deal of chemistry between the two. They connect for a few moments, but usually it's as though they are in different rooms. This part of the formula doesn't work.

There is an abundance of wasted potential. Ving Rhames, as Mac's partner, is on screen for only seconds. Will Patton is Virginia's boss but his character is boring and serves no function. Maury Chaykin is something like you might expect if Marlon Brando played Jabba The Hutt, but is oddly understated for such an over-the-top role.

Understated may be the theme for the movie. Much of the action feels lame. The sexual tension doesn't click. The plot maneuverings are too often transparent.

The film features a few entertaining bits. The climax atop the world's tallest buildings in Kuala Lumpur features its share of excitement. A New Year's Eve theft depends upon a bank's last minute Y2K testing making this the first film to incorporate a millennium bug plot device.

The primary appeal is the two stars. Connery's screen presence is like an old friend. Zeta-Jones' butt is nice, but I'm not sure its worth the price of a ticket.

(Michael Redman has been writing a film column much like this one for over 23 years but refuses to believe he falls into the "older man" category yet. Comments about his delusions go to Redman@indepen.com.)

[This appeared in the 5/6/99 "Bloomington Independent", Bloomington, Indiana. Michael Redman can be contacted at Redman@indepen.com] -- mailto:redman@indepen.com This week's film review: http://www.indepen.com/ Film reviews archive: http://us.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Michael%20Redman Y2K articles: http://www.indepen.com/


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