The heist caper genre, so popular in the '70s, rears its head with this uninspired but fairly enjoyable 1999 flick. Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones generate genuine sexual chemistry despite their age gap (Connery was just shy of 70 when the film was made), and there are a couple of suspenseful heist sequences along the way. Between the high spots the film is rather bland and forgettable, with little of the humour that made the heist movies of yesteryear such fun (try to imagine The Hot Rock or The Italian Job stripped of their sense of humour, and you'll have a fair impression of what this film has to offer).
Virginia Baker (Catherine Zeta-Jones) works for a top insurance company. Also, secretly, she is a master cat burglar who greatly admires the audacity and criminal success of another thief, Robert MacDougal (Sean Connery). Virginia double bluffs her boss, Hector Cruz (Will Patton), into allowing her to track down MacDougal. Her official brief is to become his partner-in-crime for a daring heist, after which she is supposed to turn him over to the police. But in reality, Virginia actually DOES want to be his partner-in-crime.... and has no intention of turning him in whatsoever! Aided by MacDougal's buddy Thibideaux (Ving Rhames), the thieving twosome complete their robbery successfully. Later, MacDougal reveals his plans for an even bigger job. With Virginia as his accomplice, he aspires to pull off the near-impossible theft of $8 billion dollars from the world's tallest building in Kuala Lumpur on Millennium Eve. By this point, Cruz has begun to suspect that Virginia may not be working on the side of the law any more. In a taut finale, MacDougal and Virginia attempt to complete their ingenious crime before the security forces catch them red-handed.
Entrapment is slick and effortlessly watchable stuff with little discernible style of its own. Connery and Zeta-Jones, as already noted, overcome their remarkable age difference to make for a rather attractive pair. A good measure of any heist flick is whether your sympathies lie with the crooks or the law. In this one, the burglars win hands-down.... they are infinitely more charismatic than the "good guys". The globe-trotting narrative provides some exotic locations in which the stars can indulge in their posturing. Kuala Lumpur especially comes across as an exciting and interesting locale, somewhat underused to date in the movies. Entrapment has its share of silly moments, including a gratuitous sequence in which Zeta-Jones trains for her first robbery by writhing in a skintight cat suit through a maze of wool (strung out in such a way as to replicate the pattern of an infra-red alarm system!) Too many scenes also have Connery vanishing into mid-air to avoid capture, a trick that becomes increasingly hard to swallow and hampers the film's credibility. All in all, though, Entrapment is a harmless time-killer that keeps you moderately entertained, especially if you catch it in the right frame of mind.
Virginia Baker (Catherine Zeta-Jones) works for a top insurance company. Also, secretly, she is a master cat burglar who greatly admires the audacity and criminal success of another thief, Robert MacDougal (Sean Connery). Virginia double bluffs her boss, Hector Cruz (Will Patton), into allowing her to track down MacDougal. Her official brief is to become his partner-in-crime for a daring heist, after which she is supposed to turn him over to the police. But in reality, Virginia actually DOES want to be his partner-in-crime.... and has no intention of turning him in whatsoever! Aided by MacDougal's buddy Thibideaux (Ving Rhames), the thieving twosome complete their robbery successfully. Later, MacDougal reveals his plans for an even bigger job. With Virginia as his accomplice, he aspires to pull off the near-impossible theft of $8 billion dollars from the world's tallest building in Kuala Lumpur on Millennium Eve. By this point, Cruz has begun to suspect that Virginia may not be working on the side of the law any more. In a taut finale, MacDougal and Virginia attempt to complete their ingenious crime before the security forces catch them red-handed.
Entrapment is slick and effortlessly watchable stuff with little discernible style of its own. Connery and Zeta-Jones, as already noted, overcome their remarkable age difference to make for a rather attractive pair. A good measure of any heist flick is whether your sympathies lie with the crooks or the law. In this one, the burglars win hands-down.... they are infinitely more charismatic than the "good guys". The globe-trotting narrative provides some exotic locations in which the stars can indulge in their posturing. Kuala Lumpur especially comes across as an exciting and interesting locale, somewhat underused to date in the movies. Entrapment has its share of silly moments, including a gratuitous sequence in which Zeta-Jones trains for her first robbery by writhing in a skintight cat suit through a maze of wool (strung out in such a way as to replicate the pattern of an infra-red alarm system!) Too many scenes also have Connery vanishing into mid-air to avoid capture, a trick that becomes increasingly hard to swallow and hampers the film's credibility. All in all, though, Entrapment is a harmless time-killer that keeps you moderately entertained, especially if you catch it in the right frame of mind.