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Jason Maloney reviews 
20th Century Fox
- Cat.no: 14247 DVD
- Cert: 12
- Running time: 108 minutes
- Year: 1999
- Pressing: 2000
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 24 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Surround
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: English for the hearing impaired, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Icelandic, Hebrew, Danish, Swedish, Finnish and Norwegian.
- Widescreen: 2.35:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £19.99
- Extras : Scene index, Making-Of, Original Theatrical Trailer, Interactive Menus, Music Video (Seal – “Lost My Faith”).
Director:
- Jon Amiel
Cast:
- Robert “Mac” MacDougal: Sean Connery
Gin Baker: Catherine Zeta Jones
Thibadeaux: Ving Rhames
Hector Cruz: Will Patton
Conrad Greene: Maury Chaykin
Chief Of Police: David Yip
Separating the wheat from the chaff when it comes to major studio big-budget action adventure yarns may be a fairly easy task……the more demanding question is “why do some (moderately) successful films in the genre fail to emerge with their reputation intact?”.
Entrapment, last summer’s offering from Fox that teams the seemingly inexhaustible Sean Connery with the far-from-ugly Catherine Zeta Jones, is a case in point.
The company you keep can be decisive. Thrown into competition with The Matrix, Star Wars Episode 1 and even the remake of The Thomas Crown Affair (its closest relative, in terms of content and style), the formulaic nature of both plot and execution were bound to suffer by comparison.
“Mac” MacDougal – Connery doing what he’s steadfastly and professionally done for the last decade or more – is a master art thief (are those alarm bells ringing?) with a reputation for pulling off some extremely grand steals. Insurance investigator (still not spotted the link?) Gin Baker – Zeta Jones with a convincing American accent – has been keeping tabs on his exploits in her capacity as an FBI agent.
To her colleagues, in particular head honcho Hector Cruz (Patton), she appears to be unnaturally obsessed with analysing Mac’s methods and psychology. Working long hours, and bypassing the bureau’s social circles, she then offers to snare the elusive MacDougal once and for all.
Entrapment is essentially a glossy heist movie. Three rolled into one, in fact. While it’s often stunning to watch and very ably directed by Jon Amiel, the continually escalating high jinks and ever-more far fetched scenarios are tinged with a sense of overkill. The plan is clearly to make you enjoy and be thrilled by what you see, yet there is little left to chance. Nobody said all films have to be ultra-realistic, or even logically sound, but by the third act everything begins to seem laboured and overwraught. Not even the double/triple crosses and ensuing twists pack quite the punch they should, or were intended to.
However, this is far from being a bad film. There is still plenty to enjoy….a succession of gorgeous locations, some nifty (if slightly cliched) action sequences, and probably the most talked-about scene where Zeta Jones practices evading security laserbeams by contorting her body between carefully-arranged red string. The strong sexual undercurrents of these manoeuvres are quite naturally, completely accidental…..
Quite often with a title such as this, the extra features are numerous enough (and of sufficient quality) to add to its desirability. However, there are precious few bonus items of note contained on the disc. The “Making Of” is one of those glorified Trailers that merely state the obvious amid endless snippets of action from the film, and lasts a very brief 12 minutes. Worthy of mention, though, is the music video included for Seal‘s Lost My Faith. It wasn’t a hit in the UK, but the seamless integration of film footage combined with the presence of Zeta Jones in the video itself, make for an above-average promo. (DVDfever Ed: Seal’s single doesn’t seem to even have been released over here. A missed opportunity perhaps?)
Undemanding and visually agreeable hokum, Entrapment may pale in comparison with recent fare in the action heist stakes, but for those with a fondness for slightly naff shenanigans of this kind will be perfectly entertained and satisfied.
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Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.