After watching Sean Connery in The Rock earlier, we had to find another movie of his that we considered golden next to it. Except of course his James Bond movies that is, and we found one, Entrapment with Catherine Zeta Jones. Connery stars here as Robert "Mac" McDougal, a famous thief who focuses on art objects, painting and sculptures and such. While Virginia "Gin" Baker is an insurance investigator played by Jones who befriends and sought the help of Mac in the efforts of bringing him to justice.
To do so, Gin had to steal a painting to impress upon Mac, hoping she could help him steal a golden Chinese mask. While making preparations, Mac learns that Gin had other plans for the mask and that she would sell the mask in Asia and leave him to take the blame. Gin pushed to a corner eventually spills out her entire plan. The insurance undercover thing she was doing was a just a cover up. The painting she stole earlier plus the mask were part of her elaborate plan to steal a much bigger prize.
It was 1999 then and going into the new millinneum, Gin plants a virus or bug in the International Clearang Bank located in Kuala Lumpur that would steal little amounts off its transactions. The only catch, they have to sneak into the server at exactly near midnight of the new year just before it registers year 2000. A total of USD8 billion had to be taken off the servers for the plan to be a success.
Even under the watchful eyes of the Malaysian Police, Interpol and the insurance company, they knew they were coming yet Mac and Gin was able to steal the money and the latter was able to escape. Mac asked her to meet her next morning at a train station and he was left behind.
Gin arrived in the station and Mac came late with Aaron Thibadeux (played by Ving Rhames). Thibadeux was now identified as an FBI agent who cought Mac and eventually became his handler. Gin was the FBI's target all along and they needed Mac's help in catching her. All along we thought Mac was the target for entrapment. Mac explained to Gin that he had another plan for her to escape and that part of the plan was to return USD7 billion of the USD8 billion they stole. He also secretly gave a gun to her that she used later on hold Mac at gunpoint (as part of an act). She made a daring escape by taking the incoming train.
The FBI then proceeds to the next station to catch Gin however she jumps mid station back to where Mac was. There she tells Mac of another job that they will do next.
First off, we loved the movie because of the stars in it. Second, the idea of an electronic bank heist, along with the traditional stealing appealed to us. That being said, we wished the production should have hired other actors to do this movie.
Sorry to say but both actors we feel was not the ideal choices to begin with. Jones was very much too beautiful to be a thief and her performance as one we can't simply get it. There's something in her acting here that does not equate to as a "thief". She was just out of character, but don't get us wrong, she is a great actor and we love her in the Mask of Zorro (1998), Ocean' Twelve (2004), The Haunting (1999), No Reservations (2007), and Red 2 (2013).
Connery likewise was in the same boat with Jones. We simply can't accept his performance here as that famous international thief. He delivered his lines well, but somehow we could see Robert MacDougal in him. Maybe he was too great for an actor to play a famous thief, maybe his clothes did him in, or the script simply didn't cut it for his character, we don't know.
Both actors did well if you ask us, they delivered to us a nice movie but we feel it could have been better. There was not chemistry between them that will endear to us they finally loved each other after doing all those heists. Though we expect them to do so as we see being "bad" gives an adrenaline rush that draws them closer together. Sadly we simply can't relate to them as a couple here. Maybe the age gap? We don't say as we have seen other films with the same situation. Simply put, they don't gel well here, but not enough to jeopardize the whole film. We are just demanding @$$8073$ we guessed we are here.
Another two characters which we felt was underplayed were those of Ving Rhames and Will Patton. They can be more expounded to provide more meat in the story. We have richness in their characters, like Rhames as that FBI handler of Connery, he had a seriousness in his character yet when you think he was sympathetic to Connery, actually he wasn't. He was just after the mission of getting Gin. Will Patton as the boss of Gin in the insurance company she worked for, he had character flaws that we would like to maximize even further.
Story wise it was unique and up to the times since it was shown during the century change and the millennium bug was scaring the shit out of the people, thinking the computers would stop working. The story was nicely spaced out, the set up of the jobs for a much bigger job, everything works out. We loved the way how it was presented. Even the small job that Mac did, we thought it was just a passing heist, but there was a key moment in the end that still mentioned this. It's like playing Tetris, everything has its place. So this film is enjoyable to watch. Simple and logical but not boring.
We saw this movie when we still had that Amazon Prime account and I think it's still there.
