The Good

An interesting film that somehow makes us believe Catherine Zeta-Jones might sleep with Sean Connery.

The Bad

Paltry extras.

Virginia Baker (Catherine Zeta-Jones) is on the case of a Rembrandt that was recently stolen in New York. After examining all the evidence and clues she becomes convinced that Robert MacDougal (Sean Connery) is the man responsible. So, Virginia heads off to London where she uses her feminine ways to get inside his confidence. MacDougal is little more than dubious at first but he decides to give Virginia a chance. They pull off a job at a British museum and it is here that Robert decides that Baker can be trusted. I am a little shaky on the details of this job, but it involves a bank in Malaysia, Y2K and the possibility of nabbing a cool $8 billion. As you can guess, we are treated to the usually litany of gadget/pre-robbery scenes, all of which give us an insight into committing these crimes and also how truly stunning Catherine Zeta-Jones is.

Overall, Entrapment is a pretty solid film. When I first saw it in the theater I found it to be almost boring. Mind you I was coming off of 24 hours of sleep over the course of 6 days. Looking at this movie now on Blu-ray disc, I think that this film might just be one of the better movies of the late 1990s.

Features

Commentary Track

Director Jon Amiel provides an interesting commentary here. He doesn't talk about the actors so much as he explains what we're seeing on screen. How he pulled off this or that shot, what the shooting conditions were like on a particular day and why he felt like composing certain shoots the way that he did. If I was in film school and I wanted to make movies, I would probably sit back and listen to this track with rapt attention. Seeing as I am older guy who still makes films, I only wish I had the time to listen to everything in a more didactic manner.

Video

Aspect Ratio - 2.35:1. 1080p HD Resolution. Considering how dark this movie is in terms of lighting and places where it was shot, I was very impressed with the work done on this Blu-ray disc. Entrapment looks so much sharper in this format than when I saw it in the theater, I am almost beside myself. I didn't notice any grain on the images nor did I notice any real contrasts when we moved from exterior to interior locations (or vice versa). The strength of this release lies in the fact that it at 113 minutes this film really takes its time getting where it's going.

Audio

English: DTS HD 5.1. Subtitled in English and Spanish. The audio for this release sounded pretty solid. It was big enough to fill the room and at the same time it wasn't overpowering. Truthfully, I recalled nothing about the audio from when I first saw this movie, but that really didn't play into what I was listening for here. This movie is filled with classic "movie moments," especially as far as heist films are concerned, but they have leveled things on these discs so that everything plays pretty close to the vest and nothing is given away too soon.

Package

Sean Connery's face takes up the majority of this front cover with an image of Zeta-Jones standing in front of him. The back portion of this cover showcases some images from this movie, it provides us with a description of what Entrapment is about, and it also serves up a Special Features listing and technical specs.

Final Word

What is about these movies that Zeta-Jones and Connery have to be lovers of some sort? Why can't he merely be a mentor to his young pupil? After all, if Demi Moore and Tom Cruise can go the whole A Few Good Men without hooking up, do we really need to think about Connery and Zeta-Jones hitting the sheets? This isn't to say that this doesn't happen. MacDougal is a good looking guy, he has a lot of money so it seems likely that a woman like Virginia would find him desirable. I guess I just wish things didn't have to feel so preordained or even insinuated so much. That was something about this movie that I think wore me out a little bit. The freshest thing about this movie seemed to be Catherine Zeta-Jones. Beyond that, the story told was pretty typical, but it was more or less rejiggered for today's audience. The whole technical aspect, all the gadgetry, Y2K, everything else seemed to go into the plot as if working with a template.

Despite all of this, Entrapment is a good, solidly put together film. I just wish that it had a little more going for it.

Entrapment was released April 29, 1999.