ENTRAPMENT

Based on the time-honored movie premise that it takes a thief to catch a thief, ENTRAPMENT is a retread of many Hollywood crime dramas with some fancy special effects scenes, credible acting and serviceable direction.

The movie opens with a thief performing an incredible daredevil stunt down the side of a New York skyscraper to go through a window and steal a Rembrandt. Insurance investigator Virginia “Gin” Baker, played by Catherine Zeta-Jones, persuades her boss Cruz, played by Will Patton, that she should go after the thief, whom she thinks is Robert “Mac” MacDougal, played by Sean Connery.

Mac has the reputation of being the world’s greatest art thief. Gin has a plan to trap Mac by posing as a thief and joining with him to steal a rare Chinese artifact.

Soon, Mac and Gin form an edgy partnership where both play cat and mouse with each other as they steal the Chinese mask. Eventually, they move onto greater pickings. Finally, the insurance company, the FBI and the Malaysian police force all come together for a spectacular showdown.

There are some clever plot points in ENTRAPMENT where roles are reversed and expectations are transformed. The romance between Connery and Zeta-Jones, who is at least forty years his junior, is kept very low key, but one teenage moviegoer thought it was too unbelievable and hurt the movie. In fact, although the plot runs smoothly, there are several unbelievable aspects of the story. Thus, ENTRAPMENT works best if the viewer just lets the action carry him along.

It even has a deliberate homage to the famous scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s movie TO CATCH A THIEF, starring Cary Grant as a jewel thief and Grace Kelly as his love interest, where Grant and Kelly kiss while fireworks go off in the background. The trouble is that, to bring this tried and true storyline into the 1990s, the filmmakers have added some strong foul language, modern sexual innuendoes and a jaded, drugged, homosexual villain.

Of course, the deeper trouble that few people pay much attention to in movies like this, is that the heroes are thieves, and the law enforcement officers and authorities are the villains. Therefore, in its own indirect way, the movie may teach children that thieves get the money and the beautiful girl, and that a life of violence, drug use and stealing other people’s property has its rewards.

Right now, I am reviewing an excellent video called IMAGES OF RACE IN THE MOVIES. In it, one black professor points out that SUPERFLY inspired many young black youths to go into drug dealing.

So there are two movies starting with E opening in theaters at the same time: one, ENDURANCE, with a limited release, is about a little boy who is inspired by the media to become a great runner; and, the other, ENTRAPMENT, opening wide throughout the country, extols thievery. You be the judge.