Entrapment
(Blu-ray)
Picture:
B Sound: B+ Extras: C- Film: C-
Sean
Connery is an experienced thief who the law decides to finally catch at the end
of his career, but can their sexy investigator (Catherine Zeta-Jones) convince
him she is a new partner in crime or will he realize it is just another case of
Entrapment? Jon Amiel’s 1999 film wants to be a romantic
heist picture with high tech leanings and one that would mix Hitchcock with Charade, but what should have been a
winner turns out to be a huge missed opportunity that never goes anywhere. Why?
For one
thing, Amiel seems too obsessed to a major fault with Zeta-Jones rear end. There are so many shots of it that her cat
suit sequences become campy beyond belief.
Furthermore, the Ron Bass/William Broyles screenplay totally lacks the
panache to pull off a film so savvy.
Amiel proved his wit in a thriller with Copycat, but the writers went on to gut Planet Of The Apes and both scripts feel like they are phoned in.
Of
course, Connery and Zeta-Jones have some chemistry and a good supporting cast
including Ving Rhames, Maury Chaykin (just before becoming the next Nero Wolfe
on TV) and Will Patton, but the script just runs on and on with no point and
little interesting for the actors to do.
Seeing this years later was almost a chore, watching these talents get
wasted in this incredibly lightweight production that was bad to begin with and
has not aged very well. All have done
better and this is a curio at best when all is said and done. Now that Zeta-Jones is a bigger star, how she
is wasted in particular is blaringly obvious.
The 1080p
2.35 X 1 digital MPEG-2 @ 18 MBPS High Definition image was shot by
cinematographer Phil Meheux, B.S.C, who just shot Casino Royale and had shot Goldeneye.
The work here is not bad for Super 35mm,
but not that memorable and this transfer seems like an older HD master from
some detail limits. Likely, this was the
same master used for the D-VHS version.
Color is consistent and there are some shots done in the classic
Hollywood style slyly to benefit the leads.
The DTS HD Master Audio lossless 192kHz/24-bit 5.1 mix is a little
better, with a passable score by Christopher Young, but the improvements have
more to do with clarity and good sound design than a demo-level mix
throughout. Extras include Amiel’s
feature length audio commentary and the original theatrical trailer in HD.
- Nicholas Sheffo
