This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
Heading For the Last Roundup
Plot Overview
Catherine Banning (Rene Russo) who hails from the midwest
followed her father's footsteps as a bail bondsman not averse to using
heavy-handed methods (“I'll break both your arms”) to make a
collection. She's now “in the art world” recovering—for a
fee—stolen paintings for their well heeled insurers.
Thomas Crown (Pierce Brosnan) went
to University on a boxing scholarship (“Rich kids can't
box”) and has become a successful Wall Street entrepreneur
& amateur art thief. When there's a misdelivery snafu at
Metropolitan Museum, a $100 million painting (San Giorgio Maggiore
at dusk) by Monet, goes missing while Mr. Crown was in the viewing
room … with his briefcase. Hmm.
Catherine
tracks Thomas to a gala event where they dance together a bit. When
the band changes out to the congo drums, they break apart and it looks
like the gent is practicing his sparring moves while the lady
lets her hair down and does an alluring, sinuous number. The sex at
his apartment afterwards causes Thomas to break out in a sweat
and Catherine to laugh her head off.
They come to contemplate elopement as “fugitives with means.” Thomas's shrink (Faye Dunaway) has characterized him “a forty-two-year-old successful, self-involved loner,” but now, “Peter Pan decides to grow up and finds there's no place to land.” Catherine is torn between joining Ichabod or busting him.
Ideology
The not unexpected romance
that blossoms between the two leads is tricky enough to be unlikely
were it not for the movie world preparing us for it. Think along the
lines of, (Prov. 30:18-19) “There
be three things which are too wonderful for me, yea, four which I
know not: The way of an eagle in the air; the way of a serpent upon
a rock; the way of a ship in the midst of the sea; and the way of
a man with a maid.” The writer of this Good Book's saying cannot
track an eagle drifting on air currents, a slithering serpent on a
rock, or a ship tossed on the sea, much less “the way of a man
with a maid.”
The air show on the big screen consists of an island hopping jaunt in a duo glider riding the drafts. Think of a gentle romance proceeding by leaps and bounds.
“The way of a serpent upon a rock” is represented by a string of art burglars emerging from the woodwork to slither through vents and up walls after Thomas had sat contemplating a painting of two haystacks, being the barnyard place from which snakes customarily emerge. Their romance is going to wind this way and that.
“The way of a ship in the midst of the sea” is where Thomas joyrides on a catamaran and makes a big splash.
Production Values
“” (1999) was directed by John McTiernan. It was an unapologetic remake of a 1968 police procedural but with a different focus. It was written by Alan Trustman, Leslie Dixon and Kurt Wimmer, It stars Pierce Brosnan, Rene Russo and Denis Leary with a support cast that included Ben Gazzara, Frankie Faison, Fritz Weaver, Charles Keating, Mark Margolis and a special appearance from Faye Dunaway as Brosnan's psychiatrist. As Crown, Brosnan inhabits his character in spades as the quintessential dissatisfied rich man. Russo grates on one's nerves but no more than a pesky insurance investigator might. Dunaway's cameo was a nice touch after having played female lead in the original.
Banning rightly remarks: “This
is an elegant crime, done by an elegant person.” His diversion
was implemented by clownish Romanians. In Randall Miller's book on
how Hollywood views ethnic groups, he writes that
Slavs—“Russians, Poles, or what not”—are in
the public's ignorance perceived as coarse and oversexed. “The
most popular Slavik image,” he says, “was that of the
‘peasant’ … and, like animals, [they] were super-fecund,
with ‘a rather gross attitude towards sexual morality’
(136–139).” Banning capitalizes on sexual attraction in
interrogating one of the blokes, and for her part when she had
to leave a small object for a blind drop in a public area, she used
a Negro for a courier as in an elegant setting they are invisible.
MPA rated it R for some sexuality and language. It boasts colorful cinematography by Tom Priestley Jr and an atmospheric soundtrack by Bill Conti. The sex scenes used cleverly crafted angle shots with boobs galore. Strong production was employed on the taut museum raids. Runtime is 1 hour 53 minutes. It's an obvious remake.
Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation
“Hey, sinner man, where you gonna run to?” was sung in the background of the denouement, disapproving of this rich man's lifestyle, and the shrink also found it lacking. He was a playboy and the female lead promiscuous. Enough said.
It kinda worked in a different strokes kind of way, although I found it mildly offensive. It was more for artistic tastes than for a cops & robbers thrill ride. If you want the latter, see the original.
Movie Ratings
Action factor: Decent action scenes. Suitability For Children: Not Suitable for Children of Any Age. Special effects: Well done subtle special effects. Video Occasion: Good Date Movie. Suspense: Keeps you on the edge of your seat. Overall movie rating: Four stars out of five.
Works Cited
Scripture taken from the King James Version. Pub. 1611, rev. 1769. Software.
Miller, Randall M. The Kaleidoscopic Lens: how Hollywood views ethnic groups. Englewood, NJ: Ozer. © 1980. Print.
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