Review of Entrapment

Video

Presented in widescreen 2.35:1 but NOT anamorphic the transfer is nice and sharp. The opening scene is very dark indeed as a daring robbery takes place so picture quality is very important to the opening of this movie. The detail is very clear and it is easy to make out what is happening. How can I review a movie with Catherine Zeta Jones without mentioning flesh tones? Not wanting to sound too sexist but she has never looked better, almost hypnotic actually. This picture quality works against Sean Connery however as he has never looked older. Yes I know he is getting on now but I feel somewhat saddened to see him actually showing his age now, after so many great films it will be a shame when he finally stops making movies.

Audio

The sound is Dolby Digital 5.1 and is very impressive. It does a very good job of creating an involving soundstage which, at times, had me turn my head in specific directions led by certain sound effects. At the cinema this was a reasonably big release, quite high profile (made all the more news worthy by Catherine Zeta Jones being escorted by Michael Douglas) and the soundtrack does have that little extra big movie feel to it. It is very hard to put your finger on what exactly gives it this feel but it does sound larger than life in parts.

Features

Again it all comes down to why you are buying this DVD. If it’s for the film then the lack of extras won’t concern you, if you want some extras then forget it. All we have here is a theatrical trailer. When you compare this disc to the recent batch of release (The Matrix, The Mummy etc) it compares very poorly indeed. This lack of extras, whilst not upsetting to the casual watcher, does show a distinct lack of interest from the movie studio. Hopefully studios will soon learn that this lack of extras WILL hurt sales and it’s about time they pulled their finger out to be honest. Ok, rant over.

Conclusion

The movie sounds like a great idea. Sean Connery is the aging master thief, Catherine Zeta Jones is young insurance investigator (perhaps this is some sort of American thing but an Insurance claims investigator surely doesn’t take part in undercover operations?). She is sent to set up Connery so the authorities can catch him in the act and put him behind bars.

I won’t give the rest away as all is not as it seems however all is also not as good as it should have been either. Sean Connery is . . . exactly the same as he is in every other film he has ever done. This is no bad thing as he has a very powerful screen presence but he is simply too old now for this type of role. It is hard to see him in any sort of action roll quite frankly and this tends to hurt the movie as it loses allot of credibility as a result.

Catherine Zeta Jones is looking as young and fit as ever. I am not convinced on her acting abilities here as I was much more impressed with her performance in The Mask Of Zorro, but that might have been more to do with her excellent swordplay rather than her skilful wordplay, must make a note to watch it again. Again they stretch their credibility wafer thin with the relationship between the two characters. A relationship that could be Father and Daughter, or even Grandfather and Granddaughter, is played out as lovers and really doesn’t work.

Out of the cameo performances only Ving Rhames (Mission Impossible, Pulp Fiction) is worth a mention but even his role isn’t really any different to the parts he has played previously. He plays a character exactly as you would think he would.

The actual story isn’t too bad, the main theft is ingenious but there is no real build up to it. They try to spread the movie too evenly across different set pieces and this makes certain scenes seem rushed and other ones too drawn out. Also there are more than a few gaping plot holes. Take, for instance, the scene where Catherine Zeta Jones has to make her way across the room avoiding various laser beams, it takes her an age to get across the room but yet she is able to get back across in less than a minute! Very sloppy.

To sum up I was disappointed with this movie. Given the cast and the premise for the movie it could have been, and should have been, allot better. A good dose of extras can often turn a mediocre movie into a desirable DVD purchase but no such saving grace here. On the DVD front it is of very good quality but that lack of extras is simply slack and I find it hard to recommend this as a purchase.