Themes: Perfect Crime, Cons and Scams, Bank Robbery
Main Cast: Sean Connery, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Ving Rhames, Will Patton, Maury Chaykin
Release Year: 1999
Country: US
Run Time: 113 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG13
Plot
After a long career playing good guys, Sean Connery gets to have some fun playing a crook for a change in the romantic crime thriller Entrapment -- and he even gets to break the law with the lovely Catherine Zeta-Jones. When a priceless Rembrandt painting is stolen from a New York skyscraper in a daring and technically sophisticated robbery, ace insurance investigator Virginia "Gin" Baker (Catherine Zeta-Jones) begins looking into the matter and is soon convinced it's the work of master art thief Robert "Mac" MacDougal (Sean Connery). Gin thinks the best way to get the goods on Mac (and perhaps recover the painting) is to work her way inside his operation, so she locates him in London and, posing as a fellow art thief, offers to work as his partner. While Mac is smart enough to not accept an offer like that from just anyone, most thieves don't look as good as Gin does in a leotard, and she soon proves an able assistant in a shakedown robbery where they pinch a rare Chinese mask from a British museum. After this success, Mac agrees to join forces with Gin for what is literally the heist of the millenium -- as Midnight rolls around in Kuala Lumpur on December 31, 1999, the security computers in a major multinational banking facility will be breached for a split second as the computers roll over to a new program for Y2K. Is that long enough for Gin and Mac to nab $8 billion in bank transfers? Is 14 days long enough to prepare for a robbery of this scale? And will Mac and Gin's professional relationship pave the way for some capers in the bedroom? In addition to playing the male lead, Sean Connery also co-produced this film; the supporting cast includes Ving Rhames and Maury Chaykin. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Keith Pain - Art Director, Michael Boone - Art Director, Jim Morahan - Supervising Art Director, Michelle Guish - Casting, Donna Isaacson - Casting, Penny Rose - Costume Designer, Chris Carreras - First Assistant Director, Jon Amiel - Director, Vic Armstrong - Second Unit Director, Terry Rawlings - Editor, Ronald Bass - Executive Producer, Arnon Milchan - Executive Producer, Iain Smith - Executive Producer, Christopher Young - Composer (Music Score), Norman Garwood - Production Designer, Phil Meheux - Cinematographer, Sean Connery - Producer, Michael Hertzberg - Producer, Rhonda Tollefson - Producer, Anna Pinnock - Set Designer, David John - Sound/Sound Designer, Vic Armstrong - Stunts Coordinator, Jim Dowdall - Stunts Coordinator, Ronald Bass - Screen Story, Michael Hertzberg - Screen Story, Ronald Bass - Screenwriter, William Broyles - Screenwriter, Jonathan P.B. Taylor - Second Unit Director Of Photography
Virginia "Gin" Baker (Zeta-Jones) is an investigator who works for a top insurance agency. Robert "Mac" MacDougal (Connery) is an international art thief who likes a challenge. A priceless Rembrandt painting is stolen from an office one night. Gin is sent to investigate Mac as the chief suspect. She tries to entrap him with a proposition, claiming that she is an art thief. She promises that she will help him steal a priceless Chinesemask from the well-guarded Bedford Palace. They travel to Scotland, and plan the complicated theft at Mac's hideout: an isolated castle. While Mac is busy making final preparations, Gin contacts her boss, Hector Cruz (Patton), and informs him of Mac's whereabouts. Little does she know that the island is bugged, allowing Mac to eavesdrop on their conversation.
After they complete the theft, Mac accuses Gin of planning to sell the mask to a buyer in Kuala Lumpur and then turn him in. Gin convinces him that her insurance agency job is a cover, and that she has planned an even bigger job in Kuala Lumpur: $8 billion from the International Clearance Bank in the Petronas Towers. After having orchestrated the theft to take place in the final seconds of the New Year's Eve Millennium countdown, Gin and Mac escape via hanging Christmas lights and ventilation shafts. While Gin has lost her parachute in the escape, Mac gives her his. He tells her to meet her the next morning at the station at 6:30 AM. The next morning, Gin arrives at the station waiting for Mac. Minutes away from the planned time, he shows up with Cruz and the FBI. Mac nearly hands Gin over to the FBI, knowing that she was a master thief herself. He explains that the CIA has been looking for her for some time. When he was caught, Mac made a deal with the agency to help them arrest Gin. Still, the aging thief has another plan to let her go, as he is getting old and she has her life ahead of her. Gin persuades Mac to come with her. She holds Mac hostage threatening to shoot him if the agents follow her, but she tricks them and boards a train, leaving them behind. As the CIA agents walk away, another train arrives and Gin suddenly reappears. She tells Mac that she still needs him for another job.
Filming locations
Duart Castle was the location of MacDougal's hideout
The Petronas Twin Towers was where some of the main scenes took place
Final scene was filmed in Bukit Jalil LRT station on the Ampang line. However, the signage at this station that was used for the movie was Pudu LRT station instead of Bukit Jalil.
Note: The set for the Petronas Towers was built on Pinewood Studios
Critical reaction
The film opened to mixed or average reviews[2] as described by Metacritic. Rotten Tomatoes lists the film as receiving only 38% positive reviews.[3] Critics focused on a scene where Zeta-Jones worms around a net of laser beams. The camera lingers on her buttocks through much of the scene. Critic Scott Weinberg said "OK, if you own a TV then you've seen that scene. You know the one. It's when Catherine Zeta-Jones squirms her beautiful rear down onto the floor to avoid a laser alarm system. It's shown on the commercial, the preview and in the movie itself like 7 times. The challenge is this: Build a movie around it."[4] The laser scene was choreographed by Paul Harris, who also choreographed the wand to wand combat sequences in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
Other critics such as The New York Times,[5]New York Magazine,[6] the Chicago Sun-Times,[7]Variety,[8] and Desson Howe/Thomson of the Washington Post[9] praised the film.
The film was also a box office success, grossing over $87 million domestically.
Complaints arose that the movie depicted Malaysia as a backwards country and was misportrayed. The controversy arose from one scene in particular, where a shanty town in Malacca was superimposed over a tilt shot of the then recently constructed Petronas Twin Towers.
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