Directed by Jon Amiel
Starring Sean Connery, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Ving Rhames, Will Patton
The film opens with an impressive robbery sequence as a painting is stolen. From there, we follow Zeta Jones to England (huuray!) where she meets Mac and persuades him to work with her. They go to his fairytale hideaway castle where they train for the theft of a valuable antique mask. This involves Zeta Jones in a leotard doing strange gynastic moves over pieces of string standing in for laser beams. Very posey though. At this time, the relationship between the characters is quite well handled. Connery look like her grandad, and any sort of romance would be really icky. However, in the early stages, it is played more as a father-daughter relationship, with her trying to manipulate daddy and him being a little smitten himself. Sadly, the director or screen writers should get a smack as they then do go and make them have a snog scene. Euchk! Connery is 39 years older than Zeta Jones and as a romance, this film does not work at all.
Anyway, the film then builds to a climax as they plan a high tech robbery on an international back to co-incide with the millenium. It involves computer fraud and the different time zones and is far too complicated! Needless to say, all does not go as planned, and the pair are on the run in a fairly exciting chase scene.
The film itself is quite entertaining if not terribly original. Connery is always worth watching, and Catherine Zeta Jones is finally finding success in Hollywood it seems. I just wish someone in Hollywood would stop making films with young girls and old men, it really is unnecessary. 6/10
July 1999