The Thomas Crown Affair (1999)
Facts
| Directed by | John McTiernan |
| Cast | Pierce Brosnan, Rene Russo, Denis Leary, Ben Gazzara, Frankie Faison, Faye Dunaway, Michael Lombard, Mark Margolis, James Saito and Fritz Weaver |
| Theatrical Release | August 6, 1999 |
| DVD Release | January 4, 2000 |
| Running Time | 113 minutes |
| MPAA Rating | R (Restricted) |
| UPC Code | 027616745224 |
| Buy this item | $9.99 at Amazon.com As of Nov 16 3:01 EST (details) 1 DVD, Thomas, Usually ships in 24 hours, Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Special Edition, Widescreen, NTSC Languages: English (Original Language - Dolby Digital 5.1), French (Original Language - Dolby Digital 5.1), English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled) Or 49 new from $6.97, 65 used from $3.49 |
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User Reviews
Average user review:| The Thomas Crown Affair |
| Excellent Movie |
| Battle of the Sexes: TRUST |
| LOVE this movie |
| An affair to, um, forget... |
Now I have not seen the original, so I cannot compare the two (the reviews say that this one is superior, so I'm not in a rush to check out the original), but this `remake' definitely has the feel of a remake. You know, the way that remakes always feel (not always but most of the time) like they are missing something. This feels like it's missing something.
The film follows Thomas Crown, a wealthy businessman (millionaire at that) who is growing bored and so he decides to stage a robbery at the local museum. Catherine Banning is the insurance investigator hired to aid the police investigation. She immediately suspects Crown despite the department's disbelief, and so she targets him, and attempts to seduce him. Crown on the flip side is working her, from every angle in fact. In the end it boils down to a `does he love me, is he using me, should I rat him out, should I follow him' scenario, which quite frankly grows old very soon.
The initial robbery scene is expertly staged and choreographed; it's just a shame that it's the only remotely exciting scene in the film.
The acting is very hit or miss. Pierce is great, as usual. He is seductive and mysterious and enticing. He makes you want to know everything about him. Rene Russo is a major miss for me. From the second the walked onto the screen it was as if she was trying way too hard. I don't get the admiration for her performance, for it comes off rather cartoonish rather than grounded. She is very over-the-top and at times unbearable. Faye Dunaway (who starred in the original I hear) is also very over-the-top. Her character is a mere cameo performance and so she is forgivably over-the-top, but nonetheless she is far from good. I am not a fan of Denis Leary, but he works his character well enough and doesn't take away from the film at all. He doesn't add anything either, but that's a different story.
In the end `The Thomas Crown Affair' has its moments, however few they may be, but the overall appeal of the film is lacking for me. It's predictable and clichéd and rather dense. The dialog is choppy and at times you can see the actors choking on their words, and the formulaic plot (right down to the `omg you're cheating on me, wait no you're not') can be irritating. If only the acting could redeem this picture, but sadly Brosnan is working alone on this one. August 22, 2008
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