Sean Connery's abilities can't salvage 'Entrapment'

"Entrapment"

Directed by: Jon Amiel

Starring: Sean Connery, Catherine Zeta-Jones

Rated: PG-13

"Entrapment" is a textbook example of how a great idea can go ruefully wrong in the journey from paper to screen.

By all rights this should have been a great movie. The plot involves a good old-fashioned burglary, the actors are about as appealing as movie stars can get, the screenwriters are a pair who always ensure a big box office and the director has a decent film ("Copycat") already under his belt.

So, how and why can something that should be so good turn out to be so bad? I usually tend to blame just as much as I tend to credit when a film is good the director.

It doesn't really matter that the plot is unbelievable (star Sean Connery has done this before in the James Bond movies) or that the action scenes are preposterous. A well-made film will always make us willingly suspend our disbelief.

What does matter is stiff, stilted dialogue and story editing that tends to broad-jump when it should bring us along in carefully planned, tiny steps.

The "heist" scene that opens the film is great