That's pretty much the whole movie, right there. And it is a crazy amount of fun, especially if you like sleek, stylish heist movies and Pierce Brosnan. Especially the finale, which is a long and complicated heist that centers around the painting The Son of Man by Rene Magritte. It makes me laugh and bounce with delight.
Also delightful? Pierce Brosnan. He's clearly having extreme amounts of fun making this movie, wearing cool clothes and tossing off witty one-liners and trading double entendres with Rene Russo. His Thomas Crown is sophisticated and charming and pretty darn irresistible.
This movie is actually a remake of a 1968 movie of the same name that stars Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway. And I like this version SO MUCH MORE than the original. In the original, Crown is a gazillionaire who robs banks because he's an adrenaline junkie and they hadn't invented extreme sports quite yet. So he robs banks just for the thrill of it, not because he needs more money. That makes WAY less sense to me than a gazillionaire who loves art and loves the thrill of possessing famous paintings so much that he steals them. It's just more relatable and believable, for me.
Also, as much as I do love Steve McQueen, he is not at his most charming in the 1968 version... but Pierce Brosnan is basically as yummy as possible in this one, and yes, that does make a big difference in how much more I like it.
I find it really fun that Faye Dunaway gets a role here as Thomas Crown's psychiatrist. It adds a little zest for us classic movie fans.
This movie pairs really well with How to Steal a Million (1966) in a lot of ways. Art forgeries, art heists, banter and romance and suspense. However, unlike Million, Affair is NOT family friendly -- it has a couple love scenes and several instances of nudity, plus some very bad language (mostly from Leary, no surprise there). A filtering service or a friend like me who knows where to fast-forward would be good to have along for the ride.
This is my first contribution to You Knew My Name: The Bond Not Bond Blogathon hosted by Pale Writer and Reelweegiemidget Reviews. I'll drop a second one tomorrow!
I did have some reservations about this as a fan of the original but with Pierce as Thomas Crown it's been always a possible. You sold it to me totally and especially for the Faye Dunaway casting. Thanks for adding this to the blogathon.. and will still add your review as you know time zones suck!
ReplyDeleteGill, it is a frothy and fun time, never taking itself serious. Good nineties stuff!
DeleteMmm, I do enjoy a good heist. And Pierce Brosnan is lovely.
ReplyDeleteBut since I can't watch it with you and your fast-forward button, I'll have to forego the pleasure for now. :P ;)
Eva, maybe next time you visit, we could watch it! If we have like a week to watch things, lol.
DeleteHave never seen either version of this film but now I want to!
ReplyDeleteI think, of all the Bonds, Pierce Brosnan wins in the eye candy category, he is SO handsome. In my opinion, Craig is most intense and perhaps even the best actor; Connery as originator of the role is probably the "best" Bond; Sir Roger is my personal favorite Bond, the guy I grew up with, and most debonair; Lazenby most enigmatic (would have liked to see him do at least one more); and Dalton grew into the greatest character actor.
This blogathon has been a blast!!
-Chris
Chris, this one is just such a fun '90s romp.
DeletePierce Brosnan is my favorite Bond, probably because GoldenEye was the first Bond film I saw all of, in my teens. I had the hugest crush on him -- even had a poster of him as Bond on my bedroom wall. He's just... almost unfairly handsome, isn't he?
Craig is very intense, and I think he matches the Bond of the original books really well, at least from the couple I've read (though much more handsome -- I remember Bond thinking he looked a lot like Hoagy Charmichael in one of the first books, which just cracked me up). Roger Moore is my dad's favorite, so I've seen all of his Bond films at least once, and Connery is my husband's favorite, so I've seen all of those several times, lol. I like both of them very, very much, even though they're such different flavors!
I have not seen Lazenby's turn as Bond :-o Not that I'm adverse to him, but just because my dad never wanted to rent that one from the video store, and it's never run across my path as an adult. One of these days!
I had to wait until I was an adult to see Timothy Dalton's two because my dad HATED them and refused to watch them when I was at home. And the man paying for the video rental gets the last say on what video is getting rented, lol. But I have watched them a couple times since leaving home. It took me a while to get used to Dalton as Bond because I have watched him as Mr. Rochester over and over and over in the 1983 Jane Eyre, and it was weird to see him in modern clothes, hee!
Sounds like a winner! Add another one to the list. Oh, the never-ending list. Love it.
ReplyDeleteCaftan Woman, it is just a fun, fun '90s frolic.
DeleteI've never seen the original, and I've only seen extended bits and pieces of the second that you review here. I really do need to see it because I like Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo. Thanks so much for the reminder!
ReplyDeleteMarianne, Brosnan and Russo have a really great combative-yet-flirty chemistry. They remind me somewhat of Cary Grant and Grace Kelly in To Catch a Thief, you know? That I-think-you're-hot-but-I-don't-think-I-should-trust-you vibe.
DeleteI LOVE the original (one of my top ten discoveries for 2020). I haven’t seen this one yet but my brother, as much as he likes the McQueen one, likes this one better too. He doesn’t look at it as a remake. I have been thinking of watching this one soon.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the heads up about the nudity. I usually check the parents guide on IMDb (which sometimes makes it sound worse than it really is). I actually prefer watching newer movies on my iPad because it’s easier to quickly cover the screen with my hand and skip forward instead of fumbling for the remote.
Also, the 1968 film is the one that finally made me like McQueen lol. I had first seen him in the War Lover while in college and greatly disliked him. I watched it again recently and there were things I had missed back then that attempted to explain why his character was such a jerk. It could have been done better though.
DeletePhyl, how interesting! Maybe you will be someone who enjoys both versions :-) That's a good idea with your iPad! There's one love scene here that's easy to see coming, but then Rene Russo just randomly is topless a couple other times.
DeleteI have never seen War Lover. I grew up on The Magnificent Seven and The Great Escape, plus a few eps of Wanted: Dead or Alive here and there, which all made me a major McQueen fan. He was in my top ten for a long time, just based on those few things. I love him in Hell is for Heroes too, but I don't care for a lot of his modern-day set movies like Bullitt. I'd like to see his version of Papillion tho.
I'm a huge fan of the original, so I decided to skip the remake. I probably made a mistake. I didn't know Faye had a role in the remake! Thanks for the review! :)
ReplyDeleteMovie Maniac, I feel like they're SUCH different movies that there's almost no real point in comparing them. The original is kind of gritty and broody, and this one is a jolly romp.
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