The Thomas Crown Affair (1999)

In 1968, Thomas Crown (Steve McQueen) hired some people to rob a bank for him to the tune of 2.7 million dollars. In 1999, Thomas Crown (Pierce Brosnan) crafted a daring robbery of a Monet from the Impressionist section of the Manhattan museum.

Other than these 2 differences both movies are almost identical in there execution. This time around Rene Russo plays the sultry Catherine Banning, an insurance investigator brought in to find the missing painting who ends up enjoying the chase as much as Thomas Crown enjoys his paintings.

From here, it all turns hot and steamy as the game of cat and mouse leads to a crafty conclusion.

This is an very good transfer from MGM, the producers of those great James Bond boxsets. Be prepared for some deep black levels that you wouldn't normally find in anything other than something gothic. I've always been a fan of deep blacks and this puppy buries the blacks really deep.

Combine that with a rich palette of color and you've got a great looking picture in almost every scene. Although coming from the same distributor, the sharpness and detail in this image far surpasses some of the product being released by Fox these days. Granted, it is obviously from a different compression house but the difference is measurable.

Politics aside, there is still a small defect in the image with some scenes exhibiting some strobing as if each separate field is a little off balance so when merged into the one frame, the strobing becomes apparent.

Tantalising to say the least. The 5.1 soundtrack is fully utilised in many key scenes that really do put you in the thick of it. Surrounds are used constantly whether it be for emphasis of an effect/sound or to envelope you with mood music.

Dialogue is fine throughout with no apparent loss of clarity during any scene and the musical score is aptly suited to the movie with homeages to the original of 3 decades ago.

Don't expect too much in terms of demo material but there is a great scene in chapter 16 where we're afloat with Crown and his crew and the sound of the sea fills the room, even providing a cool chill it does it so good.

There's a handful of extras hereto be had:

• Director's Commentary - Hmm, to be fair, there isn't much to talk about that the two movies have already made note of. Aside from the obvious difference in grandeur of the heist, John McTiernan doesn't divulge anything more that is insightful at all.
• Music Video - I love Stings music and this is a nice added bonus as I'd never heard or seen this clip before.
• Theatrical Trailer - standard guff.
• Booklet - The booklet provides a brief plot highlight of the movie but then goes into detail about the differences of the new and old films.
• Animated Menus - A nicely themed menu system based around the concept of an art gallery providing artistic clips from the movie as paintings.

I enjoyed the original with McQueen but this version brings it into the 90's and gives it a little more class. A larger soundtrack, a more daring robbery and good all-round plot makes it an enjoyable movie.