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Sneak Squeek About THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR
Alrighty folks here's a looksee on THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR. This film is at the ADVANCE test screening stage where the film is not completed, it has a temp track, the effects are not all in place, and the film is inevitably a bit longer than absolutely necessary. Let's just hope that the test screening stage on this McTiernan film doesn't last as long as his last film, EATERS OF THE DEAD (aka THE THIRTEENTH WARRIOR ugh). I haven't heard a large sampling of reviews yet so it's too early to really get a bead on this film yet, so if you have seen it... let me know... Thanks...
Hey Harry, I recently got to attend a test screening of The Thomas Crown Affair, so I thought you might like to know how its coming along. I
had heard about it on your site, but had no other knowledge of the movie, I hadn't seen the 1958 original. The version I saw of course was a
working print filled with unbalanced color, a borrowed soundtrack and some really grainy scenes.
Pierce Bronsnan plays Thomas Crown, a billionaire with a love for imptressionist paintings and owner of an art gallery. And when a
$10,000,000 painting is stolen, Rene Russo and Dennis Leary are on the case. We find out right away that Thomas Crown is the one who stole
it, and Rene Russo's character, a a very smart 'bounty hunter' who will do anything (or anyone) to find what she's looking for, knows it and
begins her chase.
The movie, directed by John McTiernan(sp?), started pretty bad. The heist was laughable, trying to be suspensful and action-packed with
lots of really quick panning shots and the always present 'false danger'. As the movie progessess things start to get better, the characters
begins to show some signs of life and the movie becoms a little bit more involving. Some things however, really stuck out. Throughout the
entire movie, we see scenes of Brosnan is in some type of therapy, laying on a sofa, expressing his feeling to his psychiatrist, Faye Dunnaway,
for absolutely no reason. It seems obvious that Dunnaway's scene were just added so she could be in the movie (since she starred in the 1958
version).
MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD
Another thing that really did not fit in were the erotic scenes with Brosnan and Russo, this is not that kind of movie - they didn't belong at all,
they were completely distracting. The shameless PEPSI ONE promotion was also irritating, in one scene Russo opens a can and drinks it while
the camera basically zooms in on the damn can, I expected her to stop and say "Ahh, and only one calorie!"
Those and some other annoying things prevent the movie from being as good as it could have been -but keep in mind that almost everything
I had a problem with could be easily edited out, and probably will be. The questionaire we filled out in the end asked about the sex scenes and
Faye Dunnaway scenes, and whether or not they should be left in.
The plot twists were the movie's strong points, and the relationship between Russo and Brosnan was smart and somewhat believable. The
best parts were when Russo knows Brosnan took the painting, and Brosnan knows that Russo knows, and both are playing a sort of game with
each other.
This seems like a negative review, but as a whole, the good plot twists, the (somewhat) involving characters and smart ending overcame the
little annoyances and I came away from the movie pleased. And after the movie is edited, it will surely much better ( especially without those
bad Faye Dunnaway scenes ) and move along at a quicker pace.
"T. Clifton"
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During the Pepsi One placement they should have had Tom Green in the background humping a dead horse, with a megaphone shouting "We have to hump it back to life!" Plus have Cuba Gooding walking in "Michael Bay Slo-Mo" to the song "Bad Boys."
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Has anyone seen this little gen of a muckumentary called AND GOD SPOKE...? It's hysterical - near the end, Soupy Sale's "Moses" holds up the ten commandments in one hand and a 6-pack of coke in the other.
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Hmm. I remember watching the original film a couple of years ago at a friends house. It was possibly the dullest film i had ever seen! We kept on going as we thought something was going to happen. It did. Lots of shots of Steve McQueen playing around on his toys!! Oh yeah, and that bird sucking a bishop.
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Hmm. I remember watching the original film a couple of years ago at a friends house. It was possibly the dullest film i had ever seen! We kept on going as we thought something was going to happen. It did. Lots of shots of Steve McQueen playing around on his toys!! Oh yeah, and that bird sucking a bishop.
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I'm not Brosnan fan, but I am a fan of the late Steve McQueen. I think the producers should've picked someone more like Steve McQueen for the role of Thomas Crown. Mcqueen wasn't perfect for the role, but it was a great transition for him to play a
high class thief than his usual rebel roles. They should've got someone with a personality more like Steve's. Your thoughts? -
Although it would have been interesting for Dunaway to have played an insurance investigator at the age of 17, she didn't. The original was 1968.
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I have to agree with Shandy on the original Thomas Crown Affair. The plot was just barely fleshed out, the caper was simply nonsensical, and Faye Dunaway as the insurance investigator was absurd. "Hey wait a minute! Maybe the heist was performed by five guys who didn't know each other and the head guy was a millionaire. And since he's a millionaire, he must be a customer of the bank and must have taken a trip to Switzerland to deposit the stolen money!" All of this in one scene! In the next scene, she had already figured out that it was Thomas Crown; this was only forty minutes into the flick. Not to mention the bad montage devices overused throughout the entire flick. The 1968 Thomac Crown Affair was horrible and I can only imagine that the remake will be worse.
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Sorry to shatter the unanimity of the other commentators, but I very much liked the original Thomas Crown Affair. In fact, this remake, like the remake of "The Getaway" a few years back, bids fair to be a complete waste of time. There isn't anything wrong with the original that they are going to fix. The notion of Pierce Brosnan doing a better job of anything than Steve McQueen is laughable. Faye Dunaway, at the height of her considerable beauty in 1969, will be equally hard to even match, much less beat. When this remake is released, my guess is that most reviewers will praise the original and recommend renting it rather than going to see an inferior remake.
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Although, no one will ever be able to fill the great Steve McQuuen's shoes, Michael Madsen comes pretty close. I would have cast him instead of Pierce. Renee Russo will always be a honey! I'd got see "Garbage Pail Kids II" if she was in it!
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I think you mean "Quentin Tarantino slow-mo." Michael Bay ripped off that shot (as did many 90s directors) from the beginning of RESERVOIR DOGS. I know QT is a rip-off too, but Jesus Christ, Bay, can't you go back more than a few years to do your pillaging? KILL BAY!! BTW, i dont think ill be paying 8 bucks (or 2 bucks for rental for that matter) for a goddamn pepsi commericial.
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The original Thomas Crown Affair happened to be on eof the most ground breaking movies of its time. Everything about it is cool from the music to the montage scenes.
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did anyone catch what EW said about this remake in the summer movies issue...basically it was "so what do you remember about the orignial that made it a classic...that's right nothing so this is fair game" Now I can understand people having a negative reasction to the orgnial but a lot of people liked it and it did have some memorable scences adn should be hands off...just because you think a movie is bad doesn't mean it has to be remade...what remade movies have been good...I can think of Two...Ben-Hur, the Heston version I think is better then the silent film one but I haven't seen the silent one in such a long time...and Cape Fear
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Okay, so the original 1968 film is not really remembered today, but it IS worth seeking out. It's a fun movie. Period. Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway have appeared in better films (THE GREAT ESCAPE, BULLITT, and THE GETAWAY for him; BONNIE & CLYDE, CHINATOWN, and NETWORK for her), but THE THOMAS CROWN affair is still enjoyable. I'll probably catch the remake when it comes out on video, just to compare and contrast the two, but I can already see the differences: for instance, in the original, Thomas Crown robs banks. In the remake, he steals artwork. A minor quibble, but still ... oh, one more thing. Is the song "The Windmills of Your Mind" used? It was one of the best things about the 1968 version.
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Heist flicks if done properly can be the best types of movies. I love Elmore Leonard and Quentin Tarantino's stuff. Stanley Kubricks The Killing was awesome and so was Heat and The Usual Suspects. They're as close as criminals ever get to bonding. I don't know about anyone else but I'm really looking forward to Reindeer Games with Ben Affleck, Gary Sinise and Charlize Theron. The premise of an ex-con being tricked into being the scapegoat of a casino robbery sounds like it could be really great. Hopefully John Frankenheimer doesn't fuck it up like he did to The Island of Dr. Moreau or was that loony toons Brandos fault. As for remakes, why do they keep remaking the perfect classics, why not remake films that had great promise but one way or another didn't come through. I could think of quite a few of those.
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I haven't seen a preview of the new "Thomas Crown Affair" yet, but I'm willing to make a fearless prediction: The new film won't have the same ironic (and downbeat) twist that capped off Norman Jewison's original film. Nor will the new film have any song as haunting as the original's Oscar-winning "Windmills of Your Mind."
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PA-LEASE!!!!! Pierce couldn't play a Steve Mcqueen part if it required ONLY bouncing a ball off a cooler wall. He had ruined 007 and he will ruin this film. It doesn't need to be remade. Doesn't hoolywood have any other ideas then to remake films? I bet there are a million good or at least original scripts out there collecting dust. So instead of brushing the dust off the old films-brush the dust off the new scripts and give us some original movies. DO NOT MESS WITH STEVE McQUEEN FILMS!! Unless of course you want to remake The Hunter. I loved that film but it might be a cool remake. Any casting ideas?
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I only said "Micheal Bay Slo-mo" since Bay uses it in a shitty way and it was from a commercial. In the commentary of Armageddon Bay even says he ripped it off from The Right Stuff. Tarantino and woo made Slo-mo walking cool. However, cinematically Scorsese used it best in Mean Streets.
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Why does everyone go on about how good the BULLET car chase is.It may have been good 100yrs ago but now it's dated crap.The best car chase now is in THE ROCK. I'M sick of all these old movies,every movie made before 1970,should be BURNED!!!!!!!All these old farts like MQUEEN should pissoff,and no more black white movies should ever be shown on tv AGAIN!!!!!!!!!
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ON the JEFFERY WELLS site he's got the movie review.HE says it's better than JEDI but worse than EMPIRE & STARWARS.This means it's gonna be crap.At least we've got the MATRIX.
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One of the delicious aspects of that movie was the site of the normally Levi encased anti-hero McQueen playing so outrageously and well against type as a deboiinare Brahmian. Brosnan does what he does very well. But he is so familiar as the Sevelle Road draped Bond that it just might confuse the audience.
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