That it is currently difficult to close the door on the next James Bond is not a surprise. First, because finding an actor who will last for several films, probably several decades, is not easy. Second, because the actor who wants to take on the role can facing the franchise partially or totally devouring his career.
Sean Connery and Daniel Craig have managed to keep the shadow of James Bond from darkening their filmography. Roger Moore played him for too long to let go of him. Then Pierce Brosnan ended up being a very clear image of 007, even if he didn’t star in as many classics, and that has relegated to relative ostracism exquisite films which he did in between like ‘The Thomas Crown Affair’
A pictorial secret
Brosnan stars alongside an electrifying René Russo in this remake of a 1960s Steve McQueen classic, directed by the late great John McTiernan. A superb, stylish and sexy heist thriller which celebrates 25 years since its premiere in movie theaters, and which can now be seen streaming through MGM+ and from Movistar+.
Thomas Crown has practically everything that many would wish for: success in his businesses, a lot of money so that he doesn’t have to worry about anything. But dissatisfaction continues to be present in his life. That is why he becomes a white-collar thief, and aims as high as trying to steal a Monet from the Museum of Contemporary Art in New York. A private detective specializing in this type of heists, with Huge amounts of money at stakewill try to hunt him down in a duel of glances and intimacy.
The complicated production of ‘The 13th Warrior’, which also caused a delay so severe that it ended up being released after ‘The Thomas Crown Affair’, led McTiernan to try to react quickly. He needed something with the potential to function directly and effectivelyto cover up after a disastrous and overly expensive shoot where he was also relegated from his duties at a certain point.
‘The Thomas Crown Affair’: A Superior Remake
The curious thing is that ‘The Thomas Crown Affair’ is not exactly a sure hit, despite being a remake and having one of the stars of the moment. The original being a stylish and seductive exercise in thriller, something very different from McTiernan’s hyper-masculine (although sophisticated in its own way) thriller. But his direction is extremely fine-tuned to achieve something stimulating and entertainingwhich does not need flourishes to dazzle but a good sense of intrigue.
Of course, it also displays an unusual sense of sex that was so key in the original, and here it maintains that with fervour but also elegance. Its clever positioning, cinematic savvy, and giving its actors the proper chance to shine, make this remake easily surpass the original. To this day, somewhat overshadowed in Brosnan’s career by Bond (and it is far superior to most of those films), it remains as a One of the most underrated thrillers of the late nineties.
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