The Thomas Crown Affair

Bomb Rating: 

Accordingly, this "Thomas Crown Affair" is actually worse than its 1999 offspring.

I went back and watched this film primarily because several critics had mentioned that it was so good and the 1999 version didn't measure up. This just goes to show that most film critics are no better than those nostalgia-frenzied old farts who insist that absolutely everything was sooo much better during the good ol' 1950's. Yeah, right. Just ask any black American about that. Accordingly, this "Thomas Crown Affair" is actually worse than its 1999 offspring.

First off, what's with Steve McQueen's laugh? He plays Thomas Crown, who sits in his house after he's organized a bank robbery and just laughs. It would be one thing if this were a self-satisfied chuckle, but McQueen goes on like he's a one-man case of mass hysteria. Actually, I'd probably laugh, too, if I thought audiences believed the simplistic bank robbery that he pulls off.

Basically, Crown hires five guys who don't know each other to walk into a bank and rob it. Let me just say that this isn't exactly a situation that causes the viewer to think, "Hmmm, how'd they pull that off?" The guys basically walk in, take the money, and walk out. Then Vicky Anderson (Faye Dunaway) shows up and starts blabbering about what a genius this Thomas Crown is, despite the strong possibility that five mongoloids could have waltzed in and ripped off this particular financial institution.

From there, "The Thomas Crown Affair" consists of Dunaway changing into various outfits and trying to catch Crown while embarking on an affair with him at the same time (incidentally, this is specifically mentioned in the crime-catcher manual as being a "bad" idea). Music lovers should be warned that this film introduces one of the most annoying songs ever: The Windmills of Your Mind, which director Norman Jewison uses frequently enough to make small rodents want to gnaw off their own limbs.

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