The Thomas Crown Affair (1999)

A thrill seeking billionaire (Pierce Brosnan) pulls off a perfect heist when he steals a priceless painting from a Manhattan museum in broad daylight. But a beautiful insurance investigator (Rene Russo)  hired to retrieve the stolen masterpiece suspects him and the two engage in a dangerous game of cat and mouse. A remake of the 1968 Norman Jewison film and directed by John McTiernan (DIE HARD). If the 1968 film didn't exist, this would stand alone as a slickly enterrtaining heist movie. But the 1968 film does exist and this version pales next to it in every respect. In 1968, Jewison's use of split screen was unique and it was dripping with style. Nothing in the 1999 film has anything as fresh. Then, there's the casting. Brosnan and Russo are fine but they lack the sexual chemistry of Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway in the original. Brosnan and Russo do a sexy dance and go nude (or rather their body doubles) for a sex scene but none of that is as sexually sizzling as McQueen and Dunaway playing chess in the 1968 film. This version jettisons the 1968 movie's bittersweet ending in favor of a happy ending so it can send the audience home feeling good. With Denis Leary, Ben Gazzara, Fritz Weaver, Frankie Faison and Faye Dunaway as Brosnan's psychiatrist.