ENTRAPMENT. Give me a break. Yet another old fogey hooks up with a young bird and we're supposed to accept this as par for the course. Only in Hollywood. Still, "Entrapment" could be a lot worse: the tired plot and boring action sequences are made at least palatable by Sean Connery. Now there's no denying that the bloke is old. His Bond days are long gone, but he's still got it. He's still that suave Welshman who wooed us all along with "Pussy" or "Miss Moneypenny" back in the days before we recognized Bond as a misogynist.

Indeed "Entrapment" might be the perfect retirement vehicle for aging Bonds. Connery plays Mac, an aging yet masterful thief; the best in the business in fact. He has what it takes and try as they might, none can catch him. Enter Catherine Zeta-Jones as Gin, an insurance investigator with some fine attributes to her credit. She sets her professional gaze on Mac and gets permission to catch him. And so the adventure begins.

And how is she going to catch this thief? By working with him on a job, of course. Together they'll rob an astronomical sum from a bank in an exotic location and along the way hang from ridiculous places, escape from high speed vehicles, and fall in love.

Now Connery is 69 and Zeta-Jones is 29 So the strongest scenes of the movie are where they recognize each other's strengths and gifts in mutual and satisfying admiration. There's many a scene obviously included to allow Zeta-Jones to display her incredible flexibility as an actress, where we see Connery look at her in wonder, and it's okay. She looks good, he admits it, but also recognizes that he's past it. So the thought of them getting together at the end is completely lame, crippling whatever hope the movie might have had.

There are, after all, other options. Arnie Schwartzenegger and Vanessa Williams managed to work closely together in "eraser" without needing to conform to the obligatory kiss for the closing credits. "Entrapment" would be a lot stronger if it followed suit.

In general, "Entrapment" is a trendy little flick meant to feed the great mindless unwashed who don't care about the difference between Y2K and the millennium. There's action, a suave hero, and a lusty wench. If you don't need anymore than that, then "Entrapment" is the film for you.