By all accounts, Thomas Crown (Pierce Brosnan) is a lucky guy. Conquering Wall Street has made him rich, but playing with numbers is dull. Sailing a boat and flying a glider alleviate some of the boredom, but what really excites him is stealing.

Because he has the resources and time, Crown is the bane of  art museums. He has solid alibis and can keep the paintings  indefinitely because he doesn’t need to sell them. His success may be short-lived, though. Insurance investigator Catherine Banning (Rene Russo) is on the case. She may wear skimpy outfits, but she’s all business. What she lacks in intelligence (which isn’t much), she compensates with a blind determination to return an impressionist painting Crown has purloined.

To capture her prey, she flirts with and later falls for Crown. Doing so lands her clues she might not find otherwise, but Crown may be toying with her the way he does with museum security systems.

Crown’s exploits wowed 1968 movie audiences and aren’t likely to bore current ones either. However, the new movie has a very ‘90s attitude. Whereas the Steve McQueen-Faye Dunaway original seems grim, the new take on the story is firmly tongue-in-cheek. For example, Brosnan sees a condescending psychiatrist (played by Dunaway). McQueen robbed banks, and his band of thieves weren’t above shooting bystanders. It’s hard to imagine Brosnan being that mean, so the gentleman art thief angle works better for him. The comic treatment gets more than a bit corny (anyone familiar with Greek mythology will be groaning during the setup for the opening robbery). Fortunately, director John McTiernan (Die Hard) stages the heist scenes in a creative, if not terribly plausible, manner.

The new movie makes one prominent improvement over the original: Russo projects a convincing ferocity and intellect that Dunaway couldn’t hope to match. Screenwriters Leslie Dixon and Kurt Wimmer also give Russo sharper remarks than her  predecessor. One pities anyone who files a fraudulent claim with Banning. It’s also refreshing to see a movie where the male and female leads are both over 40. (The pairing of Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones in Entrapment borders on pedophilia.)

Because Russo projects a forceful, mature sexuality, it’s a shame McTiernan couldn’t have played the romantic component of the story with more subtlety. Russo and Brosnan obviously have rigorous workout regimens because their naked bodies (particularly Russo’s) are remarkably toned. However, the original movie made a more lasting impression by having the actors keep their clothes on. Dunaway and McQueen played a chess game that’s still rather steamy because it lets the audience’s imagination go to work. It’s a shame few filmmakers these days are willing to trust their viewers that much. It’s also unfortunate that McTiernan and his collaborators don’t realize that the only thing more upsetting than a downbeat ending is a happy one that feels forced.

As it stands, the new take on The Thomas Crown Affair is pretty fun. But ‘90s audiences can be as sophisticated as their ‘60s predecessors, so their imaginations should not be taken for granted. (R) Rating: 6

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