13YL Review: Out of Sight
Out of Sight
Year: 1998
Number for Year: 5/28.
Overall Number: 5.
Out of Sight is an absolute rarity among the films I've seen in that I liked it so much that I intentionally watched it again on video two years or after I saw it in the theater. In fact, I believe that Out of Sight may be the last movie I ever rented from a Blockbuster (with apologies to my mother and her coworkers at the Blockbuster franchise office reading this). It was for a date, actually. If so, it was a great choice.
Out of Sight features what is quite easily Jennifer Lopez's finest screen role; she's so good here that you have to wonder what would have happened if she'd kept picking intelligent scripts instead of the seeming endless stream of mainstream romantic comedy schlock she's done since. She's helped out by some ridiculously steamy chemistry with George Clooney, who with this film made the hard to negotiate leap from handsome TV star to Hollywood movie star. Clooney has obviously done many more movies since this one, and quite a few better, but he never has to look back and be embarrassed by this one, unlike, say Batman & Robin. In any event, it's very easy to watch Clooney's bank robber and Lopez's federal marshal and believe that they are in serious lust.
The on-screen-lust-o-meter (patent pending) goes off the charts in one particular scene. Clooney has just escaped from prison with the help of his sidekick Ving Rhames. They are surprised by Lopez are forced to abduct her. Clooney and Lopez are stashed in the trunk of Rhames' car, and over the next several minutes proceed to have the most amazing conversation by the light of the taillights. They discuss enough movies that you'd think this was a Tarantino film, but it's not what they say so much as how they say it. It's the kind of conversation where after about three minutes both people know that they find each other amazingly attractive, but of course that's not going to work here given that she's a federal marshal and he's a just escaped felon. Witnessing this conversation would be worth full price at the theater, let alone the measly $1 at the discount place. At least go watch it on youtube, although it's obviously not the same as seeing it on a big screen.
In any event, shortly after they exit the trunk an unarmed Lopez convinces Clooney's other sidekick to drive off, leaving him by the side of the road. The rest of the film follows Clooney's attempts to pull another heist while Lopez tries to bring him in. While the movie never reaches the level of that conversation, it still consistently hits on all cylinders. The screenplay, adapted from an Elmore Leonard novel, was justly nominated for an Oscar. The supporting case is uniformly excellent. In particular, this is the first time I remember seeing Don Cheadles on screen, as a thug; given his current image it is extremely difficult to recognize him dreaded up. Dennis Farina is great as Lopez's father, and Michael Keaton has a fun cameo playing the exact same FBI agent he portrayed in Jackie Brown, which was also based on a Leonard novel.
Naturally, this intelligent, well-reviewed heist movie did relatively poorly at the box office. I seem to recall seeing it based solely on a strong review I read online (probably by then CNN.com reviewer Paul Tatara, whose opinions of movies was scarily close to mine); if there was other advertising I don't remember it. And why would there have been, with director Steven Soderbergh still firmly in the art house, Clooney just a TV star looking for a breakout role and Lopez more famous as a singer? So relatively few people saw it, and that's a shame. Of the 28 films I saw that year there were only two or three movies I liked more at the time, and with 12 years between us only one that I think was better.
Up Next: City of Angels
On Deck: Godzilla
In the Hole: 54
Year: 1998
Number for Year: 5/28.
Overall Number: 5.
Out of Sight is an absolute rarity among the films I've seen in that I liked it so much that I intentionally watched it again on video two years or after I saw it in the theater. In fact, I believe that Out of Sight may be the last movie I ever rented from a Blockbuster (with apologies to my mother and her coworkers at the Blockbuster franchise office reading this). It was for a date, actually. If so, it was a great choice.
Out of Sight features what is quite easily Jennifer Lopez's finest screen role; she's so good here that you have to wonder what would have happened if she'd kept picking intelligent scripts instead of the seeming endless stream of mainstream romantic comedy schlock she's done since. She's helped out by some ridiculously steamy chemistry with George Clooney, who with this film made the hard to negotiate leap from handsome TV star to Hollywood movie star. Clooney has obviously done many more movies since this one, and quite a few better, but he never has to look back and be embarrassed by this one, unlike, say Batman & Robin. In any event, it's very easy to watch Clooney's bank robber and Lopez's federal marshal and believe that they are in serious lust.
The on-screen-lust-o-meter (patent pending) goes off the charts in one particular scene. Clooney has just escaped from prison with the help of his sidekick Ving Rhames. They are surprised by Lopez are forced to abduct her. Clooney and Lopez are stashed in the trunk of Rhames' car, and over the next several minutes proceed to have the most amazing conversation by the light of the taillights. They discuss enough movies that you'd think this was a Tarantino film, but it's not what they say so much as how they say it. It's the kind of conversation where after about three minutes both people know that they find each other amazingly attractive, but of course that's not going to work here given that she's a federal marshal and he's a just escaped felon. Witnessing this conversation would be worth full price at the theater, let alone the measly $1 at the discount place. At least go watch it on youtube, although it's obviously not the same as seeing it on a big screen.
In any event, shortly after they exit the trunk an unarmed Lopez convinces Clooney's other sidekick to drive off, leaving him by the side of the road. The rest of the film follows Clooney's attempts to pull another heist while Lopez tries to bring him in. While the movie never reaches the level of that conversation, it still consistently hits on all cylinders. The screenplay, adapted from an Elmore Leonard novel, was justly nominated for an Oscar. The supporting case is uniformly excellent. In particular, this is the first time I remember seeing Don Cheadles on screen, as a thug; given his current image it is extremely difficult to recognize him dreaded up. Dennis Farina is great as Lopez's father, and Michael Keaton has a fun cameo playing the exact same FBI agent he portrayed in Jackie Brown, which was also based on a Leonard novel.
Naturally, this intelligent, well-reviewed heist movie did relatively poorly at the box office. I seem to recall seeing it based solely on a strong review I read online (probably by then CNN.com reviewer Paul Tatara, whose opinions of movies was scarily close to mine); if there was other advertising I don't remember it. And why would there have been, with director Steven Soderbergh still firmly in the art house, Clooney just a TV star looking for a breakout role and Lopez more famous as a singer? So relatively few people saw it, and that's a shame. Of the 28 films I saw that year there were only two or three movies I liked more at the time, and with 12 years between us only one that I think was better.
Up Next: City of Angels
On Deck: Godzilla
In the Hole: 54