Out of Sight (1998)

“You’d be surprised about what you can get, if you ask for it the right way” – Jack Foley

Number of Times Seen – at least 3 (in theater in 1998, on DVD in early 2000’s sometime and 10 April 2013)

Brief Synopsis – Jack Foley, a career criminal breaks out of prison and falls in love with a US Marshall. He now must decide whether to go after one last score or chase the girl.

My Take on it – I’ve always enjoyed movies based on Elmore Leonard novels like Jackie Brown (1997), Get Shorty (1993), 3:10 to Yuma (2007). He really know show to write a compelling and complicated storyline that still is understandable and intelligent.  Soderbergh did a great job with his soon to be best friend George Clooney (they collaborated ALOT after this movie) The problem I had watching this movie was believing that Clooney was a career bank robber. Unlike Danny Ocean in Oceans 11 (2001), he is somewhat of unaccomplished criminal here since even though he claims to have robbed hundreds of banks without a gun, he seems to get caught quite a lot. Reminds me of the quote from The Shawshank Redemption (1994) when Andy says to Billy “What I mean is, you don’t seem to be a very good thief, maybe you should try something else.”

The rest of the cast of criminals make sense and are believable as cons: Isaiah Washington, Ving Rhames, Don Cheadle, Luiz Guzman and even Albert Brooks as the wall street white collar criminal. I enjoyed the way the movie uses flashbacks to give us the whole picture of the past background and current connections between the characters.  Jennifer Lopez is also believable as the US Marshall trying to catch the crew, basically a cop married to her job with no social life to speak of because of this.  Watch for a cameo from Michael Keaton reprising his role of Ray Nicolette from Jackie Brown (1997).

Bottom Line – Fun movie, fun dialogue, too unbelievable that Clooney and Lopez would fall in love so quickly, but barring that, I’d recommend it.

Rating – Globe Worthy (8/10)