Out of Sight: 1998, dir. Steven Soderbergh. Seen on DVD (July 18).
I rented Out of Sight because I read the Elmore Leonard book while I was in Vegas and I wanted to see how well it was adapted. Would it be as good as Get Shorty? Or would I be terribly disappointed?
I was hoping I would like the movie because it had George Clooney in it, who is consistently entertaining, particularly when working with Steven Soderbergh (we won’t mention Solaris). I love Ocean’s Eleven. And Scott Frank, who adapted Get Shorty, also adapted this one.
However, I was a little worried about Jennifer Lopez, who seemed unlikely to portray Karen Sisco at all faithfully, and who would probably annoy the crap out of me.
I was happily surprised that Out of Sight was a better movie than I’d hoped it would be. It kept the quirky but suspenseful tone of the book and transformed it into a charming, well-paced heist film.
My sister has a huge crush on George Clooney, even more than she does for Orlando Bloom as Legolas (which I think is much sillier than the Clooney love) and I can kind of understand that. I can’t think of a movie I’ve seen him in that I didn’t like. (However, I admit I don’t see the ones I think will be lame.)
However, I expected Clooney would be fine. The big surprise was Jennifer Lopez, who was not at all JLo-ish but who was actually acting in an understated and believable way. Steven Soderbergh seems to have a great talent for working with actors, and this was further proof.
Hell, I liked everyone in Out of Sight. Ving Rhames as Buddy, Don Cheadle as Snoopy, Dennis Farina as Karen’s dad, and Albert Brooks (he pops up in the most unexpected places) as Ripley, the rich guy. Steve Zahn was annoying but then his character is supposed to be like that. I didn’t even realize that was Michael Keaton as Ray Nicolette. I ought to see this again.
I liked the trunk scene a lot—they got it just right. And the time-out scene in the hotel. And the end. The end was a little cute for a heist movie, but it worked anyway. Sometimes I prefer the cute endings to the ones where everyone dies, anyway.
Out of Sight is a great movie to rent one weekend, to kick back and watch. I’m not sure I need to own a copy on DVD (if it were on sale, I might buy it), but I’d watch it again. The DVD we rented was pretty bare bones, with no special features, but I don’t care about that if the movie itself is well done.
This is one of my favourite movies, but it also has one of my favourite commentary tracks. Admittedly, I love commentary tracks, but I think that this is one where even if you don’t care for them, you’d still like it.
Steven Soderburgh and Scott Frank riffing together hilariously for a couple of hours. it’s hard to beat. I almost prefer to watch it with the track on than watch the movie straight!