18 replies to this topic

[Chaos]

I'll get the ball rolling with the topic, and I'll hopefully be back with thoughts tomorrow or Thursday.

[J.T.]

Out of Sight is the best Elmore Leonard adoptation not named Get Shorty or 3:10 to Yuma.

[odessasteps]

Does justified count?

Out of sight is a very entertaining picture.

[Rippa]

J.T., on Jan 24 2012, 04:01 PM, said:

Out of Sight is the best Elmore Leonard adoptation not named Get Shorty or 3:10 to Yuma.

I definitely think Out of Sight is better than Get Shorty (I havent seen 3:10 to Yuma)

I am trying to catch this on HBO in the next day or so since I haven't watched it from start to finish in a long time.

[Brian Fowler]

J.T., on Jan 24 2012, 04:01 PM, said:

Out of Sight is the best Elmore Leonard adoptation not named Get Shorty or 3:10 to Yuma.

ah-hem.  Jackie Brown.

That said, I bought a two-pack of Out Of Sight and Intolerable Cruelty at Wal-mart around a year ago, because it was cheap (8 bucks, I think), I love the Coens, and I've heard Out Of Sight is really good.  Then I never watched either of them.  (Side note:  I do this way too often with cheap dvds.)

So, finally put this in Sunday night.  And it is a damn good movie.

A few random points:  

1. Clooney is fantastic in this, and the cast surrounding him is amazing.  Don Cheadle is absolutely inspired.

2. I forget how good an actor J. Lo actually is when she has a script worth doing and good people to play off from.

3. Dennis Farina in a crime film.  Always good.

4. When Karen mentions Ray Nicolete, I had this little rollercoaster reaction.  "Awesome, Ray."  "Oh, it's gonna suck when it's not Keaton."  Fast-forward a few scenes...  "HOLY SHIT, they brought Keaton in to play Ray."  I think at that point, any questions I had left about the films quality was gone.

5.  The murder Snoop brings Glen too.  Great, abnormal way of filming/presenting that by Soderbergh.  Works extremely well.

6. Brooks... God damn Albert Brooks.  The way he completely changes his portrayal of Ripley depending on where the power is...  In prison, he's so weak.  In his office, talking down to Foley, so powerful.  Hiding in his bathroom...  Really great performance.

7. God damn, why did it take make almost 14 years to actually see this movie?

8. I might need the blu-ray, because the dvd print is really not good.

[Tim Evans]

Watched this last night and loved it. I thought I had seen it years ago but I guess not. My favorite part was the scene with Brooks, Cheadle and the goldfish and when Clooney goes to confront Albert Brooks in the office. Also I didn't realize George and J-Lo had that good of chemistry?

[pipchicken2]

Steven Soderbergh is a freakin' miracle worker. In the upcoming movies thread, people were talking about his current gimmick of taking MMA fighters and porn stars and challenging himself to coax a decent performance out of them. Lost in the discussion was that he's been doing that for years. Exhibit A: Jennifer Lopez in "Out of Sight."

In this movie, he took an erstwhile pop-singer and jaw-droppingly shitty actress and somehow guided her to the one and only excellent performance of her career. Watch "Maid in Manhattan," "Gigli," or "Shall We Dance?" and you'll scarcely believe she'd ever be capable of a performance this charismatic and nuanced. I don't know how Soderbergh does it but the man is the Paul Heyman of directors.

Clooney also does a great job in this flick. For those of you who were 12 years old when "American Beauty" came out, it may seem hard to believe but early in his movie career, it looked like Clooney was pulling a David Caruso (big TV star who bombs as a leading man). His Batman movie was a disaster, he did some totally forgettable rom-com with Michelle Pfieffer and an action flick with Nicole Kidman that also bombed. At that point, he did something really smart and instead of chasing easy paychecks, he started doing smaller movies with really good directors (Soderbergh, Malick, Coen Brothers). I love "From Dusk Til Dawn" but "Out of Sight" was the first time I (and a lot of people) really started appreciating Clooney as an actor.

As noted, the supporting cast is really strong. I haven't seen this in almost ten years so I totally forgot Albert Brooks was in this. I guess I'm not the only one as everybody made a big deal of him playing against type in "Drive" and he plays a somewhat similar character here. Actually, I think this performance was better as somebody mentioned, it was pretty fantastic how weak and pitiful he acted in prison and how arrogant and dickish he acted in the office. Don Cheadle totally ruled and, of course, every movie is 110% better with Dennis Farina. His scene with Michael Keaton was one of the highlights of the flick.

Anyway, this is just a really well-made cops-and-robbers heist flick. I love how the seamlessly the flashbacks fit into the larger narrative. I also find it refreshing that Soderbergh totally did away with the standard romantic angle these films usually follow. Almost without fail, the good girl either falls for a cop who she thinks is a crook or she falls for a crook who turns out to be cop. In OoS, Sisco knows exactly who Jack is and that's exactly what attracts her to him (and vice versa). Granted, Jack isn't a total asshole but they're both adrenaline junkies who get off on doing what they're not supposed to do. The bar scene was awesome because it showed neither one of them is happy with a "normal" life or relationship. In fact, the ending was absolutely perfect because Sisco doesn't want to spend time with Jack while he's in custody (as her dad suggested), the attraction is in the chase and catching him red-handed, not hanging out with him behind bars or catching him in a motel lobby.

Oh and I also like that for once in a movie, somebody ran out of bullets!

[Brian Fowler]

Too be fair to J. Lo, she was quite good in Selena, and  her little bits of Jersey Girl.  Seems like there was another film I liked her in too, but I'm drawing a blank.

Her problem is more "takes easy, shitty scripts (that probably pay better)" instead of challenging work.

[The Unholy Dragon]

Brian Fowler, on Jan 25 2012, 10:13 AM, said:

Too be fair to J. Lo, she was quite good in Selena, and  her little bits of Jersey Girl.  Seems like there was another film I liked her in too, but I'm drawing a blank.

Her problem is more "takes easy, shitty scripts (that probably pay better)" instead of challenging work.

She was alright in The Cell.

[Brian Fowler]

The Unholy Dragon, on Jan 26 2012, 04:58 AM, said:

Brian Fowler, on Jan 25 2012, 10:13 AM, said:

Too be fair to J. Lo, she was quite good in Selena, and  her little bits of Jersey Girl.  Seems like there was another film I liked her in too, but I'm drawing a blank.

Her problem is more "takes easy, shitty scripts (that probably pay better)" instead of challenging work.

She was alright in The Cell.

That was it.  I knew there was another one.

[Evil Ash]

Brian Fowler, on Jan 26 2012, 06:21 AM, said:

The Unholy Dragon, on Jan 26 2012, 04:58 AM, said:

Brian Fowler, on Jan 25 2012, 10:13 AM, said:

Too be fair to J. Lo, she was quite good in Selena, and  her little bits of Jersey Girl.  Seems like there was another film I liked her in too, but I'm drawing a blank.

Her problem is more "takes easy, shitty scripts (that probably pay better)" instead of challenging work.

She was alright in The Cell.

That was it.  I knew there was another one.

I remember her being good in U-TURN.  Though, FWIW, I also remember being basically the only person who enjoyed U-TURN.

[Justin877]

J.T., on Jan 24 2012, 06:01 PM, said:

Out of Sight is the best Elmore Leonard adoptation not named Get Shorty or 3:10 to Yuma.

Better than Jackie Brown?

[Evil Ash]

Yeah, so one thing I love about Elmore Leonard is that his plots have twists and turns, but they don't come from plot contrivances or Machiavellian scheming; rather, things change suddenly due to things going wrong, often caused by incompetence or general numb-skullery.  While Leonard is certainly willing to show more-or-less good people involved in crime, the majority of his criminals are idiots who probably couldn't hack a real job.  People are petty, stupid, and often mean, and this more-or-less drives the plot of his stories (or at least the plot of stories based on his work--I have to admit I've never actually read anything by Leonard).

Anyway, OUT OF SIGHT is a great movie, and it's one that reminds me that you can achieve a lot by taking a simple crime story and just taking care in its execution.  Plus--as someone mentioned--this has to be the film that saved Clooney's film career, right?  At the very least, it must have introduced him to Soderberg.

[J.T.]

I am biased not to rank Jackie Brown as high as Out of Sight because of my underlying resistance to fully embrace the Tarantino hype love.

And this is from a man that worships the ground that Pam Grier walks on.

[Evil Ash]

Get your priorities straight!

[J.T.]

I know. They are all out of whack. :(

I blame Rippa and my ex-girlfriend for my lack of focus.

[The Unholy Dragon]

Well, this was excellent.

George Clooney pretty much stole the show, first and foremost. The opening scene hooked you and everything from there keeps you captivated. His whole character is just...awesome. The gentleman thief concept done to perfection. I *love* how toward the end he realizes the gang's going to rape the maid and kill both of them and he just can't let it slide. He's totally home free, but his conscience gets the better of him. Loved how the big fat idiot went out, too.

Jennifer Lopez was also surprisingly great in her role. I'd remembered her being pretty good in other stuff, but she was outright excellent here. Really impressed with how she stepped up to the role.

And though it may be a weird point: I loved the sex scene. Way too often, sex scenes are superfluous excuses to get the leads in minimal clothing for some quick T&A. This one was so...clever though. The build with them talking in the lounge, mixed with them talking in her room, mixed with them awkwardly undressing...it all came together at once to really show you just how and why these two are so drawn to each other, culminating in...well, sex. It was really brilliantly shot and of everything in the movie stood out to me most as an example of really great shooting.

Honestly, it's hard to think of much more to say. The whole film is a blast with a great cast and fun script and great directing...it's so uniformly good that the little things don't stand out as much for me. Certainly glad to have watched it, though.

Oh, and the cameo at the end? AWESOME.

[Yo-Yo's Roomie]

Evil Ash, on Jan 26 2012, 12:27 PM, said:

Brian Fowler, on Jan 26 2012, 06:21 AM, said:

The Unholy Dragon, on Jan 26 2012, 04:58 AM, said:

Brian Fowler, on Jan 25 2012, 10:13 AM, said:

Too be fair to J. Lo, she was quite good in Selena, and  her little bits of Jersey Girl.  Seems like there was another film I liked her in too, but I'm drawing a blank.

Her problem is more "takes easy, shitty scripts (that probably pay better)" instead of challenging work.

She was alright in The Cell.

That was it.  I knew there was another one.

I remember her being good in U-TURN.  Though, FWIW, I also remember being basically the only person who enjoyed U-TURN.

I enjoyed U-Turn.

[IsaacDuke]

One of the things that many are not mentioning is the fact that this is one of the classics-of-the-90s that actually still holds up today. Soderbergh has more than a couple of duds in his bio, Clooney (as has been pointed out) isn't guaranteed to be a sure thing (even when it's with working with this director), this is one of the few Rhames roles where he seems to give a shit, etc.

Bravo to whoever pointed out that Lopez was the perhaps the first example of Soderbergh challenging himself by working with an amateur. More impressive to me is that he manages to direct Steve Zahn to a performance that doesn't make me want to stab him with a pencil.

Also, am I wrong in thinking that this is the first example of Soderbergh's now trademark sexy-jazzy-cool montage scene?