Out Of Sight (1998) * * *

Directed by:  Steven Soderbergh

Starring:  George Clooney, Jennifer Lopez, Ving Rhames, Albert Brooks, Don Cheadle, Dennis Farina, Michael Keaton, Steve Zahn

Out Of Sight is a pleasant crime drama.     I could not think of any other word for it.    Its attitude towards itself is one of cool detachment.     This makes things light and breezy, but the story itself contains few surprises.     It gets by on the strength of George Clooney's charm and some good supporting players.     But Ocean's Eleven it is not.

Clooney plays Jack Foley, a career bank robber who robs another bank as the story opens.    He does so without even brandishing a weapon.     He politely tells the teller she is to put the money in a bag and if she gets out of line, the man sitting at the manager's desk will begin shooting.     There is a nice payoff to this as Jack is arrested because the getaway car won't start.

Flash forward to two years later, in which Jack escapes from prison and takes a federal marshal hostage who was there to deal with a different prisoner.     She is Karen Sisco (Lopez), who is kept at bay by Foley in the trunk of the getaway car driven by Buddy (Rhames)-a born again Christian who may or may not feel bad about things afterward.      Did I mention Foley is spooning her in the trunk and engaging in polite conversation?    And that Foley and Karen feel instant attraction?     It is likely the quickest case of Stockholm Syndrome you will ever see,

Karen escapes thanks to her ability to charm Jack's other getaway driver at their rendezvous point.    Jack and Buddy go on the lam, with Karen soon on their tail.    The issue for Karen is:  She wants to catch Jack, but is not opposed to sleeping with him also.     They meet up again in a hotel bar.    Jack calls for a "time out" for one night, which Karen agrees to.     Jobs be damned.    They can wait for another day.

In the mix also is Maurice Miller (Cheadle), a former con/pro boxer who spent time in the joint with Jack and agrees to team up with him to rob a multi-millionaire financial swindler Ripley (Brooks), whom also did a stretch with Miller and Jack.    The teaming is anything but solid as each side dreams of taking all the cash for themselves.    The distrust is palpable.    Who can trust whom?

Out Of Sight works well when its characters are in a rhythm with the dialogue by Scott Frank, based on the Elmore Leonard novel.     The actors volley back and forth smoothly and makes more some amusing scenes.      The budding romance between Jack and Karen is less appealing and perfunctory.     Lopez is physically attractive to be certain, but we don't really see inside.     She is just not super convincing as an FBI agent.     It does not seem natural for her to brandish a weapon.    The Jack and Karen doesn't lead to a satisfactory payoff.     Maybe it is a ...to be continued type of thing. 

I can say I enjoyed most of Out Of Sight without loving it.   Soderbergh and Clooney fared better with the Ocean's Eleven series, but Out Of Sight was a decent start to their partnership.