Movie · 1998 · Romance, Comedy, Crime · 2h 3m · R · English
Curator score: 7.5/10 (195.3K ratings)
Opposites attract.
Overview
Meet Jack Foley, a smooth criminal who bends the law and is determined to make one last heist. Karen Sisco is a federal marshal who chooses all the right moves … and all the wrong guys. Now they're willing to risk it all to find out if there's more between them than just the law.
Ratings
Curator score: 7.5/10
IMDb: 7.0/10
Letterboxd: 3.68/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 94%
Metacritic: 84
TMDB: 6.7/10
Director
Steven Soderbergh
Production
Universal Pictures, Jersey Films
Cast
George Clooney, Jennifer Lopez, Ving Rhames, Don Cheadle, Steve Zahn, Dennis Farina, Catherine Keener, Isaiah Washington, Albert Brooks, Luis Guzmán, Viola Davis, Nancy Allen, Jim Robinson, Mike Malone, Donna Frenzel, Manny Suárez, Keith Hudson, Paul Soileau, Scott Allen, Susan Hatfield
Curator Review
Verdict
A sleek, funny, and very sexy crime-romance with top-tier chemistry, sharp editing, and a jazzy cool that makes the caper feel effortless. It’s as much about flirtation and attitude as the heist itself, and that balance is the movie’s big appeal.
Best for
fans of stylish crime comedies
viewers who want strong romantic chemistry
people who like smart, playful dialogue
Soderbergh admirers
audiences who enjoy cool 1990s studio filmmaking
Skip if
you want a hard-edged, high-stakes thriller
you dislike movies that prioritize vibe over plot mechanics
you prefer romance to be more earnest than flirtatious
you’re not into crime stories with a light comic touch
Overview
Out of Sight is one of the great examples of a movie knowing exactly how attractive its own characters are and using that as fuel. Steven Soderbergh turns a standard criminal-meets-law-enforcement setup into something airy, witty, and impossibly smooth, with editing and music that keep the whole thing gliding along. The result is a caper that feels relaxed without ever feeling lazy.
Worth noting
The real engine is the chemistry between George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez, which is so sharp that the movie almost becomes a duel of charisma. Their scenes together have the charge of a classic star vehicle, but the film never loses its crime-movie bite: everyone is compromised, everyone is overconfident, and the smartest people in the room still make terrible choices.
Bottom line
What lingers most is the tone. It’s sexy, funny, and cool in a way that feels distinctly late-1990s, but it also has enough craft and confidence to outlast the era. Even when the plot is moving pieces around, the movie keeps reminding you that style can be substance when it’s this well executed.
Top Letterboxd reviews
demi adejuyigbe (4.5★) · 1651 likes
Clooney and Lopez at their hottest and most confident, Soderbergh flexing all his favorite muscles, criminals being brought down by their own overconfidence, ego, and lust, and a host of normal 1998 casting decisions that have aged like wine into "Holy shit, they're in this??" moments. What's not to love! One of the (if not definitely the) sexiest crime movies ever made. Love that Clooney spent 1998 to 2001 just playing the full range of confident criminal dorks getting out of prison.
Patrick Willems (4.5★) · 1241 likes
I'm mad there aren't at least two more Jack Foley/Karen Sisco movies.
demi adejuyigbe (5★) · 906 likes
When they showed a Detroit montage upon entering Detroit, I excitedly and unironically pointed to something and said “oh, that’s from Detroiters.”
Jake Cole (4★) · 759 likes
All those breakthroughs in science over the last two decades yet this is where chemistry peaked.
Josh Lewis (4★) · 745 likes
"They put a gun on you, you still have a choice."
Damn, remember when pop movies were genuinely funny and sexy little crime capers?