Out of Sight (Steven Soderbergh, 1998): Two actors I admire, George Clooney and Steve Zahn, both have movies coming out this weekend, which seems the ideal occasion to revisit a movie they made together--and a movie that was my pick as the Number One Movie of 1998--Out of Sight.

Out of Sight is one of those movies that's macho in a cool, intelligent way, not a bazooka-shooting, loogie-spitting, aggressive way. Clooney's character, Jack Foley, can kick ass when he needs to, but he'd rather get over with tough words, an uncompromising gaze, and the fact that he's a helluva lot smarter than most of the thugs he tangles with. Here's the story:

Foley is a bank robber. He doesn't use a gun, he just uses words. At the start of the film we see him walk into a bank and quietly rob a teller without so much as a threatening gesture. Unfortunately, some car trouble lands him in jail, from which he eventually escapes with the help of his buddy, Buddy (Ving Rhames). The escape doesn't go quite as planned, though, and the two end up kidnapping federal marshal Karen Sisco (Jennifer Lopez). Foley and Sisco spend some time crunched together in the trunk of a car . . . for how long, I'm not sure, but it's long enough for the appropriate chemical reactions to occur, and quickly the two are smitten with each other.

Can a relationship between a fed and a bank robber work? When they're as sexy as Jennifer Lopez and George Clooney, yeah, probably. But I don't want you Guy Movie lovers out there thinking that's all there is to the film. While Foley's in prison, he gets wind of a stash of $5-million in uncut diamonds hidden away in the house of a Milken-style stock market cheat (Albert Brooks). Foley and Buddy figure, what the hell, one last big score, even though they can't think of one crook out there who's ever made "one last big score."

Still, they're gonna go for it. But unfortunately, so is thuggish criminal Snoopy Miller (Don Cheadle), with the help of the squirrelly stoner Glenn (Steve Zahn), and his driver White Boy Bob. Snoopy's everything Foley isn't: he's mean, murderous, and none too bright. Foley's going to have to lock horns with Snoopy, and get the cash. Whether or not he also gets the girl, well that's just gravy.

Out of Sight didn't do much at the box office when it came out, and it hasn't really been discovered on video, except by a small cult of admirers. What makes this conventional-sounding film so great? Mainly, it's cool as shit. The characters are cool: Sisco and Foley are cops and robbers you don't want to mess with. Buddy is a straight-up good guy, Snoopy is a scary motherfucker, but in a very real way--not an over-the-top villain, but just a guy who doesn't care if he has to hurt you to look out for his interests. Glenn, the clown, is amiable comic relief, and other characters, played by the likes of Dennis Farina and Luis Guzman, keep the proceedings gliding along in style.

The plot is laid out in a non-linear fashion that gives a complex story plenty of forward momentum, the direction by Steven Soderbergh is crisp and elegant, and the screenplay by the same guy who wrote Get Shorty, also based on a book by Elmore Leonard, is packed with yummy, witty, tough-guy dialogue.

That's a lot of fine parts adding up to one lovely whole. If you haven't seen Out of Sight, I promise you, you'll dig it in a big way. It's one of the most entertaining cops and robbers pictures ever made. See it.