B-Movies and Couch Classics: Out Of Sight • A Shock To The System

B-Movies and Couch Classics
Out Of Sight & A Shock To The System

by Arik Ben Treston
Correspondent to Movie Merchants

OUT OF SIGHT
UNIVERSAL STUDIOS, 1998
Hollywood used to clearly define the good guys and the bad guys. Take a look at any old western and you will see that the good guy is the one in the white hat, and the bad guy is in the black. Over time, character depiction in films became more realistic. While not a priority in big-budget, thinly-scripted fare, the smaller, more independent features take time to let us into the heads of their characters. When we come upon the heroes, they are not always heroic. The same holds true for the villains — they are not always unadulteratedly bad.

This brings us to this month’s theme: two films that tap into the lawless voyeur in us. While Out of Sight is not, strictly speaking, a small independent film, the fact that it wasn’t widely seen and boasts one of independent filmdom’s grandfathers at the helm qualifies it in my book. Director Steven Soderberg (Sex, Lies, and Videotape) continues a recent trend of adapting Elmore Leonard’s novels for the big screen (1995’s Get Shorty, 1997’s Jackie Brown nee Rum Punch) and the little screen (the unfortunately unrenewed ABC summer series Maximum Bob).

Out of Sight stars George Clooney in his first decent film role as a bank robber with a heart (and no weapon). Over years of going in and out of prison Clooney has gathered together a wild cast of characters who help him out during his travails. In the process of a prison break, Clooney and his cohort, effectively and affectingly played by Ving Rhames (Pulp Fiction, Mission Impossible ), meet up with a federal marshal, the stunningly beautiful Jennifer Lopez. After Lopez’s creative attempts to stop Clooney fail, a great relationship develops between them. But, of course, being on opposite sides of the law, their feelings are brought into conflict with their work

The ebb and flow of this film is not conventional (flashbacks come out of nowhere), but it works. Rounding out a great cast are Steve Zahn (Suburbia) as a stoner, Don Cheadle (Boogie Nights, Volcano) as Clooney’s nemesis, and an almost unrecognizable Albert Brooks (Mother, Defending Your Life) as a multi-millionaire Clooney has befriended in prison. While incarcerated, Brooks brags about the large quantity of uncut diamonds he has in his mansion. This is not the wisest secret to share with fellow cons soon to be on the outside. Hence the plot.

Elmore Leonard does not write about conventional people, neither conventionally good nor conventionally bad. Even while they are doing bad things we can see the good in them and know they are better than their actions suggest. The key to the success of this film is that it defies the status quo of today’s action/comedy films by not following a typical style. It creates its own style. It transcends being just another entry in the genre and becomes a breath of fresh air for our over-polluted cinematic lungs.

A SHOCK TO THE SYSTEM
HBO VIDEO, 1990
A Shock To The System brings back those great ’80s: Yuppies, corporate raiders, selfishness. Ahh, good times, good times. Michael Caine gives one of his better performances as a Madison Avenue executive waiting for promotion. When he doesn’t get it, that’s when the trouble begins. First, Caine has to deal with his shrew of a wife, Swoozie Kurtz (Citizen Ruth). She is convinced her husband will get his promotion and won’t hear of anything else. The one who does get promoted is the younger, more aggressive Peter Riegert (Animal House, Crossing Delancey), who is ready to leap his way up the corporate ladder. When Caine accidentally pushes a homeless man onto subway tracks, killing him, he taps into deep, dark feelings of invincibility. He begins to see himself as some sort of Merlin-like magician who can make his problems “disappear.”

While being a murderer is not an admirable quality, there is something in Caine’s character that makes us justify if not forgive his actions. When the ‘good detective’ (Will Patton, The Postman) starts putting the pieces together we want him to fail, even though he’s the good guy. Caine even finds himself a love interest (cute co-worker Elizabeth McGovern) to weave into the wild tapestry of his new life plan.

He’s bad, he’s wrong, he’s committing sins left and right, but for some reason, some deviously devilishly wicked reason, we want him to win. We want him to do what we might dream of doing but never, ever would. That’s the fun of living vicariously through movies, seeing our fantasies played out for us without real-life consequences.

Also Look For:
Quick Change, 1990. Bill Murray’s masterpiece ode to pre-Disney New York City. Murray robs a bank dressed as a clown and spends the rest of the film with his co-conspirators Geena Davis and Randy Quaid, simply trying to escape this city that won’t let go of them. For me, what always elevated this movie from others like it was the fact that the cop pursuing Murray (played by Jason Robards) was on an equal level with Murray. Both of them felt the same way about the city; they just had different ways of dealing with it. This has to be one of the funniest and under-appreciated, crime-caper movies out there.

Raising Arizona, 1987. The Coen Brothers (Fargo, Big Lebowski) early masterpiece of a couple, Holly Hunter and Nicolas Cage, who decide to steal a baby after unsuccessfuly trying to have one of their own. Of course stealing a baby is not a good thing to do, but we like and sympathize with this couple anyway. This hyperkinetic visual eye candy was an early taste of great things to come from the Coens who have long been able to give us well-written characters of complexity, a talent that eludes most filmmakers.