Among other things, this film reminded me what good actress Jennifer Lopez used to be before the dancing, the perfume & clothing lines and the god awful singing turned her into 'J.Lo Inc.'. Prior to willingly relinquishing her life to celebrity press becoming in the process the biggest media whore planet Earth has seen since Elizabeth Taylor's heyday, Lopez was simply an actress. And a damn good one, too - as this film aptly demonstrates!
In what turned out to be one of her last worthy movies before crap like "The Wedding Planner", "Maid in Manhattan" and "Gigli" took the center stage, she simply illuminates the screen.
Also starring is George Clooney as jaunty serial bank robber and jail inmate Nick Foley. As the frames start to roll, he's for the umpteenth time shipped off to yet another correctional facility - this time in Florida, after an unsuccessful robbery of a Miami bank when his getaway car wouldn't start. Soon enough though, he manages to bust out (on Super Bowl Sunday no less), piggybacking on the escape plan of a few Cubans. Waiting for him, parked outside of the prison gates, is his trusty friend and partner Buddy (Ving Rhames). By pure chance, also hanging around is FBI marshall Karen Sisco (Lopez) - there to pick up an inmate who needs to be transferred. All of a sudden she's unexpectedly witnessing a prison break and quickly moves to alert the guards. In the ensuing chaos she is grabbed by Foley, shoved into the trunk of a car and is now fleeing the scene with a jail escapee and his driver-accomplice. And so the fun begins.......
What follows is greatly developed pulpy story with a series of stylish vignettes involving excellent supporting characters like the brutal Snoopy Miller (Don Cheadle), spaced-out Glen (Steve Zahn), talkative millionaire crook Richard Ripley (Albert Brooks), Foley's ex-wife Adele (Catherine Keener), jail escapee Chino (Luis Guzmán), Karen's dad (Denis Farrina), etc.
The look and the atmosphere of this thing are indescribably appealing. Really fun stuff.
In what turned out to be one of her last worthy movies before crap like "The Wedding Planner", "Maid in Manhattan" and "Gigli" took the center stage, she simply illuminates the screen.
Also starring is George Clooney as jaunty serial bank robber and jail inmate Nick Foley. As the frames start to roll, he's for the umpteenth time shipped off to yet another correctional facility - this time in Florida, after an unsuccessful robbery of a Miami bank when his getaway car wouldn't start. Soon enough though, he manages to bust out (on Super Bowl Sunday no less), piggybacking on the escape plan of a few Cubans. Waiting for him, parked outside of the prison gates, is his trusty friend and partner Buddy (Ving Rhames). By pure chance, also hanging around is FBI marshall Karen Sisco (Lopez) - there to pick up an inmate who needs to be transferred. All of a sudden she's unexpectedly witnessing a prison break and quickly moves to alert the guards. In the ensuing chaos she is grabbed by Foley, shoved into the trunk of a car and is now fleeing the scene with a jail escapee and his driver-accomplice. And so the fun begins.......
What follows is greatly developed pulpy story with a series of stylish vignettes involving excellent supporting characters like the brutal Snoopy Miller (Don Cheadle), spaced-out Glen (Steve Zahn), talkative millionaire crook Richard Ripley (Albert Brooks), Foley's ex-wife Adele (Catherine Keener), jail escapee Chino (Luis Guzmán), Karen's dad (Denis Farrina), etc.
The look and the atmosphere of this thing are indescribably appealing. Really fun stuff.