Not a favorite of mine amongst Soderbergh's works (I'd rank Ocean's Eleven and Traffic above this) but still highly entertaining crime-romance-comedy with Clooney and Lopez sharing some wonderful chemistry. This one does have Soderbergh's trademark style with cool blues in the Detroit scenes and oversaturation for Florida. **4.0/5**

George Clooney is always good as the debonaire crook. Right from the start, he has a certain panache as he casually robs a bank - though he ought to have bought a more reliable getaway car. In and out of prison, he ("Foley") finds himself in possession of a US Marshall "Sisco" (Jennifer Lopez) whom he imprisons in the boot of her car after another of his robberies goes awry! His latest period of incarceration, however, introduces him to millionaire fraudster "Dick" (Albert Brooks) who is being ripped off for protection and in-prison luxuries by "Miller" (Don Cheadle). They vie, for a while, over this lucrative gent before deciding that the best plan is to join forces to relieve him of his reputed $5m in uncut diamonds hidden at one of his many properties. With the determined "Sisco" in pursuit, off they set on this quite entertaining quest with plenty of duplicity and the odd thwacking before an ending that is distinctly fishy. Of course there is some romance - "Sisco" and "Foley" certainly spark, and aside from the on-form Cheadle, Ving Rhames and the always slightly quirky Steve Zahn provide much added value as this otherwise procedural story moves along. It's far too long. At over two hours, the film struggles to sustain itself for periods at the start; it takes it's own sweet time to build up an head of steam, but once it gets going it has a genial charm to it and Clooney holds it together with a glint in his eye and his tongue in his cheek. Forgettable, but fun.

Well dang. Sometimes I feel the need to try to explain why I’m rating something on the lower end when so many others have so much positive to say, and this is one of those some times.

I did find that the movie started off really strong. I was immediately pulled in and the premise was plenty appealing. Somewhere shortly past [spoiler]the two hanging out in the trunk together[/spoiler] it began to go downhill though and there was little to no excitement up until the finales. By then, I just wanted them all to get it over with. When you could watch only the beginning and the ending of a movie and not have any questions, something wasn’t done right.

I think my overall issue had to do with the pacing. It made the film drag and become a bore. It was also as if the tone of the film was confused. A comedy crime type film should have far more quick, punchy lines. It seemed as though many of the conversations between characters just went on and on. I felt like I was nosily listening in on neighbors and having to endure the boring bits surrounding anything relatively interesting coming up. Movies aren’t supposed to be that true to life; they’re supposed to continually keep your interest.

The transitions were not done well, especially when going back and forth in the timeline. They were trying to build up to all the characters colliding in the end, but it just wasn’t much of a build. Also, the freeze frames that were thrown in here and there were odd and felt out of place.

All that without even bringing up the fact that [spoiler]there probably should have been more of an internal battle going on with Karen about wanting to pursue a relationship with a criminal. There being a spark or a connection felt is a good start, sure, but she’s presented as smart enough to know better than to continue on with that reason alone; especially if she’s been burned by a similar scenario in the past. Her dad being as supportive as he was, was a little out there. He was basically like, "You like those bad boys, honey? You have those bad boys!" Yeah, there's nothing alarming or potentially risky about having that kind of taste in men in any way.[/spoiler]

I’m a casual, although relatively strong Jennifer Lopez fan, which is how this ended up on my watch list to begin with; but I’m definitely ready to put this movie out of sight and out of mind.

P.S. J.Lo in the movie, _Enough_, is more my jam.