Runaway Jury
2003 Directed by Gary Fleder
Synopsis
Trials are too important to be decided by juries.
A juror on the inside and a woman on the outside manipulate a court trial involving a major gun manufacturer.
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Another movie I can watch again and again. The cast is excellent including Dustin Hoffman, Gene Hackman and of course John Cusack and the story compelling. I like the cat and mouse game as it is revealed the real motives of the characters.
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A Grisham court trial with heist-flavor...
While the Grisham-way of court novels turned movies have become a formula over the years, this is the one I keep returning to. Maybe it's because I really enjoy the likes of John Cusack and Rachel Weisz --and I really do love both of them--, but I think it's because of the way it's really a nontraditional take on the heist-genre.
Hi-jacking the jury, and going power play against the deep pockets and determined jackals that find them self above the law. That's a completely different ball game, and it's a ball game Cusack was born for. He might have been a fine grifter in 1990's The Grifter and a fine hit-man in 1997's…
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Part of Dastardly Difficult December: film nr.73
A film starring Dustin Hoffman and Gene Hackman should never, ever be as mediocre as this run of the mill, cliche infested, paint it by numbers court room thriller is.
This film is wasteful, it doesn't recycle, doesn't separate its garbage, it just does the unthinkable, it make s two of the finest actors alive look beige.
And it actually had great promise as well, as the premise lends itself beautifully for a well crafted, tense legal thriller. Unfortunately it succumbs to its irresistible desire to please its audience and give it a quick fix without any sense of originality or awareness of the talent involved.
Such a shame. Makes me miss mister Hackman in my movies even more.
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RUNAWAY JURY is not a particularly original film nor is its execution in anyway innovative or new. It is, however, competently made with its requisite cast of attractive lead boy/girl couple (John Cusack and Rachel Weisz) and established supporting heavyweights (Dustin Hoffman and Gene Hackman).
The Count's Verdict: Much like a takeaway pizza soon devoured, RUNAWAY JURY is a fast, convenient fix which leaves one full but not entirely satisfied.
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Gary Fleder directed John Cusack, Dustin Hoffman, Rachel Weisz and Gene Hackman on a roller coaster ride in the land of senseless death resulting from a loose gun control. This awesome court drama introduces us to Vicksburg Firearms, an industry represented by Rankin, in a trial versus Celeste Wood, whose husband died in an automatic-firearm assault of which she thinks Vicksburg should hold responsibility. Watch as Celeste and Rohr (Hoffman) taking down the firearms Goliath to his knees. Runaway Jury, IMO is a quite decent crime thriller.
Rankin Fitch (Gene Hackman) a juror analyst (I would say a great profiler) is the filthiest man in the legal business, ironically illegally. He would press in and out and even any other…
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Had to watch this for Law class. It was ok.
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I HATEd THIS MOVIE WITH A FIERY PASSION EQUAL TO A THOUSAND SUNS!
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A well-executed legal thriller with a stellar cast - it's as if the roles were written for these particular actors, and the pace is perfectly controlled by intelligent editing. Bonus: it makes you think/care about the jury system.
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A well-rounded film with a superb cast and a thrilling drama based on a John Grisham novel, Runaway Jury does a great job of mixing in a intricately woven plot with a few doses of action, and topped off with a 'moral abyss' that really changes the perspectives often associated with a film of this genre. A very good watch, I recommend it.
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Watched this in a law class in high school. Pretty interesting.
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One of the better John Grisham adaptations I've seen. A stellar cast, all of whom give compelling performances, intense and fast-paced direction by Gary Fleder, and an interesting story help Runaway Jury rise above just being an acceptable courtroom thriller. In fact, it's a very good one.
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Part of Dastardly Difficult December: film nr.73
A film starring Dustin Hoffman and Gene Hackman should never, ever be as mediocre as this run of the mill, cliche infested, paint it by numbers court room thriller is.
This film is wasteful, it doesn't recycle, doesn't separate its garbage, it just does the unthinkable, it make s two of the finest actors alive look beige.
And it actually had great promise as well, as the premise lends itself beautifully for a well crafted, tense legal thriller. Unfortunately it succumbs to its irresistible desire to please its audience and give it a quick fix without any sense of originality or awareness of the talent involved.
Such a shame. Makes me miss mister Hackman in my movies even more.
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Comes dangerously close to blowing its wad David Gale-style; Through the use of utterly immoral means to what should be tantamount to a purist moral victory, I again had to tap my reserve of restraint - less so than in that film - and quietly remember to myself that not only is this a movie, but that this is a movie based on a novel by John Grisham. (Though I'm still naive enough to wish that movies could still shoot to live in a world that we can't, i.e. - that a blow to evil (in this case, a gun company) can be compressed into two hours and reached through legal means and that I might actually feel the same…
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Enjoyable enough courtroom thriller that is watchable time after time. While Weisz and Cusack are in decent enough form, the addition of heavyweights in Hackman and Hoffman was a really wise move.