Runaway Jury
Cast
John Cusack .... Nicholas Easter
Gene Hackman .... Rankin Fitch
Dustin Hoffman .... Wendell Rohr
Rachel Weisz .... Marlee
Bruce Davison .... Durwood Cable
Directed by
Gary Fleder
Rater #2 has description and review.
Rater #1
8/10. My expectations for this movie were pretty low. I did not want to see the movie, yet somehow said Screw It and watched it, but I'm glad I did. This movie had an interesting plotline that I hadn't seen before, even though it was based off of a book.
The actors in this movie were superb, and you couldn't have asked for better actors. Gene Hackman sits in my eye as an evil lawyer that wants money and from what I heard, his characters are sort of like that. Dustin Hoffman seemed to be very short when compared to Hackman, but he gave a stellar performance nonetheless.
This was a great movie, and should be seen by all because it has that little touch for most adults.
Rater #2
6/10. Whenever a movie based on a book, I try to either read the book
before the movie or read the book after the movie. I had read John
Grisham's The Runaway Jury before I had heard that a movie was being
made, and really liked the book. Like most adaptations, it doesn't
stand up to the book at all. In fact, it was extremely close to the
book except in the most important aspect: due to 1999's The Insider,
about a cigarette trial, the movie was changed from cigarettes to
guns, which is a harder case to prove.
In the opening scene, Jacob Woods (Dylan McDermott) is shot to death
in his office. Two years later, his widow Celeste (Joanna Going) sues
the gun company that made the gun. Legendary Rankin Fitch (Gene
Hackman) is set to defend against Wendell Rohr (Dustin Hoffman) in
the trial. They manipulate both sides, especially Fitch. When it
comes time to pick the jury, Fitch knows exactly who to pick, due to
their exhaustive research. One of them is Nicholas Easter (John
Cusack), who seems to be running this whole thing with Marlee (Rachel
Weisz), controlling it on both the inside and outside.
For once, reading the book before was a liability. It really hindered
how much the movie affected me, since, as I said before, not much was
changed from the book to movie, except a few things taken out to make
the runtime shorter. Ergo, I knew what was going to happen and I
wasn't surprised by anything, although I would have been if I hadn't
read the book. Also, that took away from some of the excitement that
I knew I would have felt if it was fresh.
That, of course, didn't take away from any of the powerful acting
jobs done by everyone, especially Hackman. I have yet to see him to a
subpar or even mediocre acting job, and here is no exception. No one
can shout like he can. Hoffman doesn't quite live up to his early
work in such movies as The Graduate and Midnight Cowboy, but he's ok
anyway. Cusack yet again pulls off his good-but-not-great
performance, while Weisz seems to be almost devoid of emotion. When
your biggest films are The Mummy series, however, you can't expect
too much from them.
When you go into Runaway Jury when you haven't read the book, you'll
really like it a lot. If you have read the book, just pay attention
to the powerhouse acting.
Rater #3
Has Not Seen Movie.
Rater #4
Has Not Seen Movie.
Rated PG-13 for violence, language and thematic elements.
Running time: 127 minutes
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