Advantages: entertaining film, well acted Disadvantages: it's been done before
The RunawayJury:
If you have ever been called up for Jury Service in the UK you know that the first few days at least are pretty boring, sitting in a room potentially for a great portion of the day without your name being called. And even if you do get called there is no guarantee that you will sit on a jury. I've done Jury service twice and I was lucky enough to be called twice, I have to say that it was interesting.
As regular Joe public I've no idea about the ins and outs of selection except that if you know the person on trial then you let someone know and they let you go. However in the US it would seem that trying to influence who sits on a Jury seems to be big business, they try to influence verdicts by getting someone who is biased to their cause. The idea of Jury selection of course is too eradicate bias but in reality it ...
Advantages: Some good acting Disadvantages: Disappointing film adaptation - might be better if you watch before you read the book.
I think I actually saw the film before I read the book, but I remembered so little about it that it could not have affected my view of the book much at all. Anyway, the film, The RunawayJury, based on the equally titled book by John Grisham, came on television recently. I must be getting too keen as I actually decided to watch it just so that I could write this review! I have to admit reading the book has influenced my opinion on this film and therefore somewhat had an impact on my review. Perhaps I liked the film better before I knew how good the novel was.
Story
There are some differences between the book and the film. The book is about cigarette manufacturers being sued for their part in the death of a smoker, whereas the film is about gun manufacturers, being sued for their part the death of a victim of a shooting. I can ...
Advantages: fast paced, interesting twists Disadvantages: hoffman mumbling
John Cusack, Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman, Rachel Weisz, Bruce Davison and Bruce McGill all star in RunawayJury.
Cusack and Weisz are a couple. We see Cusack get pulled up for jury service, and at first, he acts as though its a burden. We see him meet Weisz in a weird black magic sort of shop, where its implied they first met, but in fact theyre a couple so not sure what went on there.
The case is about guns. One day in work, after seeing him at his sons birthday party, we see a man go about his day when suddenly shots start firing. 11 people get killed, with some others wounded critically. The man is shot, and 2 years later his trial comes.
His widow is sueing the company that made the guns, as the gunman had shot himself dead. He had been a disgruntled employee who had gone to his floor where he worked and opened fire ...
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