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The Juror | Year: 1996 Classification: Drama Directed: - Brian Gibson Actors/Actresses: - Alec Baldwin - James Gandolfini - Joseph Gordon Levitt - Anne Heche - Demi Moore WATCHABLE SUSPENSE, WITH A LOOONG TAIL-END This high-profile star vehicle has decent suspense, unlike what reviews here will have believe, but little to recommend besides the lead performances -- Demi Moore is great (perhaps one of her best roles) and Alec Baldwin is very creepy as a three-dimensional villain. After the usual Grishamesque legal session though, the movie gets somewhat needlessly protracted with Baldwin's character brutally murdering Moore's doctor friend, which begins a spree of semi-credible acts (including a supposed mafia boss being killed along with his three bodyguards, in broad daylight, in a public park. Yeah!) Until the mildly doozy finale in Guatemala, of all places. Overall, definitely a one-time watchable film, but you may want to think twice before buying and owning it. LADY JUSTICE TRICKED AGAIN If you didn't read the novel by George Dawes Green upon which this movie is based, you missed a lot of extra stuff that may have helped with the seemingly implausible points of the plot. A whole subplot involving the Teacher's lover and a has-been PI stimulated a lot of what is overlooked in the film version. But I think overall director Brian Gibson did a commendable job in translating this to the screen. I love 'The Juror'! Demi Moore is great as a Bohemian single mom and struggling artist living alone with her 12-year-old son (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) in a converted barn in a country suburb of New York. When she becomes a juror in a murder case against a major Mafia boss, her peaceful life is turned upside down by a sociopathic hitman's (Alec Baldwin) obsession with her. Though she knows the mob boss is guilty, she is bullied into providing a verdict of 'not guilty' under threat of her son being killed. I see that some reviewers are 'yawning' that this story has been done before, but Moore and Baldwin give such fantastic performances that it seems like the first time anything of its kind has been done. The actors accomplish making their characters appear very real. Demi seems like she could be a woman who used to live on your block or who you once worked with, and Baldwin is like the living nightmare psycho you hope you'll never meet! Anne Heche is good as Demi's best friend, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt is believable as the typical sweet kid of someone you might know. It is also a scenic, beautiful movie. Filmed partially in upstate New York in what looks like late May/early June, and in Central America, there's plenty of nice scenery. I think this picture is well worth owning and watching again and again. Buy The Juror at Amazon.com Buy posters at Allposters.com Jamster - the latest ringtones for your phone!  Search with Walhello on the Internet on The Juror Search with the Priority Search Engine on The Juror This page in other languages: Suomeksi | Nederlands | Deutsch
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