First off I'd like to say that this is an impulse review. I knew my 200th review was on the horizon and given the big news of the day, that most everyone is (or certainly should be) aware of, that being the inauguration of Barak Obama as the new President of the United States, I thought this would perhaps be a poignant time to finally get around to reviewing this movie, that I saw a week or so ago. I'm hopeful that whats happened today shows how far things have changed and its good to have such movies to act as historical reminders of the way things used to be...

Also I will try to re-rate where possible and as soon as I can but I am a little busy soon after posting this. You can just read this and comment if you feel you'd like to and leave it at that, im not desperate for rates, its totally up to you but of course I will try and re-rate everyone who rates me, as soon as I can, thanks.

- Cast & Crew -

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117913/fullcredits

- Plot -

A Time To Kill (another movie based on a John Grisham novel) is set in the deep south, in Mississippi in, I believe, the 1980s (I cant find any concrete info. on what year it was set and dont remember it saying that at the start of the movie but the story was written in 1989), at a time when you may hope that racism was coming to an end but clearly it wasn't, as two white, brutish racist basically thugs decide to assault (raping and attempting to murder) a ten year old black girl who was, at the time, simply walking on her own back home from having visited the local grocery store.

**Edit:- ok now I notice on Ciaos writeup for the movie it claims it was set in the 60s not the 80s, so I guess I got that wrong. I apologise!**

Her father, Carl Lee Hailey, is quick to discover whats happened and is absolutely enraged with whats happened. He knows who the perpertrators are and becomes increasingly frustrated as the wheels of justice are slow to turn, put it that way. He believes that the chances are that they'll be acquitted for attempted rape and murder, given the deep seated racism still present in the area and so he approaches a junior lawyer by the name of Jake Brigance, asking him to help him out. There isn't much Jake can do and soon things take a turn for the worse, as Carl is present in the court house on the day when the two defendants appear. Getting more and more enraged, Carl suddenly pulls out a gun and guns both of the defendents down as they walked up the steps to the court room and so he ends up on trial for double murder. He goes to Brigance to represent him, turning down other offers and as the story develops, the KKK suddenly make a re-appearance, terrorising both Carl and Jakes family, including Jakes daughter.

Will Carl be found guilty? will he or Jake be killed by the KKK?! surely Carl suffered from tremendous grief, given what had happened to his daughter, will he be given the lethal injection for trying to protect his other children from such racist brutes? you'll have to watch the movie to find out.

- Genre/Type of Movie -

This is a rather haunting crime drama/thriller movie, based on a John Grisham novel, as I already mentioned.

- Thoughts & Opinions -

I thought this was a very good movie. Its quite a long movie, over two hours but it has many good names in the cast, with Samuel L. Jackson giving a great performance as Carl, he's very emotive and you certainly feel quite strongly for him and his family that suffer so much throughout th emovie. Equally Jakes family suffer and he is also well played by an actor that sometimes only gives fairly mediocre performances, that is Matthew McConaughey but again I felt that his performance in this particular movie was quite good, playing the frustrated but quite passionate 'junior' or 'newbie' layer quite well.

Other top names in this movie include both Donald and Keifer Sutherland and Sanda Bullock. Keifer gives a chilling performance as Freddie Lee Cobb, a brother of one of the dead defendents/racists, who takes the law into his own hands as he decides to bring the KKK back and threatens Brigance and his family. Donald plays a retired civil rights lawyer, who gives all the advice he can to Jake, to help him get the not guilty verdict.

Oh yes and Sandra Bullocks character, hmmm, I have to admit that her character was just about the weakest one out of the lot of them, from my point of view, or the way I see things. She does feature quite heavily, as the daughter of a very famous judge from I think California, who travelled out to Mississippi after hearing about the case. I'm not entirely sure what the full point to her character was, though she does try to help Jake as well with how to respond to and talk to the media and that sort of thing, plus of course there's the romance element that appears at times, 'nuff said.

The movie is quite long but its not entirely full of court scenes, though there are of course quite a few of those but its not nothing but legal speak, there are times when Jakes household is attacked by the KKK and what happens is quite frightening and there's also the medias reaction to the court case.

It is a pretty emotive movie and it makes you think. Of course there's the prosecution that try their hardest to paint a picture to the jury of one man who plans days if not weeks in advance to get his deathly revenge, a very sane man who thought it through and who must be punished, against the defence who it may seems has less support in a way and who have to find any little inaccuracy and use them to make the prosecutions claims inadmissable, its all that sort of stuff, pretty normal court movie type goings ons but it does get quite emotive and it is a movie where it'll make you think, ahh lawyers, twisting the story and all of that, you gotta love it!.

I thought it was a well made movie, there is a good amount of court room and legal scenes, not too many that you really lose interest but there are also more action type scenes and it is very emotive, with a decent cast. By the end of the movie, you feel that you know what the ending will be and you really feel for poor Jake and what his family have had to go through, however, the ending itself is quite well done, thats all I'll say about that, without spoiling the movie for you.

I'm certainly glad, thinking about the movie, that its a work of fiction and that its set in the past and like I say given todays historic event, the first ever African American President being inaugurated, I'd like to believe that such racial attacks and racial prejudice in general, that their at least getting alot closer to being a thing of the past. Of course security will always be, I believe, stronger and more necessary than in the past because of the risk of racist individuals and moreso underground 'clans' or groups such as the KKK, making attempts to attck him, lets hope that that doesn't happen, no matter whether or not he is good at what he does or not, I really feel that racism is such an ugly thing that needs to be totally wiped out and I hope that this is possible and people in the future will watch movies such as this and be wowed that such things would even happen, that such crimes would occur due to somebodys race alone.

- Would I Recommend It? -

Yes I'd recommend it. I enjoyed watching it, I found it to be an interesting movie, it made me think, I thought the story was very emotive and there's a good mix of more action type scenes as well as court room based scenes and the story is backed by a very good cast. Both Samuel L Jackson and Kiefer Sutherland give haunting performances as their characters which add alot of substance to the movie, I felt.

Sorry I am rushing this review a bit to post this before I leave for my evening class tonight but on having dinner tonight and seeing the BBC News at 6, it dawned on me that this is somehow the right day to post this review and I hope you found it useful. You don't have to rate it but thanks if you do, any and all comments are appreciated and I'll try to re-rate any rates as soon as I can, thanks.

I may post this review over at DooYoo UK under the same name of IzzyS too.