Advantages: Gene Hackman Disadvantages: Worst adaptation of a Grisham story
...couldn't wait to watch the Runaway Jury as I loved the book. DISAPPOINTED, is an understatement, the film does not follow the Grisham novel, and in the way they have adapted it, have made a film which has a plot which is so weak that at times I felt myself laughing at its implausibility. Saying that, I watched this with someone who had not read the novel, and they thought that it was a very engrossing and clever thriller.
The film centers round ... ...to be disappointed. Runaway Jury is only £5.97 on Amazon which is a fare price for the film.
=======
Trivia
=======
- This is Gene Hackman's and Dustin Hoffman's first film together. At the Pasadena Playhouse they were classmates and were both voted "Least Likely to Succeed". - Courtesy of IMDB ...
christianfilmcritic 19.02.2006
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Runaway Jury (DVD)
Advantages: Some good acting Disadvantages: Disappointing film adaptation - might be better if you watch before you read the book.
...all. Anyway, the film, The Runaway Jury, 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 ... ...really be condoning violence. The Runaway Jury has been rated 15, and I’m not sure why it didn’t make a 12 (I thought it was a 12 until I looked it up) although I doubt most teenagers or younger would be interested in this sort of film anyway. It really is aimed at a slightly older audience. There were no sexual scenes and I don't actually remember much swearing, so at least the film is not offensive! Conclusion
The second time I watched this film ...
Ayesha- 16.09.2009
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Runaway Jury (DVD)
Advantages: John Cusack, great story Disadvantages: If you've read the book, it might be pants.
...off because it was crap. Runaway Jury (the film in question) is actually quite fabby. I know, I watched it later.
---The Film---
We begin in an office in America. Not surprisingly, everyone gets shot. Well it is in a bbfc 15 rated vision of America, what did you expect? The random shooting of our American buddies leads to the beginnings of a court case. Dustin Hoffman (or Dustpan Hoffbin as I shall be calling him for no reason other than boredom) ... ...side of the people who are dead. Gene Hackman (or Janine Pac-man, for the same reasons stated previously) would be on the side of the gun company having its sweet ass sued. I guess that makes him evil?
Now that we have established our good camps and bad camps, we get the task of choosing the jurors for the case. Nicholas Easter is to be one of them. That's Cusack by the way. While Pac-Man and Hoffbin are trying their best to win the jury over, with ...
ryanando 14.06.2008
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Runaway Jury (DVD)
Advantages: Good acting and direction Disadvantages: Hoffman and Hackman don't spend enough time onscreen together
...it was announced that the Runaway Jury was due to be released as a film I decided to make the effort and see it. It’s one of the few books by him that I haven’t read, although it is buried deep within my to-read pile. So with very little to do on a Sunday night I chose to finally watch it.
Like so many of Grisham’s books it starts with a major event to set the story. It’s early Monday morning in the offices of a high profile ... ...an ex employee, sacked just one week before turns up and starts to kill his old co-workers. He starts to fire shots off around the office and after killing 12 people and injuring countless others he turns the gun on himself. We then fast forward a few months. The widow of one of the victims is suing the manufacturers of the gun that killed her husband for his death. She has called in Wendell Rohr (Dustin Hoffman), an anti gun lobbyist to fight her ...
Andy.mack 15.07.2004
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Runaway Jury (DVD)
Advantages: entertaining film, well acted Disadvantages: it's been done before
The Runaway Jury:
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 ... ...is not strictly true.
Runaway Jury is adapted from a book by John Grisham, the book tells the story of a woman that attempts to sue a tobacco company. The film has been altered, changing the tobacco company with a gun company. I assume that the screenwriters felt that guns would hold peoples interest more than cigarettes, and in my opinion they were right. This lead to a much more interesting opening scene with a lot more tension that if taken directly ...
sjp1966 13.04.2007
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Runaway Jury (DVD)
Advantages: Thrilling edge of the seat drama! Disadvantages: Hollywood!
...few. So when I saw Runaway Jury as one of the choices on my return flight from New York, I knew I had to watch it, if the others were anything to go by, I would love it.
Set amidst some stunning scenery within the deep south of America, the gun capital of the world, the opening scenes are happy ones shared on a child’s birthday and then at the father’s office where he is asking for his secretary’s help with his child’s present, ... ...be something going on outside his office, gun shots can be heard, screaming, people running away frantically from the gun shots, panicking for their own safety, then silence, the scene ends.
Some time has passed, approximately eighteen months when we learn that the gunman was an ex employee of the company who turned the gun on himself after killing quite a few others in the building, the widow of the man we met at the opening scenes is taking the ...
herby30 05.02.2004
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Runaway Jury (DVD)
Advantages: Good acting, tense thriller Disadvantages: Formulaic perhaps
...the novel was called "The Runaway Jury" - the definite article has been dropped from the film title. Furthermore, the subject of the novel was actually a legal claim made against the cigarette industry, this is not the case in the film.
John Cusack plays Nick Easter who, as the film begins, has been called up for jury duty. He asks his friends to suggest ways he can get out it but he reluctantly turns up at the court-house on the first day of the ... ...be one of the biggest New Orleans has ever seen. Dustin Hoffman plays Wendell Nohr, a lawyer for a small-ish local firm. He is representing a woman whose husband was one of eleven victims of a workplace shooting two years previously. The shootings were carried out by a disgruntled ex-employee of the company who finally turned the gun on himself but the case is being brought against the manufacturing company of the weapon that was used. The claim ...
fizzytom 12.01.2004
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Runaway Jury (DVD)
Advantages: Hackman, Hoffman, interesting subject and scenario Disadvantages: It is a waste of the advantages
This is what a lump of film looks like. It's a great shame as there is an intriguing scenario involving jury consultancy, a thorny issue regarding US gun control and two of the finest actors of their generation in Gene Hackman and Dustin Hoffman. Overall, there's more of interest than not but it's a clinical exercise rather than intelligent entertainment.
>>> Plot teaser (from imdb.com)
When an attorney is shot in cold blood at his workplace, his ... ...his death, she dispatches idealistic lawyer Wendell Rohr to oversee the case. A good man of principle, Wendell takes charge while on the defense team, another man will take charge. Rankin Fitch is the individual: a powerful and ruthless jury consultant riding high on his frequent successes. But in the middle of it all is the jury, which both Wendell and Rankin are determined to sway their opinion for the winning team. But what they're about to discover, ...
MisterSlimm 17.03.2006
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Runaway Jury (DVD)
Advantages: Great Cast, Great Story, Great Film Disadvantages: None that I can see
...by John Grisham - The Runaway Jury, at that time the films The Firm and Pelican Brief were very popular and John Grisham was a massive success in film making terms. Reading the book I uttered to my family "You MUST read this - this would make a great film" For many years I could not understand while the legal thriller was a very popular film genre why that this book had not been made into a film. Its chapters were short and straight to the point ... ...I saw that the Runaway Jury had been made with a very fine cast I was immediately excited. Now this movie has just been released for rental and to buy on DVD so I thought I would give you my views on this film.
CHARACTERS/CAST
Nick Easter - John Cusack
Nick is the class clown, he wants to please everybody. Nicholas Easter has no records, no history,he "just dropped out of the sky like arch angel Gabriel" and now he is Juror 9. Nick however does ...
Slayerette 16.06.2004
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Runaway Jury (DVD)
Advantages: Well cast film with an interesting plot Disadvantages: None noticable
...a free preview showing of Runaway Jury had me at times biting my lip and peering through my fingers again.
The film starts with an early morning office scene. We follow one man in particular as he arrives at work, pulls his secretary to one side and tells her he has a serious problem - he's forgotten something he promised his son, and needs to remember so as not to let him down. There's instant relief in her face when she realises this is the seriousness ... ...shots can be heard. Then screams. People running. Falling. Trying to get out of what appears to be a mad gunman's range. The scene ends.
Several months have passed when the main story begins. The widow of one of those gunned down is suing the weapon makers (the assailant having killed himself after mowing down almost a dozen others). The first, perhaps trivial task, is for the jury to be selected. Those "randomly" chosen from the list of available ...
zoe_page 15.01.2004
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Runaway Jury (DVD)
Advantages: Gripping, great cast. Disadvantages: Some technical courtroom speak is a bit lengthy
...proper verdict. In Runaway Jury, Rankin Fitch (Gene Hackman)is the highest priced jury consultant around. He leaves no stone unturned, gathering life histories of potential juries, personality studies, and even goes so far as to placing surveillance on them with hidden cameras and undercover spies. Fitch believes that a verdict can be won, lost, or even bought with the right jury makeup. He is then hired by a gun manufacturer to aid in his defense ... ...Gary Fleder does something with Runaway Jury that I found lacking in film adaptations of John Grisham's other works such as The Firm, The Pelican Brief, and The Client. While I generally liked all those films, there were times in each when the plot and story would bog down under their weight. Not so in Runaway Jury. For over two hours of it's running time I was completely engrossed in the storyline, so much so that it seems as if you are watching ...
KathrynPowell 16.04.2004
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Runaway Jury (DVD)
Advantages: Good Cast, Decent Thriller Disadvantages: Nothing to elevate from the norm
...thing can be learnt from Runaway Jury it’s that Gene Hackman likes starring in the movie adaptations of John Grisham books. This marks his third time around and while Grisham’s books are big sellers on the street, they haven’t always been big hits on the big screen and the same goes for Runaway Jury. Met with lukewarm reviews, the film made under $50 million in the US, which can probably be seen as a disappointment.
A madman with a gun lets loose ... ...rules.
The problem with Runaway Jury is that it’s not really a feasible premise to put on film. It deals with a serious issue at heart but the logistics of the whole thing just wouldn’t be true in real life. For example it would take a genuine stroke of luck for Nic to get onto this particular jury. Yet it happens with relative ease, despite the man not really having much of a past. The idea that jury tampering goes on is probably true but the way ...
utero 28.01.2005
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Runaway Jury (DVD)
Advantages: Decent Story a la Grishamish Disadvantages: Tobacco God
Oh dear lord! They should have consulted Michael Moore on this one. If I was to be totally cynical, which I am in the main ,I would beleive that the tobacco industry pours millions into the American Film Industry and Mr. Grisham and the producers/director (Gary Fleder) sold out on this one.
The plot is hard to tell without spoilers but here goes. Man gets killed, man who kills man kills self. Widow takes gun company that made gun that killed husband ... ...The jury is picked for the case. The tobacco industry hires jury consultants headed up by Rankin Fitch, they "help" with jury selection, this firm conducts its business like someone using dynamite for fishing for trout. The jury though has a mind of it's own so it seems...
I wanted to get this film for two reasons, one I enjoyed the book, the film should have been about tobacco, shame on you Hollywood - 12,000 people in the US died from handguns ...
DebraP 25.07.2004 (21.08.2004)
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Runaway Jury (DVD)
Advantages: Cussack Hoffman Hackman these 3 make the film Disadvantages: The openining Sequence will throw people if they have read the book
Ok i generally stay away from books of movies or movies of books because like movie and computer games or visa versa they usually dont mix. If anyone has read Tom Clancy's books then watched the films (especially The sum of all fears) you will get what i am saying. Usually they are rubbish or have deviated so far from the original book they have totally lost it (sum of all fears).
But being a Grisham fan and enjoying theprevious movies (which i ... ...hesitant at what Hollywood would offer this time.
Ok the opening sequenece did throw me a little with the guy getting shot in his office and i began to wonder if this was going down the sameroad as many other good books when hollywood got hold of them.
The plot of the story bar the opening sequence stays pretty much to what Grisham wrote in the book (artistic licence not withstanding).
Easter played by the excellent John Cusack is a juror who ...
keyboard_kowboy 20.01.2004
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Runaway Jury (DVD)
Advantages: Intriguing and nicely shot Disadvantages: Hard to suspend disbelief
Having seen the hour long trailer for this movie on virtually everything I've rented in the last year, I was prepared to learn little new from the film itself. It was a pleasant surprise to find that I really was judging the book by its cover and there is plenty more than meets the trailer dimmed eye. The story centres on a civil case being brought against a gun company by the widow of one of the victims of their product. However, the whys and wherefores ... ...thrust of the plot; the real story here is jury rigging. Dustin Hoffman plays the upright and honest brief for the widow, Hackman the evil 'background' stooge for the defence and John Cusack the hapless juror being manipulated.
There's little point mentioning performances from old hands like Hoffman, Hackman and even John Cusack who trot out standard characters in their repertoire - and that's no bad thing, they're very good. It's also pleasing ...
shellgrip 19.07.2004 (21.07.2004)
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Runaway Jury (DVD)
Based on the bestseller by John Grisham,Runaway Juryis a slick thriller that's exciting ... more
enough to overcome the gaps in its plot. The ultimate target has been changed: Grisham's legal assault on the tobacco industry was switched to the hot-button issue ...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Based on the bestseller by John Grisham,Runaway Juryis a slick thriller that's exciting ... more
enough to overcome the gaps in its plot. The ultimate target has been changed: Grisham's legal assault on the tobacco industry was switched to the hot-button issue ...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 1 to 4 weeks...
Stakes are high in an explosive trial when the widow of a gun massacre victim sues the ... more
gun's manufacturer. With millions of dollars in the balance, an unscrupulous jury consultant, (Gene Hackman), will spare no expense to ensure the chosen jury remains...
The stakes are extremely high in an explosive trial when the widow of a gun massacre ... more
victim represented by attorney Wendell Rohr (Dustin Hoffman) sues the gun's powerful manufacturer. Now with millions of dollars in the balance 12 jurors must decid...
Postage & Packaging: £0.00 Availability: 3-5 working days
Production Year: 1999 - Drama - Director: Dick Maas - Original Language: English - Classification: 18 years and over - Starring: William Hurt, Jennifer Tilly, Denis Leary, Michael Chiklis, Francesca Brown
Production Year: 2004 - Drama - Director: Nick Cassavetes - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over, 12 years and over - Starring: Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling, Gena Rowlands
Production Year: 1945 - Drama - Director: David Lean - Original Language: English - Classification: Parental Guidance - Starring: Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, Stanley Holloway, Joyce Carey, Cyril Raymond