Saturday - Movies

The Age

Thursday June 5, 2008

Craig Mathieson

Runaway Jury (2003)

Channel Nine, 9.15pm

John Grisham novels were ready-to-wear blockbusters in the '90s, when Runaway Jury very nearly got made by Joel Schumacher with Sean Connery, Gwyneth Paltrow and Edward Norton as his leads. The passing of time eventually brought it back as a Gary Fleder flick, with the workmanlike young maker of B movies ending up with Gene Hackman, Rachel Weisz and John Cusack. Grisham's book was about a tobacco lawsuit but the film moves on to gun crime. The law, however, is immaterial, it's the machinations between gun industry consultant Randall Fitch (Hackman) and a jury member (Cusack) dallying with him that turns the mystery storyline. Weisz and Cusack go through the motions as virtual ciphers but Fitch is the kind of grandstanding character that Hackman eats up. He prospers in this sort of venal, forceful role. "We like fat people," he tells his staff. "They're tight-fisted and unsympathetic." The film is never better than the opening scenes, where the jury panel is systematically dismembered.

Dog Day Afternoon (1975)

Channel Nine, 11.50pm

See Movie of the week, page 33 -- CRAIG MATHIESON

© 2008 The Age

Back to News Index | Back to Home