Cathardincu Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Lumsdal Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

gridoon2018 "The Juror" is largely a conventional thriller, and it's also too protracted (113 minutes) for its one-note story, but it's professionally done, and elevated by a very good cast. As the villain, Alec Baldwin gets to chew the scenery at times, but at other moments he gives his role an almost disturbing complexity; when he tells Demi's character that he loves her, despite the monstrous things he has done, you believe him. A deglamorized Demi Moore is convincing, and then we have James Gandolfini as Baldwin's family-man associate, Anne Heche as Moore's best friend, Tony Lo Bianco as a Mafia boss, and others in smaller parts. They make this otherwise predictable studio product worth seeing. **1/2 out of 4.

eric262003 Over the years of watching movies, there are two types of movies that stand out above all. The ones that are beyond excellent, and those that that are complete garbage. The ones that teeter between not entirely bad, but really all that good become left out like a sore thumb. Brian Gibson's "The Juror" based on a novel by George Dawes Green falls in the category of forgettable average films even though it stars a cast of very talented performers like Demi Moore, Alec Baldwin, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Anne Heche and James Gandolfini. It's a very easy film to keeping its obscure status because it's overall a mediocre film that leans more towards a bad mediocre than a good one with some rather absurd characters complimented with an even more absurd story that goes way off kilter at times. Demi Moore stars as a sculptor names Annie Laird who's been assigned to stand as a juror on the trial of a hardened Mafia crime boss, only to fell her life and her young son Oliver (Joseph Gordon Levitt)are in jeopardy. A minion of his known only as "The Teacher" (Alec Baldwin) convinces her to plead "Not Guilty". Even after the trail folds, her and her son's life are still in the balance which leads to her taking care of business herself, personally. The intensity level of the story here is really not that bad considering that a juror was forced to overrule a decision by a Mafia minion. The suspense even after the trial with her still being under the threat still sends chills up my spine after viewing it for the first time in many years. It's what you would expect in a bone-chilling suspense thriller. But the script by Ted Tally was badly executed making the story awfully surreal. The characters just don't match nicely to the story-line and charge up the tense dramatic scenes goes way out of proportions to the point where it unintentionally becomes more laughable. Even the opening scenes where Annie has the chance to bow of the trial is very awkwardly built up. I personally would not ever consider stepping up to such a situation knowing that your life and your loved one's lives would be in jeopardy. It just seems odd that Annie seems more determined to through with it makes her at times be kind of a daft individual. Her enthusiasm makes doesn't give much sympathy to her situation as she gladly agrees to the trial and that a mob henchman is breathing down her and Oliver's neck unless she pleads "Not Guilty" to the judge. And to make matters worse she eventually takes matters in her own hands as she decides to confront the Mafia without realizing what these guys are capable of. The surrealist structuring isn't with just the protagonists, but the antagonists as well. Alec Baldwin's character Marc "The Teacher" Cordell is meant to be a chilling, cold-blooded remorseless killer, he doesn't come across that cerebral. Granted Baldwin does a good job of making this man a cool and collected individual, but it seems his motives are not fully functioning at times. I'm not condemning Moore or Baldwin in any way; they give a good performances in what's given to them, but the motives between the leading hero and villain just don't hit the right cords. Surely, to have a compelling ending, you have to mold the ending with some rather bizarre twists that are not always plausible. And in the genre of suspenseful thrillers, it should come as no surprise. Sadly, in "The Juror", the results are not thrilling, but just plain dumb and quite unconvincing. If it would've had a conclusion similar to the like of "Runaway Jury", then this movie would've had a better outcome. If they would have gone with Annie overturning the judge's decision, then I wouldn't be ranting too much on this movie. The supporting cast behind Moore and Baldwin, fail to add any impression on me. Joseph Gordon-Levitt who would later climb to bigger and better things later in his career, was quite good as innocent child put in precarious situation by his naive mother. James Ganolfini who would later on become the iconic Tony Soprano was near perfect as mob henchman Eddie was really not offered much to do and Anne Heche's Juliet is only as a clichéd sex symbol as she gets jazzy with The Teacher. It's like as if it's never been done before. At long last all I can say is that "The Juror" was an unsatisfying thriller that was let down by the characters and a story structure that loses its direction and tarnishes in what could have potentially been a very exciting thriller. The effort to boost excitement was put-off because they took a wrong turn in direction making this movie contrived and stupid instead of a chilling surprise ending which this film had the potential to achieve.

MBunge This film is a great demonstration of why Demi Moore didn't have a more successful career as a top-level actress, though whether it was the fault of Moore or society is open for debate. She's a capable enough performer, but she lacks the ability to project either vulnerability or likability. With the former, you can trade on an audience's sympathy. With the latter, you can paper over the problems in a script or a production with your own charm. Moore's weaknesses are so clear in The Juror because she fails first at playing the victim and then can't entice the viewer to overlook the obvious melodramatics of the film's conclusion. She also stands exposed when compared to her co-star Alec Baldwin. He himself has always suffered from a lack of likability, especially in his dramatic roles, but Baldwin can manage a bit of vulnerability. His cold-blooded, criminal mastermind here is far more open and inviting than Moore's ordinary woman and mother.It's especially a shame because a different actress, one without Moore's emotional blind spots, could have raised this movie up from being slightly better than average and made it a truly thrilling thriller. Anne Heche is a perfect example, playing as she does a supporting role to Moore's lead. There's an unguarded energy to her acting that makes her characters so much more appealing than Moore's, who cannot radiate the same kind of joy and ease as an essential contrast to the more sullen and terrifying moments in the story. I'll confess to being more a fan of Heche than Moore, but I think my argument is supported by examining the roles and quality of work done by each woman in the years after The Juror.Annie Laird (Demi Moore) is a sculptress and single mother to Oliver (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who essentially talks her way onto the jury of a major Mafia trial. That leads to her being targeted and manipulated by the brilliantly evil "Teacher" (Alec Baldwin), a Mafia associate who demands that Annie produce a not guilty verdict. She succeeds, only to find that the twisted romantic obsession of "Teacher" is far more dangerous than any aspect of organized crime.Putting aside Moore's deficiencies as the star of the show, this is a pretty good flick up until and ending that goes over-the-top and all the way to Guatemala. With James Gandolfini as a gangster that serves as sort of a midpoint between Annie's normality and the psychopathic nature of "Teacher", Ted Tally's screenplay put a lot of mostly effective effort into building an interesting dynamic between his two leads. And in the relationships between "Teacher" and other mobsters, Tally defuses the super-villain aura around his bad guy and makes him both more believable and more frightening because of that.And when Moore is able to play Annie as a strong and defiant person, her strengths as an actress shine through. Which brings up the point of why a woman can't build a career on playing strong, aggressive characters on screen? There's a legion of men in Hollywood history who duplicated Moore's lack of accessibility or possessed even worse flaws in their craft, yet were able to prosper in roles that didn't require or disguised their faults. But at least in American cinema, female roles are defined almost entirely by vulnerability, likability or f**kability. Moore has the last in spades but admirable avoided that career path. Maybe the problem isn't in Moore, dear friends, but in ourselves.All in all, I like The Juror enough to give it a mild recommendation. Heche does get naked in it and that's more than enough to tip the scales to the good for me.

Boba_Fett1138 It's crazy, basically we have a decent genre plot here and some more than capable actors to play the roles but the movie makes some wrong choices, that often turn this movie into a silly one and therefore also a quite bad one.Not that the movie was very original to begin with but at least it showed some potential with its story. It's the sort of concept that should turn the movie in a decent thriller to watch. For its first halve or so it also is a quite watchable movie but then some of the twists and turns start to kick in. The movie could had gone into many different ways with its story but yet it picks the least likely ones and for some odd reason the movie toward the end becomes more of an action flick than a thriller really. The characters were being all still quite credible in the first halve but in the second halve we see them all doing things that completely ruins some of the credibility they had build up in the first halve.Further more it's pretty much a movie by the number, without any real surprises in it, despite of the twists and turns the movie is taking. It's one of those '90's thrillers that try to look more clever than they in fact really are. On top of that '90's movies all tend to have the same visual look and feeling to it, which just isn't the most compelling thing. In terms of style the '90's was one of the worst, if not the worst, decade for movies. Like a lot of thrillers from those days the movie has a pretty solid cast, with some well known names in it, like Demi Moore, Alec Baldwin, Anne Heche and James Gandolfini. Also child-actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt is a quite popular grown up actor these days, with his most recent roles in movies such as "(500) Days of Summer" and "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra".Not really a great thriller that is worth watching but also far from the worst that you'll ever see.5/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/