Review of Runaway Jury (2003) by Marcelo B — 25 Nov 2011

Upon a re-viewing of this film I found some glaring errors that made me rethink my original review (the first time I ever did this):

The script is ridiculously unprofessionally written. It had four writers and it shows. At some scenes it's rather good. Strong and powerful with fantastic overlaps. Than it gets terrible. Idiotic dialogues, bad storytelling, no character development. And it goes on and on. And as I mentioned NO CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT. Hell I have seen animated films with more character development. Also nothing seems to happen. They just revolve the same two stories over and over again. The phone rings, the girls asks Gene or Dustin do they want to pay up or not, they say no, something bad happens to a juror. It's a pattern. Also who the hell is Rankin Fitch, we never know. We don't get a back-story, we don't even get a blood hint. What is he a psychologist, psychic, maybe it's Shawn Spencer in disguise. As far as we know it's possible. Also the same thing happens with Lawrence Green (the other jury selector if you don't remember).

Another thing is that things happen and they are never afterwords mentioned or anything. For instance the torching of Nick's house. Pointless. It's never mentioned or heard of again. The computer data from his house. Again it's sent of for analysis and blank. Than the character of Lawrence Green (Wendell's jury selector). He shows up, gets a nice big close up. Seems important. Big discussion with Wendell gets a trial period for his services and from than. Nothing. He doesn't do a thing. Never. Anything. Oh, yeah he witnesses the never afterwords mentioned torching.

Now yeah granted the comedic parts are fun, hell even the film is quite interesting and entertaining but i'm afraid I over-estimated it. It's bland, most of it is pointless and it doesn't really make any sense. Yeah the courtroom scenes are terrific but it's just not enough as "Runaway Jury" fails to hit the center. I recommend the film with the greatest caution. Be very careful. Don't expect anything more than a few laughs and an entertaining two hours. Than forget you ever saw it.