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46 reviews in total

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26 out of 36 people found the following review useful:
Great movie, strong plot, good acting., 23 September 2002

Author: fiera121 from El Paso, Texas (USA)

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and am at a total loss as to why it scored such a low vote. I guess these days a movie just can't be a big hit unless it has lots of fancy special effects and sex scenes. 'The Juror' has a strong, easy to follow plot and some really great acting; Alec Baldwin's role was terrifyingly real! I'm no fan of Demi Moore, but she played her part very well. And the kid that played her son was equally great -- I remember him from the TV series 'Third Rock from the Sun' and always liked him. To anyone thinking of renting this flick, I say pay no attention to the naysayers and go for it!

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25 out of 42 people found the following review useful:
Underrated thriller, 14 March 2000

Author: Dennis Littrell (dalittrell@yahoo.com) from SoCal

Alec Baldwin comes on quoting from the Tao Te Ching, making me think he's my kind of anti hero. He's urban, sophisticated and seemingly very safe since he's an art curator, or seems to be. Demi Moore as Annie Laird, a gifted and original sculptor (she sculpts works of art that you feel with your hands by reaching up into them: it's all tactile), is thrilled when he offers to buy her work and sell it to the Japanese. Wow. She has arrived as an artist.

Thus we have an intriguing and original premise for a thriller. One almost wishes that there weren't this little matter of her agreeing to serve on the jury in the case of a Mafia boss on trial for murder..

I will gloss over the excellent, if unlikely, plot since it would be preemptive to reveal any of it, and concentrate on Demi Moore who is gorgeous, strange and riveting.

It might seem impossible to give an 'heroic' performance in a thriller, since the point of a thriller is pure entertainment, but this movie manages to look into the nature of good and evil a bit more than most, and Moore plays her part like our dream of a true heroine. Her character has strength and cunning; she's sharp without pretension. I always thought Moore was better than her reputation, but somehow she always seemed a little on the not entirely bright side, the kind of actress who would never presume to play Shakespeare. But now I think she's a 'natural,' like a gifted athlete-I'd almost say an 'animal'-as an actress, which is probably why some people don't like her. She can project the beautiful woman, an ordinary woman, or herself as a matronly woman with just a turn of her head. She can display a wide range of emotions and be, by turns, both a masculine and a feminine entity; but she is not androgynous. The role she plays here is, in a sense, the feminine counterpart of many Harrison Ford roles, the ordinary person elevated to heroic action by compelling circumstances. I would not say that Demi Moore is a great actress, but she is close, and I could be wrong.

Alec Baldwin combines megalomania with a seductive cynicism. He fills the screen with his presence like something you can't get rid of. He is so compelling you want to push him away or just give up. And he is charming-evil, but charming.

Brian Gibson's direction is unobtrusive and clever, and he pays attention to detail. The script is relatively free of the implausibilities that usually mar the genre, and the editing is crisp without jarring. The story practically transcends the genre by making us feel the evil of violent crime and how it perverts society, the sort of revelation not usually attempted in a thriller. I was especially delighted to see the Mafia demeaned and defeated, even if it's only by a new breed of international criminal. This is a superior thriller.

(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon!)

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16 out of 25 people found the following review useful:
Great lead performances but..., 27 January 2004

Author: perfectbond

This movie is enough to recommend on the strength of the acting from Moore, Gandolfini, and especially Alec Baldwin but it is a shame that some of the excesses and superfluousness (especially the unsatisfying escapade in Guatemala) could not have been cut out. Instead of more action it would have been interesting if the ethical aspect of a compromised juror (albeit unwillingly) could have been explored in the spirit of 12 Angry Men. Anyway, this movie still rates a 7/10 on the strength of some undeniable suspense and very strong acting especially from Baldwin.

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12 out of 19 people found the following review useful:
Petulant thriller made by numbskulls and aimed at numbskulls, 21 September 2001

Author: moonspinner55 from redlands, ca

Demi Moore gives a sullen performance as an artist and single mom who is harassed by mobsters while serving jury-duty on murder trial involving Mafia Godfather. Overwritten, inconsistent film attempts to outweigh its campier aspects with mind-thriller clichés (such as Alec Baldwin's role as a egomaniacal hit-man) but results are still closer to "Murder, She Wrote" than to anything resembling Tom Clancy. Would probably pass muster as your basic, dumb time-waster were it not for a ridiculous climax in Guatemala. Moore is grim throughout, and Baldwin (pursing his modulated lips and narrowing his eyes) is a poser here--not an actor. Anne Heche does what she can with a best-friend role and there are a few rousing scenes, but the off-kilter script buries the good points, giving way to a pushy, unpleasant and occasionally offensive movie. ** from ****

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4 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
Bada-Bing...., 19 June 2011

Author: FlashCallahan from United Kingdom

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

When Annie Laird is selected as a juror in a big Mafia trial, she is forced by someone known as "The Teacher" to persuade the other jurors to vote "not guilty".

He threatens to kill her son if she doesn't commit. When the trial is over, he can't let her go...

There are two big problems with this movie, they should have trimmed the ending by at least ten minutes, and Baldwin should not have got his motivation from the T-1000.

There are times when he is so autonomous, you can almost hear the mechanics grinding in the background, which is a shame, because in the first act, he is really convincing, but when we find out he's the Teacher, it's as if he's expecting the audience to want him go that little more Psychotic.

Moore is as good as she always is, convincing as the parent who is worried for her son's well being. But when Baldwin and Moore are on screen together, it just doesn't convince. You do think every now and again that they will get together at the end, but thats only because the fear factor that Baldwin had in the first act vanishes.

Gandolfini is great in this movie though, and shows what a talent he is. Just a shame he isn't in the movie a lot more.

There is some good camera-work and good performances, even from your token mobsters, who look like extras from Goodfellas.

It's not a bad film, entirely watchable, just not plausible enough.

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13 out of 22 people found the following review useful:
Plenty to Deliberate Here in Taut Thriller ****, 1 July 2006

Author: edwagreen from United States

Terrific. Exciting thriller about a woman on jury duty who is threatened by the mob to make sure that the jury votes for acquittal.

Demi Moore is the juror with conviction, that is to save her young son who is threatened. Alec Baldwin is the psychotic killer who will go to any length to make sure that Moore tows the line. He even kills her friend, Ann Heche, a doctor.

Tony Lo Bianco is the head of the mob syndicate who fears Moore even after he is acquitted of all charges.

An exciting ending for this gripping film. Moore becomes Rambo-like in the end and it's well justified.

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7 out of 12 people found the following review useful:
this a story about jury tampering and a woman's struggle to protect her son from the evil forces of the mafia, 19 April 2002

Author: agglaia kakouratos (alec baldwin) from london enfield england

A thoroughly enjoyable film with the sexy and talented Alec Baldwin playing a sadistic dark character role as a hitman for the Bofanno family. They hire him to take care of their dirty deeds and give him a code name as the teacher. The film's opening is both entertaining and unpredictable as Demi Moore's character, Annie Laird is called up for jury service and is subsequently taken on as a juror for the Bofanno case " the big spaghettio" , a nick name for Louis Bofanno's character. The film develops into a struggle for survival as deceit and treachery is the name of the game. The teacher makes contact with Annie as he politely calls her. His objective is to threaten Annie,her son played by an angelic Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and friends and family, to get to her and force her to get a not guilty verdict for Bofanno's pending trial. He deceptively makes first contact by posing as an art dealer and as Annie is an up and coming artist he buys some of her contemporary boxes and later waits for her outside the art gallery and takes her to lunch. He then tries to win her confidence by inviting her on a date ,but when they get back to Annie's place he shows his true colours by threatening her with the fact that he will kill her son if she does not co-operate with his wishes to render a not guilty vote. The film then takes an interesting roller coaster ride of death and betrayal as Annie and the teacher are locked in a spiral of survival with Annie out doing him. The moral of the story I believe is that if a woman is pushed to the ultimate limits she will fight to the death for the protection of her family. As the old saying goes, "Hell have no fury than a woman scorned."

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8 out of 14 people found the following review useful:
ugh..., 7 August 1998

Author: Fever from St. Louis

While this movie had an interesting plot, it was carried out very poorly. Alec Baldwin's character was just too psychotic to be convincing. The story became predictable and the cinematography was terrible. yuck.

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2 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
Yeah! yeah! yeah! I'll get otta ya life fa ever!, 10 August 2009

Author: sol from Brooklyn NY USA

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

**SPOILERS** If you don't take the film "The Juror" seriously you can actually find it quit entertaining in just how unintentionally funny and campy it really is. You begin to notice that there's something very strange in the film after the person big shot Mafia bigwig Louie Boffano aka the big Spaghetti-O , Tony La Bianco, whom Juror #1 Annie Lierd, Demi Moore, was blackmailed into getting off on a murder charge got acquitted. Boffano was charged in ordering the execution style slaying of fellow Mafia boss Salvator "Big Sal" Riggio and his grandson Tommy who just happened to be an innocent bystander.

It seemed that "Big Sal" was deadly serious in being against the Mafia, or his fellow Mafia Don Louie Boffano, in making a deal with the Colombian Cali Drug Cartel which in effect had him whacked. With Boffano now acquitted he, and his goons, still keep blackmailing Annie which can only attract attention on them which is something they don't need or want. The guy doing most of the blackmailing is Vincent "The Teacher", Alec Baldwin, who freelances as a hit-man for the Boffano Family between affairs with those, women of course, whom he's blackmailing like Annie. And in the case of Annie's good friend the awfully cute and brainy Juiet (Anne Heche), who's a doctor by profession, "The Teacher" in keeping himself in shape, in his job as a professional hit-man, murders!

"The Teacher" under orders from the mentally deranged and reality challenged Louie Boffano, who doesn't seem to realize that all this is totally unnecessary, keeps putting the screws on both Annie and her 12 year old son Oliver, Joseph Gordon Levitt, which leads Annie to take matters into her own hands. Annie secretly sets up the so full of himself "Teacher" in getting him to admit, on a tape recorder she had hidden, that he and the Cali Cartel are planning to take over Louie Boffano's Mafia operations with him-know to his friends as "Crazy Louie"-getting iced in the process!

****SPOILER ALERT****The film goes from the ridicules to the sublime as were shockingly shown just how off the all "The Teacher" and his boss Louie Boffano really are. After "The Teacher" was set up by his good friend, and flunky in the Boffano Family, "Good Time" Eddie, James Gabdolfini, to be rubbed out he turns the tables on them only to, like his boss Louie Boffano, still blackmail Annie in him threatening to murder her her son Oliver for what seems like just for the thrill of it!

The unbelievable ending takes place in of all places the jungles of Guatemala in South America where Annie with the help of her boyfriend Boone played by a hippie looking Matt Craven-a fellow artist and sculptor like herself-is hiding Oliver by keeping him from getting killed by "The Teacher". It was "The Teacher" in overestimating his obviously low intelligence as well as underestimating Annie's determination, of getting him out of her hair as well as life, who ends up getting all that's coming to him! Which he should have gotten a lot sooner! A big D minus in plain old common sense by him not knowing when to quite when he was in fact way ahead!

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9 out of 17 people found the following review useful:
Demi's best, 4 January 2003

Author: Kyle769 from Tampa, Florida

I am not a big Demi Moore fan and seeing this movie wasn't top priority but afterwards I was very pleased with the outcome. This is, by far, Demi Moore's best film to date as she shows so much emotion as a single mother stuck in a difficult position between working for the mafia in order to save her family and herself. Moore truly deserved an Academy Award nomination if not a win, and the Razzies were very out of line by giving her Worst Actress for this (it was moreso for "Striptease" and that also wasn't that bad...a thing about the Razzies, they don't know what the hell they're talking about half the time). Alec Baldwin is pretty good as the villain and Anne Heche gives all she has as the token best friend. Ted Tally's ("Silence of the Lambs") script is riveting and keeps you on the edge of your seat. A great suspense film with a great performance by Demi Moore...see it and believe it. 8/10

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