Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Runaway Jury (2003)

8/18/2019

Runaway Jury (2003) - Gun violence trial as Hollywood show

♥♥♥

+ Worst Poster of the Year

Formally dressed stars eye each other uneasily under a blurry photograph on this dubious poster for Runaway Jury

A madman mows down 11 people at an office, and a widow to one of the slain subsequently sues the gun company. The principal trial gets a jury, zealous lawyers, - and an X factor ...

Runaway Jury is written by Brian Koppelman (Runner Runner (2013)), David Levien (Rounders (1998)), Rick Cleveland (Nurse Jackie (2009-10)) and Matthew Chapman (Heart of Midnight (1988)), adapting The Runaway Jury (1996) by John Grisham (The Summons (2002)), and directed by Gary Fleder (Kiss the Girls (1997)).
The biggest problem for this over-written courtroom thriller set in New Orleans is that it lacks a hero: Gene Hackman (Split Decisions (1988)) is definitely the villain of the piece; Dustin Hoffman (Stranger Than Fiction (2006)) may have been thought of as the hero, being the lawyer representing the widow's case, (but it is a grotesque case in my opinion.) John Cusack (Adult World (2013)) and Rachel Weisz (Death Machine (1994)) both play manipulative and greedy characters, whose real aim is only revealed in Runaway Jury's poorly closed up ending.
The film also suffers from superficial music video-style editing, which lowers the realism in the material and ruptures any thematic weight it may have carried. Robert Elswit's (Salt (2010)) photography is seamless, and Hackman lets loose; especially he and Hoffman's bathroom scene has the show movie energy that this film is still worth watching for. The American gun ownership issue at the core of the film remains pretty much unchanged today.

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Watch a VHS tape teaser for the film here

Cost: 60 mil. $
Box office: 80.1 mil. $
= Big flop (returned 1.33 times its cost)
[Runaway Jury premiered 9 October (USA) and runs 127 minutes. Since pre-production had started in 1997, filmmakers Joel Schumacher and Mike Newell and stars Will Smith and Edward Norton had been attached at various points. The plot was changed from a tobacco focus to guns following the release of tobacco-focused The Insider (1999). Shooting took place in Louisiana, including New Orleans, and in Los Angeles, California in and around September 2002. The film opened #3, behind fellow new release The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and holdover hit Kill Bill: Vol. 1, to an 11.8 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another week in the top 5 (#4) and grossed 49.4 mil. $ (61.7 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Spain with 3.8 mil. $ (4.7 %) and Italy and France at a shared #3 with 3.7 mil. $ (4.6 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, translating to a notch better than this one. Grisham in 2004 called the film "smart" and "suspenseful" but was disappointed with its theatrical performance. Fleder returned with 11 TV episodes in 3 different TV-series before hitting big screens again with The Express (2008). Cusack returned in Must Love Dogs (2005); Hackman in Welcome to Mooseport (2004) - his final movie; Hoffman in Finding Neverland (2004) and Weisz in Envy (2004). Runaway Jury is fresh at 73 % with a 6.56/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (17-24)

8/18/2019

Runaway Jury (2003) - Gun violence trial as Hollywood show

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

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Eagerly anticipating this week ... (16-24)

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