[.ca] The Juror (Full Screen) (ISBN 0767810872)

WATCHABLE SUSPENSE, WITH A LOOONG TAIL-END:
This high-profile star vehicle has decent suspense, unlike what reviews here will have believe, but little to recommend besides the lead performances -- Demi Moore is great (perhaps one of her best roles) and Alec Baldwin is very creepy as a three-dimensional villain. After the usual Grishamesque legal session though, the movie gets somewhat needlessly protracted with Baldwin's character brutally murdering Moore's doctor friend, which begins a spree of semi-credible acts (including a supposed mafia boss being killed along with his three bodyguards, in broad daylight, in a public park. Yeah!) Until the mildly doozy finale in Guatemala, of all places. Overall, definitely a one-time watchable film, but you may want to think twice before buying and owning it.

Suspenseful but ordinary:
Without Demi Moore and Alec Baldwin, this script never would have made it to film. It is a run-of-the-mill story about a single mother (Demi Moore) who is being pressured by an organized crime figure (Alec Baldwin) to vote "not guilty" on a high profile trial. The mob's leverage is her love for her son. Yawn. But Moore and Baldwin turn in fine performances: Moore as the defiant, intelligent, and terrified Annie, and Baldwin as her sociopath handler. Baldwin is so convincingly creepy and so demented in his take on everything that the audience fears intensely for Annie's survival. This film contains some honestly terrifying sequences. Unfortunately, the ending is weak, and you're left with few memorable scenes. While this film was definitely a good escape for a couple of hours, you might want to question whether it is worth purchasing to see more than once.

LADY JUSTICE TRICKED AGAIN:
If you didn't read the novel by George Dawes Green upon which this movie is based, you missed a lot of extra stuff that may have helped with the seemingly implausible points of the plot. A whole subplot involving the Teacher's lover and a has-been PI stimulated a lot of what is overlooked in the film version. But I think overall director Brian Gibson did a commendable job in translating this to the screen. Demi Moore gives one of her best performances as the trapped mother; she is strong, yet vulnerable; determined and wise. Alec Baldwin is good at playing sleazeballs, but he tempers this with a sense of sensitivity he rarely displays; Anne Heche in an early role does well in the role of Juliette, although in the book Juliette's character is more fleshed out; James Gandolfino in a pre-Sopranos role is outstanding as Baldwin's henchman, who ends up siding with Moore; and Tony Lo Bianco in a brief role as the mafia don, is perfect in his sleazy shell. THE JUROR is a manipulative movie, but done with enough style and finesse, to be a very entertaining thriller.

I love 'The Juror'!:
Demi Moore is great as a Bohemian single mom and struggling artist living alone with her 12-year-old son (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) in a converted barn in a country suburb of New York. When she becomes a juror in a murder case against a major Mafia boss, her peaceful life is turned upside down by a sociopathic hitman's (Alec Baldwin) obsession with her. Though she knows the mob boss is guilty, she is bullied into providing a verdict of 'not guilty' under threat of her son being killed. I see that some reviewers are 'yawning' that this story has been done before, but Moore and Baldwin give such fantastic performances that it seems like the first time anything of its kind has been done. The actors accomplish making their characters appear very real. Demi seems like she could be a woman who used to live on your block or who you once worked with, and Baldwin is like the living nightmare psycho you hope you'll never meet! Anne Heche is good as Demi's best friend, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt is believable as the typical sweet kid of someone you might know. It is also a scenic, beautiful movie. Filmed partially in upstate New York in what looks like late May/early June, and in Central America, there's plenty of nice scenery. I think this picture is well worth owning and watching again and again.

I liked it!:
Ahh the mafia. Lock a few up, the rest hunt you down. The movie was entertaining, probably mainly because of Alec. He's gorgous, and his character is cold, evil, scary, and determined. Bad mix. The saddest part was when he killed the blonde doctor friend. I mean come on. How sick can you be.