tnsmile I really like this movie - it is a 90's thriller, not smash 'em up or shoot 'em up. A good plot. Relatively good performances from the cast - it held my attention. I miss thrillers like this.

NateWatchesCoolMovies The Juror is a lurid little crime/courtroom thriller from the 90's that features Alec Baldwin in one of his then frequent asshole roles, Demi Moore in a solid lead and a startlingly young Joseph Gordon Levitt as her son. It's silly in places, sensationalistic in others, but manages to hold attention with its thrills most of the time, which are of the brash variety that only that decade could achieve. Moore plays a struggling artist who is selected as a juror in the trial of a high profile mafia Don (Tony Lo Bianco). No sooner than day one of the proceedings, she is harassed, terrorized and blackmailed by a nasty piece of work known as 'The Professor' (Baldwin), a boorish thug with delusions of eloquence, employed by the Don to see that the jury swings his way in the end. Baldwin tears into his role like a velociraptor, voraciously careening through the film like a bull in a china shop. Moore brings her introspective innocence, and Levitt is a bright eyed young chap in what is probably one of his first roles. James Gandolfini is a supporting standout as Baldwin's uneasy accomplice, and there's work from Michael Constantine, Matt Craven, Lindsay Crouse and Anne Heche as well. Won't knock your socks off, but a good time nonetheless, and worth a peek just to see Baldwin nearly give himself an aneurysm trying to out-crazy himself.

dmayo-911-597432 The protagonist of The Juror is an artist and single mother who serves on the jury in the murder trial of a mafia chieftain. Her antagonist is a man who briefly seems cut out to provide romantic interest and heroics to a conventional thriller but soon reveals himself (so soon that this can hardly be a spoiler) to be anything but a hero. This character, played by Alec Baldwin, is known to us only as The Teacher. The juror of the title is Annie Laird (Demi Moore).It seems that The Teacher is not only a hit-man for the boss on trial but also somewhat of a power behind the throne, though we get this information more from claims made by other mafiosi than from what we see of his interaction with them. Events give the impression that he's an awe-inspiring loose cannon rather than an established mover and shaker. At any rate, he presses Laird to swing a "not guilty" verdict in the jury room and threatens to kill her son if she doesn't.As someone has pointed out on the Message Board, it's odd that the jury is not sequestered in a trial of this kind. That's not so much a hole in the plot as a hole containing the entire plot within its confines. In reality, the story would have to center on The Teacher's ingenious way of getting at the juror; in the film, all it takes is a little stalking and then a pass.This film needs to be seen (if seen at all) as a kind of fantasy: an extreme parable of predatory male behavior in which the male combines almost superhuman powers of attraction and domination with downright inhuman aims and impulses. Even when Laird knows the worst about The Teacher and intends to destroy him, we see that she has to struggle against the effect of his caress the way Professor Van Helsing struggles against the vampire's gaze in Dracula.There are two distinctly satisfying things about The Juror. One is a well-judged final sequence that distills the mood of the film by transposing the action to a setting full of symbolic imagery, unaccustomed color, and deepened contrasts of light and shadow. The other is Baldwin's performance. His Teacher exemplifies the paradoxical psychotic -- youthful, athletically handsome, suggestive of intelligence and sociability; agelessly evil, grotesque, savagely cunning, disliked in his own circle. This is no mere anti-hero or rogue, but a repellent loser who nevertheless draws all the other characters, the story, and the viewer into a vortex centered on himself. It's a noteworthy acting accomplishment in an unusual category: the star villain.

jDriftyx82 Before I watched The Juror, I had one thought in mind. "This movie looks great". It had a great plot, great actors, and it was a crime film, which I enjoy. But sadly, this movie fails on almost all these levels.The acting isn't superb. But it isn't terrible. In fact, it's the best part of the film.The writing, forget about it. Terrible. Awful. The worst. The actors try so hard to make the dialogue sound good, but even with their decent delivery, it still sounds cheesy, uninspired, and stupid.It's almost like the movies spoofing itself.The movie is stupid, cheesy, uninspired, one-sided, with good acting.I would say see it for the acting. But there are hundreds of movies with better acting, and better writing! Go watch those.