Runaway Jury
Hey, look! All of your favorite John Grisham characters are here for your courtroom drama: the big evil corporation, the idealistic young lawyer/citizen, and the Belief in the System. The plot is interesting enough to keep you engaged, but to tell you the truth, it really doesn't hang together all that well. I suspect that the many plot cul-de-sacs, useless characters, and convoluted situations are more an artifact of the movie than the book: Grisham may not be a stellar author, but he usually knows how to string his chapters together into a cohesive story. John Cusack gave the one good performance. Gene Hackman was okay, reprising his Lex Luthor role, while Dustin Hoffman was wasted. And what the heck was Jeremy Piven doing in this movie? Give the guy some lines to say! He deserves better.