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Order this DVD from Amazon.com
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Runaway Jury
(20th Century Fox Home Entertainment)
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| DVD Release Date:
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February 17, 2004
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| Length:
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127 mins.
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| Rated:
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PG-13
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| Format:
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Widescreen (2.35:1)
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| Audio:
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English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, French Dolby Surround, Spanish Dolby Surround
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| Subtitles:
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English, Spanish, Closed Captioned
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| Extras:
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Feature Length Audio Commentary by Director Gary Fleder, Scene-Specific Commentary by Gene Hackman and Dustin Hoffman, Deleted Scenes with Commentary, 5 Featurettes (Acting, Making-of, Cinematography, Production Design, Editing)
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I like Gene Hackman. I don't mind Dustin Hoffman. But I never really realized what a storied history these two have together - I only vaguely remember hearing something about it sometime. So, along comes Runaway Jury, featuring performances by Hackman and Hoffman - and I never really gave it a second thought. I mean, when news came that Pacino and De Niro would be appearing on screen together for the first time in Heat, I was floored. That was a movie I needed to see. But Hackman and Hoffman? Does anybody really even care? No disrespect - these are two greats but the idea of seeing them together for the first time wasn't enough to make me jump out of my seat rushing to the theater on opening night. I guess the fact that this was the first movie featuring John Cusack and Gene Hackman doesn't really matter. But why would it?
In Runaway Jury (based on the book by once-great Hollywood commodity John Grisham) Cusack plays Nick Easter, a man who is seemingly trying to avoid jury duty, but who's really dying to get on jury duty to stick it to the man. I won't give away his reasons, because that would really just ruin the movie, but let's just say he has his reasons. Hoffman plays the attorney trying to win the case against the nation's biggest gun manufacturer, and Hackman plays the gun company's jury consultant. So, Nick manages to get on the jury, and together with Rachel Weisz they try to sell the jury to the highest bidder. What results is a decent movie about the flaws in the American judicial system - and really American society as a whole.
For a movie that didn't perform as well as expected, the film's DVD release offers a surprising amount of special features. First up is a commentary by director Gary Fleder. Not a bad commentary. He goes over your standard topics, ranging from characters and editing and music. What I found most interesting were the bits about the film's script and how it differed from the actual book the movie is based on. I've never read the book, so I can't really offer any insight, but it's interesting to hear about what changes were made and why.
We also get what is referred to as a selected scene commentary featuring Hackman and Hoffman, but really, the two just go over a couple of scenes from the movie - and they're not really like a commentary. It's more like interview footage where they talk about the movie with the scene playing in the background. A couple of great actors and they provide some worthwhile anecdotes.
Two deleted scenes from the movie are presented with optional commentary by Fleder - making it easy to understand why this footage was left on the cutting room floor.
From here, we get into the featurettes. The first is titled "Exploring the Scene: Hackman & Hoffman Together". Running just under 15 minutes, the most interesting bit of info we get here is that their big scene wasn't even in the book - that it was added as an excuse to get these two screen legends on film together. Admittedly, it is a great scene.
More Hoffman-Hackman in the next featurette, "Off the Cuff: Hackman & Hoffman". Here, we listen to the two talk about their history together - where and how they met, how they got their starts together. A great piece with a nice look at these two and their history.
In "The Ensemble: The Acting" we get to hear from a few others involved in the movie. (Did I mention that this movie stars other people besides Hackman and Hoffman? You might not know it otherwise.) Cusack and Weisz are included along with the always great Luis Guzman. Unfortunately, we don't get a lot of info here - just a lot of how great is was to work with everyone. For once, I'd like to hear somebody complain about what a pain in the ass it is to work with other people. It's not like I come home after work and talk to my wife about how great all my co-workers are. Quite the opposite actually.
The special features are rounded out by your basic promotional "Making-Of" featurette and three others focusing on cinematography, production design and editing. Again - not a very successful movie, but the disc certainly has its share of bonus materials.
In the end, I'll liken this movie to Heat. In Heat, the big draw was Pacino and De Niro. However, the two really only shared one scene together. And although it was a great scene, the movie was a lot more than just that one scene. Similarly, in Runaway Jury, you might hear a lot about the teaming of Hoffman and Hackman. The two only share the one scene - and although it's a great scene - there's more to the movie. But, it's still no Heat.
| The Movie: |
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7/10 |
| The Extras: |
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7/10 |
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