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Just Cause

Just Cause

List Price: $12.98
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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Baby Your Love. . .
Review:

JUST CAUSE
Sean Connery, Blair Underwood, Lawrence Fishburne, Ed Harris, 1995

Synopsis
A black man (Underwood) is put in jail for a crime he says he did not commit, so Sean Connery tries to get him out, he succeeds, and then later he find out the Underwood did commit the crime.

My Review
Just enough interest to keep you in place. Interesting was the song "Baby Your Love" by Changing Faces that is played about half way through the film. It has nothing to do with the plot but it was cool to hear it, since I really like the group.



Rating: 3 stars
Summary: No thrill thriller
Review: A flat by-the-numbers who-do-it kind of mystery movie. The actors gave fine performances, given the script they had to work with. But the story lacks intrigues. Characters are not memorable. The action sequences are perfunctory. The major mystery this movie offers is why apparently the director was OK with all these shortcomings.

Don't bother to try to guess ahead of the movie, as many would like to do with a mystery. This movie just isn't worth your effort. Otherwise in the end you might have the frustrating feeling that you've given the movie more thought than the filmmakers appeared to have done.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Excellent Movie!
Review: As mentioned in the other reviews, the movie starts out very slow and very predictable. It's only in the last 40min where things start to get interesting. Definitely worth getting.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: If you dont like this your in the wrong genra
Review: Every aspect of this entailed thriller is very well made. This is not your run-of-the-mill Hitchcock ripof, this is a murder mystery, that has an originality you rarely see anymore. From the violent opening scene, to the outstanding actorial performance by Ed Harris, This is a great film. You could compare the performance by Ed Haris, to that of Jack Nicholson in, THE SHINING, its that good!. Each actor is right for his/her part, and there performances are impecable. The U turns that this movie takes are what makes it entertaining to watch over and over. It so keeps you guessing what's going to happen, especially in the middle of the film, after the major court scene, where the movie seems to be over, its only just begun. The storyline speeds from one mans' freedom, to grafic images in a seemingly christian home, to the early execution of an unlikley propriator. This is an all around great, film and I strongly recomend it.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good first 75 minutes, falls apart afterward.
Review: For the first 75 or so minutes, Just Cause is solid movie entertainment. It features a rather unoriginal premise, about a black man accused of raping and murdering a young white girl and is sentenced to death row, but is intriguing, nonetheless. Sean Connery plays Paul Armstrong, the man the accused killer-Bobby Earl-convinces to help find the man truly responsible.

Just Cause is an always watchable thriller, and there small plot twists turns along the way. At the 75 minute mark is the movie's big revelation, which is actually a bit more surprising than I thought it would be. But the movie goes downhill from there, resulting in a mess of car chases and fistfights. Still, it's well worth watching for those first 75 or so minutes.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Just Cause DVD
Review: I just saw this 1995 effort on DVD, and when I read Dave McKoy's take on it, I felt compelled to give it some balance by writing a few positive words.

Once again DVD letterbox proves its worth as a far superior medium to appreciate the director's vision, with the original aspect ratio. (One side comment to Warner Bros.: all DVD's should have extra content, at least trailers and a rundown of the actor's careers. Coming out with this DVD, which is just the bare bones movie, does a disservice to the goal of making DVD's the hands-down must-have format.)

With that said, the DVD version is a gem. This movie has wonderful atmospherics ... the lush florida swamps, the various players in the movie with their hidden agendas, and then the loving camerawork -- Sean Connery is at the top of his game, Kate Capshaw looks wonderful on the screen, and Blair Underwood has that heartfelt look in his eye that says, "No way is this guy capable of murder."

Sheriff Brown, played to the steamy, powerful hilt by Lawrence Fishbourne, is the key to this film. Is Sheriff Brown seeking justice the old-fashioned way, or is he using the tried-and-true techniques of old-style police brutality to frame an innocent man?

This movie's title is ironic, because we are led from crystal clarity into the murky swamp -- from things being obvious to things being so confused that who is conning who is very much at issue. By the time this movie is done (and I believe that the denoument in the swamp is a necessary piece to understanding how phony the PR-wrapper on Blair Underwood was), we can see how easy it was for Sean Connery to be conned, and how the lushly-told story sucked us down the same con. This movie is the ultimate object-lesson for the proposition that you should not trust appearances, and that just because you stick your nose into something, doesn't mean you really understand squat.

This beautifully-photographed and beautifully -directed and -acted movie is a gem, and provides food for thought about the great debate over capital punishment.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I DIDN'T EXPECT THIS TO BE GREAT..AND IT REALLY IS!!
Review: I remember the night I first watched this movie. I rented it at the Video Shop, without much enthusiasm & at the insistence of my roommate. Well, let me tell you, this Thriller is exactly that..THRILLING!! Every turn and twist imaginable is in this movie. Did he or didn't he kill that little girl? I was on the edge of my seat for most of the movie. Ed Harris is terrific as well as Sean Connery, who just keeps getting better with age. I recommend BUYING this movie. I have watched it about 4 or 5 times now and my heart races each and every time. [....]

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I DIDN'T EXPECT THIS TO BE GREAT..AND IT REALLY IS!!
Review: I remember the night I first watched this movie. I rented it at the Video Shop, without much enthusiasm & at the insistence of my roommate. Well, let me tell you, this Thriller is exactly that..THRILLING!! Every turn and twist imaginable is in this movie. Did he or didn't he kill that little girl? I was on the edge of my seat for most of the movie. Ed Harris is terrific as well as Sean Connery, who just keeps getting better with age. I recommend BUYING this movie. I have watched it about 4 or 5 times now and my heart races each and every time. [....]

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Edge of your seat
Review: I've seen better from Sean Connery, and Blair Underwood needs to stick with soap operas. Ed Harris was as good as always. The movie started out slower than expected, but on the flip side, took an unexpected turn. It went from cheezy mystery to actual suspense. The way it continued, the way you watched it, was going to be cheezy like every other movie you've ever seen. But then it turned into a true mystery. The actual movie was average; I will hand it to the producer because the last thirty minutes made all the difference. ... Ed Harris played an unusually . . . wait before I say that, Ed Harris played an unusal role, but--as Ed Harris does so well--took control and made it work. I didn't like the soundtrack. It was not effective. And casting, Benjamin Bratt instead of Blair Underwood, maybe. I'm not even a big Ed Harris fan. I just love him in this flick.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Edge of your seat
Review: I've seen better from Sean Connery, and Blair Underwood needs to stick with soap operas. Ed Harris was as good as always. The movie started out slower than expected, but on the flip side, took an unexpected turn. It went from cheezy mystery to actual suspense. The way it continued, the way you watched it, was going to be cheezy like every other movie you've ever seen. But then it turned into a true mystery. The actual movie was average; I will hand it to the producer because the last thirty minutes made all the difference. ... Ed Harris played an unusually . . . wait before I say that, Ed Harris played an unusal role, but--as Ed Harris does so well--took control and made it work. I didn't like the soundtrack. It was not effective. And casting, Benjamin Bratt instead of Blair Underwood, maybe. I'm not even a big Ed Harris fan. I just love him in this flick.


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