Main Cast: Shelley Winters, Pauly Shore, Tia Carrere, Stanley Tucci, Brian Doyle-Murray, Abe Vigoda
Release Year: 1995
Country: US
Run Time: 87 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG13
Plot
A goofy slacker wreaks havoc after worming his way onto the jury of a high-profile court case in this broad comedy. The extremely unmotivated Tommy Collins (Pauly Shore) has found himself homeless after being kicked out by his mother, and he needs a place to stay. After hearing how the juries of important cases are sequestered in fancy hotels and provided with free meals, he decides that's the life for him and successfully volunteers for jury duty. Enjoying what he considers the high life and wishing to romance an attractive female juror (Tia Carrere), Tommy infuriates his fellow jurors by attempting to drag out the trial. Director John Fortenberry offers much obvious slapstick, along with a few attempts at topical jibes against media sensationalism, but even fans of Shore's lowbrow humor may be disappointed by the film's quality. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
Dessie Markovsky - Associate Producer, Emile Razpopov - Associate Producer, Steven L. Bernstein - Co-producer, Richard M. Heller - Co-producer, Terry Dresbach - Costume Designer, John Fortenberry - Director, Steve Semel - Editor, David Kitay - Songwriter, David Witz - Production Designer, Deborah Raymond - Production Designer, Avraham Karpick - Cinematographer, Yoram Ben-Ami - Producer, Udi Nedivi - Producer, Peter M. Lenkov - Producer, Adam Small - Screenwriter, Barbara Williams - Screenwriter, Fax Bahr - Screenwriter, Neil Tolkin - Screenwriter, Samantha Adams - Screenwriter
When Tommy Collins (Pauly Shore), an unemployed stripper living at his parents' home, finds out that his parents are going on a private getaway for a few months and taking the mobile home with them, he decides that he needs to find a place for him and his chihuahua Peanut to stay.
By a stroke of luck he's called up for jury duty and he must be sequestered for the duration of the trial. Collins prolongs the trial with meaningless debate in an effort to stay in the lap of luxury. In the process he irritates his fellow jurors and inadvertently makes a break in the case. The movie features a host of courtroom antics performed by Shore and his cohorts.
This movie was based on the teleplay, 12 Angry Men, which itself was adapted into film in 1957 starring Henry Fonda.
Criticisms
The film received a "BOMB" rating from film critic Leonard Maltin in his Movie and Video Guide book, Maltin comments that a "BOMB" rating may be too high for the film. Film critic Roger Ebert noted on At the Movies that Pauly Shore was the "cinematic equivalent of long fingernails, drawn very slowly and quite loudly over a gigantic blackboard" and noted that although he extremely disliked Chris Farley, he would "rather attend a dusk-to-dawn Chris Farley film festival than sit through any 5 minutes of Jury Duty", with Gene Siskel also appending to the notion by referring to Shore as "aggravating".[1]
References
^ Siskel, G. and Ebert, R. "At the movies: [Weekly reviews : Jury Duty]"
