The Juror - DVDfever.co.uk

O f all the men and women in the jury he chose her. He knows everything about her – what she’s thinking, what she’s feeling – but most of all, he knows what scares her…

Demi Moore is Annie, a single mother determined to set her son a good example by serving as a juror in the trial of a powerful mobster. During the jury selection procedure, Annie is evaluated, not only by the judge and attorneys, but also by ‘The Teacher’ (Alec Baldwin), a lethal onlooker. He has been hired by the mafia to do whatever it takes to get one of the jurors to vote for an acquittal.

Now, Annie is at the hands of this obsessive and maniacal hitman and she’s about to discover that justice always has a price… and this time it could be her life.

The picture quality suffers from a plethora of motion artifacts in all scenes with static and/or dark/black areas, which covers most of the film given the dark nature of the plot. Strange then, that the average bitrate here is 3.99 Mb/s, which is low but not as low as Multiplicity which has a figure of 3.91 Mb/s but has a spot-on picture.

The film is presented in its original widescreen ratio of 2.35:1, is enhanced for 16:9 widescreen televisions – thus allowing for higher resolution.

The sound comes in two formats: Dolby Digital 5.1 which will benefit all of those with the suitable hardware and Dolby Surround for everyone else with a surround setup. The sound comes across very clearly, with speakers only really getting a workout with an explosion towards the end plus some crowd scenes.

Extras :

Chapters/Theatrical Trailer : There are 28 chapters spread throughout the 113 mins of the film which is just about enough here, although it would be nice to have a separate one at the end for the closing credits.

There’s no confusion this time over the “Trailer” option from the main menu. It seems Columbia have learnt their lesson after providing a compilation trailer on earlier releases as this is the original theatrical trailer.

Languages/Subtitles :

There’s just the one language on this disc – English – plus subtitles in English, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Icelandic, Hindi and Hebrew.

Menu :

The interactive menu works well. Just dragging the mouse pointer over an option highlights it, although the menu is static. On playing the disc you get the Columbia TriStar logo before the main menu appears.

When you select the “Start Movie” option, before it begins you’ll be presented with the copyright logo and then the film itself.

Overall, this is a rather cheesy and silly thriller with the acting hammed up by Moore and Baldwin, with a plot and outcome that unfolds in the most obvious way possible.

If you are going to buy this film though, the DVD will not have much competition from video as only a fullscreen version was released in this format. However, Encore Entertainment released a PAL Laserdisc in widescreen around 18 months ago which originally retailed for £26.99, but is now discounted to £14.99. It does have a theatrical trailer as well, plus a few more chapters at 34, but lacks 16:9 enhancement and Dolby Digital which are present on the DVD here.

FILM : ** PICTURE QUALITY: *** SOUND QUALITY: **** EXTRAS: *½ ——————————- OVERALL: **½

[Up to the top of this page]

Dom Robinson

Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.

DVDfever.co.uk

Follow DVDfever.co.uk