Un lavoro da giurato

Tommy Collins (Pauly Shore) drives off all the ladies and loses the stripper job at his uncle Sal's. He is hopelessly unemployed and living with his mom (Shelley Winters). The police captures the Drive-Thru Killer and Tommy gets jury duty. His mom takes off for Vegas and he's aiming to get sequestered for a long free hotel stay. And it pays $5 a day. Monica (Tia Carrere), Frank (Stanley Tucci) and Tommy's old Principal Beasely (Richard Riehle) are some of the jurors.

Pauly Shore is playing the moron and a slacker jerk. He's doing it solo. It's boring and unfunny. The script is stupid and not in a funny way. It's like a really weak '12 Angry Men'. The best I could say about this movie is that Pauly Shore could have been more annoying. That's little comfort.

I first saw this movie when I was in grade school, so naturally I wasn't too critical. It's a silly comedy and I got a few laughs at the time. I also didn't see what people hated about Pauly Shore. When you're 11 years old, you don't find a dude like that obnoxious. Now...he pretty much annoys the crap out of me.

I'm not jumping onto the bandwagon of Pauly Shore-haters. As a matter of fact, I recall very few comic actors who hardly retain an ounce of merit. The thing that's jarring about Shore is he tries hard to hammer a laugh out of his audience, but he does it in such a dull, low-key manner. If you're gonna be obnoxious, flaunt your obnoxiousness. Obnoxious can be funny. Just look at Vince Vaughn's portrayal of Trent in "Swingers." Shore is like that class clown who tries hard to annoy everyone in sight, yet at the same time tries hard to be liked. If Shore had charm, that might be possible. A guard dog has more charm than him.

The cast is pretty much second-rate. Tia Carrerre would grab any script that's hurled in her direction, and so would Abe Vigoda. Sure, Vigoda was popular in his hayday, but that's the whole point. He was popular IN HIS HAYDAY. Andrew Dice Clay has an amusing cameo, though. And what in the world was Stanley Tucci doing in this film??!!! Yes, THE Stanley Tucci. The Stanley Tucci from "Sidewalks of New York" and "Big Night." And here he is, playing a fanatical environmentalist. I can betcha 100 bucks this film is now crossed off his resume.

Unless you're a die-hard Pauly Shore fan, this film is as boring as sitting in a jury for 4 straight hours--and the movie's only 90 minutes long! The only hints of wit are occasional references to "12 Angry Men."

My score: 3 (out of 10)

JURY DUTY is exactly what you would expect from Pauly Shore: obnoxious, silly and ridiculous. Here, Shore plays a jobless boy who decides he can get himself a free hotel room by posing as a juror for a murder trial. Usually, I give movies what they deserve, but since Shore never made a good movie, I have to give him credit. I mean, here is another guy whose movies were successful at the box office, but had little or nothing to show for it. If you are a fan of Pauly, I doubt you will be disappointed. Others beware, for JURY DUTY will be a real trial to sit through.

1 out of 5

There is a scene early on in "Jury Duty" when Pauly Shore stands on a bus and imitates a town tour guide. It is obvious that this scene was written to showcase Pauly Shore's comedic talents, however, he makes noises and is loud and generally obnoxious and unfunny.

"Jury Duty" is the point where Pauly Shore officially abused his stay in movies. After this movie, he would forever be sanctioned to the lunch table in the corner with the smelly kid, Carrot Top and the Noid from the Dominoes commercials. But not until he showed the world his versatility in Bio-Dome.

Jury Duty is bad. Not bad like "In the Army Now," but close. There is little originality to the script, no amusing characters and about four funny lines. I did enjoy the scene where the witnesses from restaurants give testimonies in their respective fast food uniforms. There isn't much else here. It just isn't funny.

Shore also lacks the wit his idiotic leading men contemporaries like Adam Sandler and Chris Farley showed in the 90s. These were all, more or less, bad versions of Steve Martin's wonderful "Jerk" character. All Shore shows in this movie is that he has the talent to bug you.

Of course, not all the blame can be put on his shoulders. He has no script to work with. Nothing. I don't know why Stanley Tucci thought this movie would be good for him and or how the studio blackmailed him into being in it.

I remembered both "Encino Man" and "Son in Law" were kind of funny in a stupid way. "Jury Duty " on the other hand is stupid in a very unfunny way.

Typical Pauly Shore fare that has him stalling the verdict on a murder trial so he can stay in a plush hotel longer. Naturally he has cut a deal to be in the President's suite of a different inn than the other jurors. Anyway as time progresses, it appears that Shore might be on to something when he tries to convince the others that the case is not as cut-and-dried as it appears. Some outstanding performers (most notably Shelley Winters, Charles Napier, Tia Carrere and Stanley Tucci) somehow found their way on this downer. 2 stars out of 5.