Un lavoro da giurato

Jury Duty (1995)

BOMB (out of 4)

Pauly Shore plays Tommy Collins, a spoiled brat of a human who can't keep a job down. He lives with his mom (Shelley Winters) and thinks he's gotten the "job" of a lifetime when he's offered jury duty, which will provide him free room and bored as well as some fun.

When you look back at the 1990's it seems that there were several comedies making some really awful movies. To most people Shore was the most boring and obnoxious of the group of comedies but I honestly enjoyed his act. I loved him in ENCINO MAN as well as SON IN LAW, which allowed him to have the lead spot but after that things started to go rather bad and JURY DUTY is the prime example.

I don't know the production history of this movie but at the time the O.J. Simpson case was in the headlines and there's even a joke about it in the film. I'm going to guess that this movie was put into production to try and cash-in on that craze but this is without question one of the worst comedies of the decade.

It honestly seems like the screenplay was never finished and they just let Shore loose in a courtroom to be his obnoxious self. Again, I think Shore is funny but it's clear that he has nothing to work with here and you get non-stop annoying jokes that make you want to turn the movie off. It's just not funny and the film just grows more and more aggrevating as it moves along. It's really too bad that more wasn't done with it and especially since there is a nice supporting cast.

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

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.

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.

I can't understand why there are so many poor reviews of this movie. And some to say that this is the worst movie Pauley Shore has ever done. I've seen it about a million times, and I think it is just as hilariois nearly every time I see it. And, sure Pauley Shore's most classic movie may forever be Son in Law, but com'mon, I do not think this is the worse thing he's ever done.

Jury Duty is largely a parody of Twelve Angry Men, and ...And Justice for All. Tommy Collin's (Shore) mom and her soon-to-be husband take their trailor and head off to Vegas for a quickie marriage. So, unemployed Tommy, in need of a place to stay, finds an opportunity for an extended stay at a luxury suite while serving jury duty on a high profile murder trial. The suspect is "Drive Thru Killer," Carl Wayne Bishop (Whalen), and now his fate is to be determined by eleven jurors who just want to vote him guilty and go home, and one juror (Tommy) who wants to prolong the jury sequestering as long as he can. Eventually, it turns into a parody of Twelve Angry Men when Tommy, trying to prove Carl Wayne Bishop's innocence, must find a way to prove to the other jurors that reasonable doubt exists.

If you know Pauley Shore, you know that going to be no easy task, but it is also going to be a hilarious endeavor. And the supporting cast of jurors are just as funny as they become ever more irritable as it seems like a verdict is never going to be reached, especially Richard Edson and Sean Whalen.

So why all the negative reviews? It is such a stupid story, so stupid that it is funny. And it is Pauley Shore, doing what Pauley Shore does best, acting like a total nut and having a blast doing it. For a load of laughs and a waste of some time, Jury Duty is not a bad choice.