Justa Causa

Although it borrows heavily from better and better-known films, Just Cause is quite entertaining. Several turns are predictable or hard to believe, but this film also shows some interesting character development with Sean Connery, who seems to be a little too old for this role, but was quite believable as the law teacher, who had to learn some lessons about reality and law as it is practised in reality. Laurence Fishburne and Ed Harris seem to enjoy their performances, which they deliver with much relish, and the atmosphere of the town and the Everglades are also captured nicely. But since the plot, especially the last third or so, is really contrived, and Kate Capshaw is so annoyingly bad and shallow in a key part that usually calls for a more sensitive performance, I can not really recommend this film wholeheartedly without having a guilty conscience. See it only if you have nothing else to watch.

"Just Cause" is one of those movies best seen after you turn off your brain. Now I am not saying it's a stupid or bad film....but it has such a convoluted and difficult to believe plot that it's best enjoyed without thinking through all the details. If you do think about them, you're bound to be disappointed.

The story is about a man on death row (Blair Underwood) whose mother (Roby Dee) is able to convince a Harvard Professor (Sean Connery) to leave academia in order to help him with his appeal. The professor is successful and evidence is uncovered that ends up with the man's release. However, there is MUCH more to the film than this....and the story goes in a completely different direction and leads to many surprises.

I think this is a film where some of the performances (particular Ed Harris) are better than the actual story. The story is just completely unbelievable....but again, if you can put this aside, the film is enjoyable.

By the way, if you care this film was made throughout Florida...Gainesville up north and the Ft. Myers/Miami areas in the south. As a Floridian, I found the local scenes pretty exciting.

Always enjoy the great acting of Laurence Fishburne,(Sheriff Tanny Brown) who becomes very upset when a professor visits his town to investigate a sort of Cold Case. This professor is a retired lawyer named Paul Armstrong, (Sean Connery) who has reason to believe that a man on death row is innocent of rape and murder of a very pretty little white girl. Sheriff Tanny does not appreciate Paul Armstrong coming to his town in Florida and starting to open up a can of worms as Tanny is very certain he has arrested the correct man and even has a confession to prove he did this evil deed. The guilt person is Blair Underwood,(Bobby Earl) who is very happy to see Paul Armstrong come to his defense and possibly clear his name and secure his freedom. There are many twists and turns to this story and plenty of action and very creepy areas in the swamps of Florida. This film will keep you glued to your screens if you have not seen this film before. Enjoy

This movie started out as an apparently good movie, but about halfway through it started to go to hell. The only mildly good thing about the latter half of the movie was Sean Connery, who pretty much shines through the entire movie. His acting was pretty good, and could have been a saving grace, had the movie not been so bad. The end was especially horrible, as it was a nearly total ripoff of Cape Fear(the new version, with Robert De Niro), in fact, several lines were taken directly from that same scene in the movie. The second-to worst thing is the 'twist' in the end, that was so obvious that I could just as well have been sitting there, waiting for it to happen. The worst thing is that the twist ruins everything that has happened up to that point, and makes the whole movie pointless since it directly opposes nearly everything that happened in the movie before that. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone other than huge fans of Sean Connery, or people who love to watch crime mysteries. Other than that, there is no reason to waste time on this movie. 6/10

The film is mediocre, but seeing Ed Harris' performance as a manipulative serial killer (I'm not giving anything away by telling you this) is worth the entire movie. Too often serial killers are played as geniuses--Jack in "The Profiler" or Kevin Spacey's character in "Seven"; Harris creates a malignant redneck monster that really will startle and chill you. No one goes from zero to sixty like Harris since George C. Scott left us; in this film he modulates his voice amazingly, sounding quietly venomous one moment and then thundering like a fire and brimstone Southern minister. In Connery's case, it's just bad casting: he plays an academic consulting lawyer (a la Dershowitz {sp?}) who combats Fishburne's menacing but canny Southern cop. Connery's other roles and the notion of him they have created in us make it impossible for him to play the effete lawyer that the script seems to call for.