Jury Duty

I think that Jury Duty was stupid but very funny. Pauly Shore is funny because he exists. There's room for anyone in comedy and he proves this point. I'm not sure if this movie damages brain cells, but I watched this movie alone and laughed my ass off. A little tasteless at times. I wonder if Pauly Shore wrote any of it. Andrew Dice Clay made an appearence, I think he's a good actor, very funny. Tia Carrere is a good actress also. It's a true comedy if you think about it, stupid, funny, there's only one part of the film that I didn't find funny. I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that Pauly Shore's mother runs the comedy circuit, so that's pretty funny in itself. Did he get on the big screen just by talent. You be the judge:)

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.

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

Maybe there is something wrong with me, but I have always found Pauly Shore to be a mildly funny guy. Apparently I'm one of the few people in the world who thinks so since he no longer has a film career. There was, however, a time in 1990s where Pauly Shore did have a film career and a moderately successful one that. A year before the awful BIO-DOME ended his film career, there was JURY DUTY, possibly the only comedy from the 1990s that is hated as much as BIO-DOME. Currently, JURY DUTY holds a 3.5 user rating here on IMDb, which is undeserved in my opinion. I'm willing to bet half the people that voted a 1 for this movie have never even seen it. They simply voted it a 1 because they are one of the millions of Pauly Shore haters in the world. As I said before, I find him to be somewhat funny, which is probably why I enjoy the film to a certain extent. It's pretty funny for what it is. I enjoy the premise and the energy of the film. It's not a great comedy by any means, but it has some good laughs and Pauly Shore is likable in the lead role. Besides, any movie with Tia Carrere is okay in my book. It's not Pauly Shore's best work, though its passable fun entertainment. Highlights included the opening scene at the strip club and the "penis, penis, penis" scene. My rating: 5/10