The Pelican Brief (1993)

[lester1/2jr]

This is a clear case of a movie that benefits from a longer (2 1/2 hours) running time. It takes it from being a run of the mill conspiracy yarn to something more. It's not as good as, say, "the Gift" , but it's better than alot of these things. The popularity of political thillers is such that they have become alot more authentic and realistic and if this were made now it would probably look and feel alot different (in no small part because of the advent of EMAIL and THE INTERNET but not only because of this), but it is still good. Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington look great. What can you say about them? They are huge stars in their prime here.

Two supreme court justices are killed. Bright law student Darby Shaw (Julia Roberts) comes up with a theory as to who did it and why. Intriqued, her professor (and boyfriend) (not Denzel Washington) forwards it to some people at the FBI. Unfortunately for her and him, the theory is on target and they are on the run for the rest of the movie.

If this movie were remade today it would be about 30 seconds long: Darby would finish typing her theory out and post it online and that would be that.

Julia Roberts kind of over does the waifyness of the character but she still does a good job. Denzel is curiously laid back considering he is dodging asassins bullets and so forth. It sounds like this thing is so outdated it's not worth watcing but that's not the case. It's a good way to kill an evening and the complex plot doesn't get to confusing or plot holey.

4/5 you had probably seen this already but I hadn't.

[Flick James]

It was a decent film, I thought. You know, there was a time when Julia Roberts did try to do films other than sappy romantic comedies, like Sleeping With the Enemy, Erin Brokovich, or the aforementioned The Pelican Brief. Nowadays all you seem to get out of her is Eat Pray Love.

[lester1/2jr]

Closer was pretty ballsy

[ChocolateChipCharlie]

This is another of those movies I have a tendency to watch whenever I'm flipping channels and see that it's on.  Not sure why.

[nilbog]

Good movie. I watched it a few months after having read the book - I felt that it did the book justice.

[Neville]

Boy, I hate this film so much... the action scenes are laughable (specially the foot chase in the subterranian parking lot), and the rest is plain boring. Also, couldn't relate either to Roberts or Washington's characters, they move around like robots.

I may change my mind if I ever watch it again, because I do like political thrillers, but I son't think I'm doing it anytime soon. And as much as Grisham-bashing was on at the time of its release, I'd say the blame here relies on Alan Pakula. I've seen many of his movies, and they all have this boring quality that permeates through them. Only in "The Parallax view" that doesn't happen, and that's why is his best film.