''Jury Duty'' is a 1995 American

courtroom A courtroom is the enclosed space in which courts of law are held in front of a judge. A number of courtrooms, which may also be known as "courts", may be housed in a courthouse. In recent years, courtrooms have been equipped with audiovisual ...

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the old ...

directed by

John Fortenberry John Fortenberry is an American film and television director.
Neil Tolkin, Barbara Williams, and Adam Small (credited as Samantha Adams), and starring

Pauly Shore Paul Montgomery Shore (born February 1, 1968) is an American actor, comedian and filmmaker best known for his roles in 1990s comedy films. Shore began as a stand-up comedian at the age of 17, before becoming an MTV VJ in 1989. This led to a st ...

Tia Carrere Althea Rae Duhinio Janairo (born January 2, 1967), known professionally as Tia Carrere (), is an American actress, singer and former model who got her first big break as a regular on the daytime soap opera ''General Hospital''. Carrere played Ca ...

Stanley Tucci Stanley Tucci Jr. ( ; born November 11, 1960) is an American actor and filmmaker. Involved in acting from a young age, he made his film debut in John Huston's '' Prizzi's Honor'' (1985), and continued to play a variety of supporting roles in fi ...

, Brian Doyle-Murray,

Shelley Winters Shelley Winters (born Shirley Schrift; August 18, 1920 – January 14, 2006) was an American actress whose career spanned seven decades. She appeared in numerous films. She won Academy Awards for '' The Diary of Anne Frank'' (1959) and ''A Patch ...

, and Abe Vigoda. The film was actress Billie Bird's last screen appearance. Reviews were negative, and the film was a box office bomb.

Plot

Tommy Collins is an unemployed erotic dancer living at his mother's home in a

trailer park A trailer park,caravan park, mobile home park, mobile home community or manufactured home community is a temporary or permanent area for mobile homes and travel trailers. Advantages include low cost compared to other housing, and quick and e ...

while he looks for a decent job. He finds out that his mother, and her boyfriend Jed, a

polystyrene Polystyrene (PS) is a synthetic polymer made from monomers of the aromatic hydrocarbon styrene. Polystyrene can be solid or foamed. General-purpose polystyrene is clear, hard, and brittle. It is an inexpensive resin per unit weight. It is ...

collector, are going to

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vega ...

to be married and taking the mobile home with them. Although his mother had arranged for Tommy to stay with the Woodalls, he considers them awful people and decides to look for other living arrangements for him and his chihuahua Peanut (who loves the game show ''

Jeopardy! ''Jeopardy!'' is an American game show created by Merv Griffin. The show is a quiz competition that reverses the traditional question-and-answer format of many quiz shows. Rather than being given questions, contestants are instead given genera ...

''). He rummages through the trash and finds his letter for

jury duty Jury duty or jury service is service as a juror in a legal proceeding. Juror selection process The prosecutor and defense can dismiss potential jurors for various reasons, which can vary from one state to another, and they can have a specific ...

that he had thrown away and decides to enter. Each of the jurors get their own free accommodation plus $5 a day. After several cases he gets chosen to be a juror for a murder case involving a man named Carl Wayne Bishop, a fast-food employee who had been fired and is now accused of murdering several other fast-food employees. The evidence against him gets stronger when several employees appear as witnesses saying that he threatened to kill them. All the jurors are staying at the Holiday Suite in the section that is being remodeled. Tommy seems to be enjoying himself, until he finds he is sharing his room with his former high school principal, who puts motivational tapes on at night to full blast. He makes a deal with the manager of the hotel who says that he will get a different room if he advertises their business during news broadcasts. Tommy agrees and ends up staying in a luxurious suite. Finally, the jurors go to the jury room for deliberation and appoint Tommy as their foreman. The other jurors immediately think that Bishop is guilty and want to vote straight away. Not wanting to lose his suite and luxurious lifestyle, Tommy votes not guilty and stalls and prolongs the deliberations as well as continuously going over the evidence. After many delays, the other jurors become increasingly angry with Tommy, especially Monica, whom Tommy had fallen in love with, and threaten to throw him out of the jury unless he finds a better way to prove Bishop's innocence. After reading up on the law and further investigating, both of which are activities prohibited under standard instructions to jurors, Tommy finds some evidence after seeing a picture of Carl Wayne Bishop on the window of a store, finally convincing the jurors that Bishop is not guilty; they celebrate. Unfortunately, later on, Monica finds Peanut and follows him up to Tommy's luxury suite, with security guard Murphy following her. Even though Tommy tries to explain that he is now a changed person, she is deeply upset with how he used them and walks out in tears. Later, the Judge declares a

mistrial In law, a trial is a coming together of parties to a dispute, to present information (in the form of evidence) in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to adjudicate claims or disputes. One form of tribunal is a court. The tribun ...

and arranges another hearing at a later date. Back at the trailer park, Tommy goes mining for polystyrene with Jed at the city dump. After seeing many polystyrene containers with fast food logos on them, Tommy realizes that the murderer was an

environmentalist An environmentalist is a person who is concerned with and/or advocates for the protection of the environment. An environmentalist can be considered a supporter of the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that se ...

. He calls Monica, who immediately hangs up on him, but he goes looking for Frank, another fellow juror, who was also obsessed with the environment. Later that night, someone meets another man named Frank who thanks him for volunteering to do jury duty on his behalf while he was on vacation, only to be killed with a stun gun. The killer is revealed to be Frank, the man Tommy was seeking. Tommy arrives at the same house and relays his new evidence to Frank, asking him to help find Monica at the library she works at in order to convince her that his evidence is genuine. When they arrive at the library, Frank reveals to Tommy and Monica that he was the killer. He ties them up and attempts to stab them with a sharp jagged knife. He tells them that he committed the terrible murders and framed Carl Wayne Bishop because he thought there was no truth and justice in the world. With Peanut's help, however, they manage to subdue Frank and knock him unconscious. Tommy is given a check for his contribution to the case, and Monica starts dating Tommy. He uses his earnings from erotic dancing towards law school and eventually becomes an attorney. Meanwhile, Peanut is shown accomplishing his lifelong dream of becoming a contestant on ''Jeopardy!''.

Cast

as Thomas B. "Tommy" Collins *Gizmo as Peanut *

as Monica Lewis *

as Frank/Billy * Brian Doyle-Murray as Harry * Abe Vigoda as Judge Edward J. Powell * Charles Napier as Jed *

Sean Whalen Sean Whalen (born May 19, 1964) is an American actor and writer. He is known for his work in numerous TV shows, including ''Shannon's Deal'' and '' Grace Under Fire'', as well as movies, including ''The People Under the Stairs'' and ''Twister''. ...

as Carl Wayne Bishop *

Richard Edson Richard Edson (born January 1, 1954) is an American actor and musician. Personal life Edson was born in New Rochelle, New York to a Jewish family. He has one brother, Steven, who resides in the Boston area, and two sisters, Andrea, who resides ...

as Skeets *

Richard Riehle Richard Riehle (born May 12, 1948) is an American character actor. He portrayed Walt Finnerty on ''Grounded for Life'' (2001–2005) and The Warden on ''The Young and the Restless'' (2007). He also appeared in over 200 films, including '' Glory'' ...

as Principal Beasley * Alex Datcher as Sarah * Richard T. Jones as Nathan * Jack McGee as Murphy, the security guard *Sharon Barr as Libby Starling *

Nick Bakay Nicholas Bakay (; born October 8, 1959) is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer and sports commentator. He is known as the voice of Salem Saberhagen on ABC/The WB's ''Sabrina the Teenage Witch'', '' Sabrina: The Animated Series'', and No ...

as Richard Hurtz *Ernie Lee Banks as Ray *

as Mrs. Collins ("Mom") *

Dick Vitale Richard John Vitale (; born June 9, 1939), also known as "Dickie V", is an American basketball sportscaster. A former head coach in the college and professional ranks, he is well known for his 41-year tenure as a college basketball broadcaster f ...

as Hal Gibson * Billie Bird as Rose * William Newman as Judge D'Angelo *Jorge Luis Abreu as Jorge * Siobhan Fallon as Heather *Gregory Cooke as Reece Fishburne *Mark L. Taylor as Russell Cadbury *

Rick Ducommun Richard Ducommun (July 3, 1952 – June 12, 2015) was a Canadian stand-up comedian, actor, writer and producer. Career One of his earliest television appearances was on ''Star Search'' and as a technician accosted by a scantily-clad dancer near t ...

as The Real Frank (uncredited)

Production

The film is loosely based on the

teleplay A teleplay is a screenplay or script used in the production of a scripted television program or series. In general usage, the term is most commonly seen in reference to a standalone production, such as a television film, a television play, or a ...

'' Twelve Angry Men,'' which itself was adapted into film in 1957 starring

Henry Fonda Henry Jaynes Fonda (May 16, 1905 – August 12, 1982) was an American actor. He had a career that spanned five decades on Broadway theatre, Broadway and in Hollywood. He cultivated an everyman screen image in several films considered to be class ...

Critical reception

At review aggregation site

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, the film received an approval rating of 0%, based on 12 reviews with an average score of 2.4/10, as of July 26, 2014. Critic

Leonard Maltin Leonard Michael Maltin (born December 18, 1950) is an American film critic and film historian, as well as an author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives. He is perhaps best known for his book of f ...

gave it a "BOMB" rating in his book '' Movie and Video Guide'', but suggested even that rating "may be too high". Critic

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

said, on '' At the Movies'', that Pauly Shore was the "cinematic equivalent of long fingernails, drawn very slowly and quite loudly over a gigantic blackboard" and noted that although his co-host,

Gene Siskel Eugene Kal Siskel (January 26, 1946 – February 20, 1999) was an American film critic and journalist for the ''Chicago Tribune''. Along with colleague Roger Ebert, he hosted a series of movie review programs on television from 1975 until his d ...

, disliked

Chris Farley Christopher Crosby Farley (February 15, 1964 – December 18, 1997) was an American actor and comedian. Farley was known for his loud, energetic comedic style, and was a member of Chicago's Second City Theatre and later a cast member of th ...

, he would "rather attend a dusk-to-dawn Chris Farley film festival than sit through any 5 minutes of ''Jury Duty''". Siskel agreed, referring to Shore as "aggravating". Ebert estimated that Shore's "appeal must be limited to people whose self-esteem and social skills are so damaged that they find humor, or at least relief, in at last encountering a movie character less successful than themselves". Pauly Shore "won" a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actor. The film itself was nominated for Most Painfully Unfunny Comedy at the 1995 Stinkers Bad Movie Awards but lost to '' Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls''.

References

External links

* * * * {{Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actor 1995 films 1995 comedy films American comedy films American courtroom films American legal films Juries in fiction Films directed by John Fortenberry Films scored by David Kitay TriStar Pictures films Triumph Films films 1995 directorial debut films Golden Raspberry Award winning films 1990s English-language films 1990s American films