We saw an advance screening* tonight of Runaway Jury the latest film adaptation of a John Grisham novel. I'm gonna jump right in here and tell you that I'm about to gush about this movie. It was absolutely riveting. Even at 127 minutes it never lost my attention.

My main impetus for seeing this film was the fact that John Cusack is in it. Cusack is the goodness. Remember that. High Fidelity, Being John Malkovich, Grosse Point Blank, The Grifters, Say Anything, Stand By Me and, yes, Identity. The Cusack is the goodness. On top of that there's the pitting of Gene Hackman against Dustin Hoffman. Gotta be good. Right? Damn straight. The performances by all three of these heavy-hitting leading men and their admirable co-star Rachel Weisz (the mom from the Mummy movies, yo) are all top notch and, by god, Hackman out to get an Oscar nod out of this. Oh! And it has Spence**... errr... I mean Jermy Piven in a well-played secondary role.

I can't really report on the audio or cinematography as I was enraptured by the story and characters. Of course, this is a compliment to the cinematographer, composer and audio personnel. I'm certain the music played a part in my enjoyment, but it didn't draw attention away from the film. Same with the photography.

So... go see it. It's a damned good film. I'd give it 4 out of 5 monkeys***.

* - Rememeber... we're in Australia where movies often hit the theatres about the time they come out on DVD in the states. I shouldn't complain here, though, since this screening is only a week or two behind the US.
** - You know, Ellen's cousin Spence on "Ellen".
*** - Stars are so over-done. Besides, everything's better with monkeys.