Where to watch Jury Duty
3 Stars
When jobless Tommy Collins discovers that sequestered jurors earn free room and board as well as $5-a-day, he gets himself assigned to a jury in a murder trial. Once there, he does everything he can to prolong the trial and deliberations and make the sequestration more comfortable for himself.
When Jury Duty appeared in cinemas in March 1995, critics were unkind, as the film received the lowest marks, up to that point, for a Pauly Shore comedy. The movie is generally overlooked when people discuss the actor’s career, and that is unfortunate because it is arguably the best constructed, narratively, since Son-In-Law. That may be faint praise, but Jury Duty has a three-act structure with set-ups and pay-offs, competent supporting players, and some genuinely funny bits from the ever-silly Pauly Shore.
Highly esteemed thespians Stanley Tucci and Abe Vigoda share the screen with Tia Carrere and Shore, which had to have been a contractual obligation for some cinematic sin. Despite his begrudging presence, it is Tucci who delivers a real performance with a character who goes through as much ‘change’ during the course of the story as our film’s protagonist. John Fortenberry, despite having a long list of directing credits on TV shows, has helmed only two theatrically released feature films: Jury Duty and A Night at the Roxbury, both overlooked and undervalued escapist comedies from the late 1990s that rival today’s sanitized, laughless movies that advertise themselves as comedies. Jury Duty is a silly, good-natured time waster with the ‘Weasel’ and a crew of likable character actors.
Directed by: John Fortenberry
Written by: Barbara Williams, Samantha Adams, Neil Tolkin
Starring: Pauly Shore, Tia Carrere, Stanley Tucci