Just Cause is a film that relies on phony plot twists and steals openly from any other thriller that it can remember. If there was a drinking game requiring players to drink during every cinematic "homage", you'd be tanked after its first 45 minutes. Take one case of racial injustice, place it in an exotic, exquisitely photographed location (the Florida Everglades), and bring in an outsider, played by a bankable star, to save the day. Make sure nothing appears as it seems. Add a couple of plot twists, some over-the-top character actors (Ed Harris, shamelessly riffing on Hannibal Lecter), stir, and serve. The big name in this case is Sean Connery, who plays a Harvard law professor summoned to the swamps by an apparently innocent death row inmate (Blair Underwood), who swears he didn't rape and kill that 11-year-old girl. He says he confessed because maverick psycho-cop Tanny Brown (Laurence Fishburne) made him play a solo game of Russian roulette. He says his Serial-killer neighbour on death row (Harris) committed the crime. Connery buys it, the audience buys it, and how could they not? Director Arne Glimcher (who made the lacklustre Mambo Kings) coerces everyone with simplistic plot manipulations. Characters are given no depth, and the actors are pawns moved about like pieces on a Cluedo gameboard. -- Dave McCoy, Amazon.com
On the surface Jerry Stahl (Ben Stiller) seems to have it all. A successful career as a top Hollywood television scriptwriter earning $5 000 a week married to beautiful British television executive Sandra (Elizabeth Hurley) and a baby on the way. But behind the glossy facade lies a desperate junkie whose life is fast spiralling out of control. Having checked into a rehab clinic in the Arizona desert Jerry starts a torrid affair with Kitty (Maria Bello) a hardened but attractive recovering addict like himself and together they face the challenging journey towards recovery in search of a brighter future. Based on Jerry Stahl's gripping autobiography Permanent Midnight paints an alarming but fascinating portrait of drugs in Tinseltown in this powerful story of one man's struggle against addiction
Curt Taylor is a handsome con manstraight out of prison. He's paid his dues but not his debts. Underworld King Pin Phil Drexler wants back payment for protecting Taylor while he was inside. He makes Taylor an offer he can't refuse - and through a string of coincidences gets him a job as a secretary to the beautiful star Cartier Rand. But it's Iarceny Drexler's after and demands that Taylor steal the key to the security system of the star's mansion and plans a daring plot to heist her jewels. But the tables turn when the unlikely pair eventually fall in love and plan a heist themselves - to steal the jewels back....
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