Jury Duty

There is a scene early on in "Jury Duty" when Pauly Shore stands on a bus and imitates a town tour guide. It is obvious that this scene was written to showcase Pauly Shore's comedic talents, however, he makes noises and is loud and generally obnoxious and unfunny.

"Jury Duty" is the point where Pauly Shore officially abused his stay in movies. After this movie, he would forever be sanctioned to the lunch table in the corner with the smelly kid, Carrot Top and the Noid from the Dominoes commercials. But not until he showed the world his versatility in Bio-Dome.

Jury Duty is bad. Not bad like "In the Army Now," but close. There is little originality to the script, no amusing characters and about four funny lines. I did enjoy the scene where the witnesses from restaurants give testimonies in their respective fast food uniforms. There isn't much else here. It just isn't funny.

Shore also lacks the wit his idiotic leading men contemporaries like Adam Sandler and Chris Farley showed in the 90s. These were all, more or less, bad versions of Steve Martin's wonderful "Jerk" character. All Shore shows in this movie is that he has the talent to bug you.

Of course, not all the blame can be put on his shoulders. He has no script to work with. Nothing. I don't know why Stanley Tucci thought this movie would be good for him and or how the studio blackmailed him into being in it.

I remembered both "Encino Man" and "Son in Law" were kind of funny in a stupid way. "Jury Duty " on the other hand is stupid in a very unfunny way.

I first saw this movie when I was in grade school, so naturally I wasn't too critical. It's a silly comedy and I got a few laughs at the time. I also didn't see what people hated about Pauly Shore. When you're 11 years old, you don't find a dude like that obnoxious. Now...he pretty much annoys the crap out of me.

I'm not jumping onto the bandwagon of Pauly Shore-haters. As a matter of fact, I recall very few comic actors who hardly retain an ounce of merit. The thing that's jarring about Shore is he tries hard to hammer a laugh out of his audience, but he does it in such a dull, low-key manner. If you're gonna be obnoxious, flaunt your obnoxiousness. Obnoxious can be funny. Just look at Vince Vaughn's portrayal of Trent in "Swingers." Shore is like that class clown who tries hard to annoy everyone in sight, yet at the same time tries hard to be liked. If Shore had charm, that might be possible. A guard dog has more charm than him.

The cast is pretty much second-rate. Tia Carrerre would grab any script that's hurled in her direction, and so would Abe Vigoda. Sure, Vigoda was popular in his hayday, but that's the whole point. He was popular IN HIS HAYDAY. Andrew Dice Clay has an amusing cameo, though. And what in the world was Stanley Tucci doing in this film??!!! Yes, THE Stanley Tucci. The Stanley Tucci from "Sidewalks of New York" and "Big Night." And here he is, playing a fanatical environmentalist. I can betcha 100 bucks this film is now crossed off his resume.

Unless you're a die-hard Pauly Shore fan, this film is as boring as sitting in a jury for 4 straight hours--and the movie's only 90 minutes long! The only hints of wit are occasional references to "12 Angry Men."

My score: 3 (out of 10)

Typical Pauly Shore fare that has him stalling the verdict on a murder trial so he can stay in a plush hotel longer. Naturally he has cut a deal to be in the President's suite of a different inn than the other jurors. Anyway as time progresses, it appears that Shore might be on to something when he tries to convince the others that the case is not as cut-and-dried as it appears. Some outstanding performers (most notably Shelley Winters, Charles Napier, Tia Carrere and Stanley Tucci) somehow found their way on this downer. 2 stars out of 5.

Jury Duty (1995)

BOMB (out of 4)

Pauly Shore plays Tommy Collins, a spoiled brat of a human who can't keep a job down. He lives with his mom (Shelley Winters) and thinks he's gotten the "job" of a lifetime when he's offered jury duty, which will provide him free room and bored as well as some fun.

When you look back at the 1990's it seems that there were several comedies making some really awful movies. To most people Shore was the most boring and obnoxious of the group of comedies but I honestly enjoyed his act. I loved him in ENCINO MAN as well as SON IN LAW, which allowed him to have the lead spot but after that things started to go rather bad and JURY DUTY is the prime example.

I don't know the production history of this movie but at the time the O.J. Simpson case was in the headlines and there's even a joke about it in the film. I'm going to guess that this movie was put into production to try and cash-in on that craze but this is without question one of the worst comedies of the decade.

It honestly seems like the screenplay was never finished and they just let Shore loose in a courtroom to be his obnoxious self. Again, I think Shore is funny but it's clear that he has nothing to work with here and you get non-stop annoying jokes that make you want to turn the movie off. It's just not funny and the film just grows more and more aggrevating as it moves along. It's really too bad that more wasn't done with it and especially since there is a nice supporting cast.

Maybe there is something wrong with me, but I have always found Pauly Shore to be a mildly funny guy. Apparently I'm one of the few people in the world who thinks so since he no longer has a film career. There was, however, a time in 1990s where Pauly Shore did have a film career and a moderately successful one that. A year before the awful BIO-DOME ended his film career, there was JURY DUTY, possibly the only comedy from the 1990s that is hated as much as BIO-DOME. Currently, JURY DUTY holds a 3.5 user rating here on IMDb, which is undeserved in my opinion. I'm willing to bet half the people that voted a 1 for this movie have never even seen it. They simply voted it a 1 because they are one of the millions of Pauly Shore haters in the world. As I said before, I find him to be somewhat funny, which is probably why I enjoy the film to a certain extent. It's pretty funny for what it is. I enjoy the premise and the energy of the film. It's not a great comedy by any means, but it has some good laughs and Pauly Shore is likable in the lead role. Besides, any movie with Tia Carrere is okay in my book. It's not Pauly Shore's best work, though its passable fun entertainment. Highlights included the opening scene at the strip club and the "penis, penis, penis" scene. My rating: 5/10