StunnaKrypto Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

MamaGravity good back-story, and good acting

Hattie I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

morrison-dylan-fan After hearing about this Neo-Noir for a number of years,I was pleased to get hold of a rare UK Pre-Cert Video of the title.Once the Video arrived,I decided to search around for info about the movie,and I was disappointed to discover that 5 minutes had been cut from the UK release of the film.With recently having picked up auteur film maker Larry Cohen's gritty Blaxploitation flick Black Caesar,I decided to search around for more title which he has been involved in.Along with discovering that Cohen had written the screenplay,I was thrilled to discover that Fox Archives has recently put out an uncut version of the film,which led to me getting ready to finally judge the film.The plot:Working for years with fellow cop Jack Williams,Mike Hammer is horrified to find that Williams has been brutally killed.Wanting to go after Williams killer,Hammer is surprised to find his fellow officers giving him "warnings" about looking into things that are best left hidden. Delving into Williams personal life,Hammer discovers that he and his wife went to an upmarket "sex clinic." Visiting the clinic,Hammer confronts sex therapist Dr. Charlotte Bennett and her "assistants",who he discovers have been recording all of their discussions/sessions with clients.As Hammer pushes the police aside to fully uncover the strange sexual world that may have led to Williams death,a killer,(backed by people who want to keep Williams private life private)declares himself the judge,jury & executioner for Bennett's assistants and Mike Hammer. View on the film:Before I get to the film,I have to mention that Fox Archives has delivered a terrific improvement on the rusty UK Video print of the movie,with the widescreen picture being sharp and catching every dirty street corner of the title,and the clear audio allowing the viewer to hear Bill Conti's synch-Jazz score shake with every gunshot. Originally hired to direct until he got sacked due to going $100,000 over budget in the first week of filming,the screenplay by Larry Cohen places this adaptation of Mickey Spillane at the cross roads between the sun-set Neo-Noir and the steamy Erotic Thriller.Sending Hammer off to follow in the footsteps of his former partner,Cohen hammers Hammer into a decaying Neo-Noir world which is kept hidden by an alluring shell,which contains sex therapists secretly recording their clients deepest desires,and cops trying to put all their dirty money links onto a serial killer.Made before the sub- genre would hit the mainstream,Cohen ties the Neo-Noir with a wonderfully deranged Erotic Thriller edge,as a sadistic killer with "mummy issues" makes his victims look like mannequins,whilst Hammer uncovers the "sex therapy" to be a fashion house-style mansion,packed with alluring,but deadly femme fatales.Rushed into the movie after Cohen was given the boot,director Richard T. Heffron & cinematographer Andrew Laszlo (who also worked on the first Rambo movie in the same year) give the film a stylish,rough and tumble Neo-Noir appearance.Filmed on location,Heffron and Laszlo,scan the burnt-out streets with excellent whip-pans and tracking shots which inject the title with a menacing atmosphere,as Hammer and the mysterious killer close in on each other.Picking up on the genre-crossing mood of Cohen's screenplay,Heffron brilliantly mixes Hammer's gritty Neo-Noir beat with ravishing naked girls and a psycho sexual killer.Before closing the case on a brittle Noir note,Heffron slams Hammer into '80s Action,thanks to Hammer having to take control of the law by taking on the gangs of dirty cops,which leads to the dark underbelly of the city being ripped across the screen,as Mike Hammer declares himself the jury.

videorama-759-859391 I The Jury is an exciting action flick from 82, I first saw two years later and I must say me and my friend, saddled up in front of the t.v were engrossed, and underage to watch this sort of thing, but who's counting. Again, I re-iterate, this is an exciting psychological action thriller, and our psycho really here is nuts. Armand Assante is tailor made for our great fictional detective, Mike Hammer. He's everything he should be. I loved the fact Assante was in this. They don't make films like this anymore. The 80's had the best decade of movies, and this one's a prime example, and is quite on the blood and guts side too. Investigating the murder of a close buddy who served with him in Nam, Hammer stumbles upon a conspiracy trying to plughole his efforts, people going at great lengths to stop him, and make sure that people he talks to are people who'll be having their last conversation. I gotta admit, this film has style and the beautiful Carrera. She runs a sex retreat, where lovers can participate in, sexual experiments, orgies, a no holds barred, practice, what have you. The scene with those two naked twins, the psycho, a younger better looking version of Richard Lynch, doing them, is intense, and as I can remember, provided heavy viewing on my first watch back in 84 that I got away, renting this R movie, as I did a few others. There's action aplenty in this tasty, flick that has sex, beautiful nudity, some sick violence, and Assante. The thrilling action climax is great, plus another little after climax, which has Assante properly avenging his friend's death. Too, a great scene has Assante giving a new meaning to catching a cab, when he traps a goon, his coat, half in and half out, before he's dragged behind, over the coarse bitumen. A must see flick, you must see.

Robert J. Maxwell At the end of the novel, Mike Hammer's tough-as-nails private investigator enfolds a beautiful woman in his arms. They kiss. He shoots her in the belly. She backs away, astonished, and before she collapses she asks, "How could you?" "It was easy," replies Mike. These were the single most celebrated lines in pulp literature in 1953.The plot is torturous. Mike's old friend is murdered and this provides Mike with the revenge motive that propels him through the rest of the story, which has some sort of sex institute operating as a brainwashing tool of the CIA for the purpose of creating sex fiends who murder the agency's enemies and make it look like the work of a sex fiend which, in a way, it is. I told you it was complicated.But it deserves a few observations. One is that Barbara Carerra, an aristocratic looking ex-model and ex Miss South American Continent, looks perfectly beautiful, especially when completely and unashamedly nude. Shooting her was a mortal sin and Mike Hammer's soul should roast in hell. It doesn't matter that she was a treacherous, murdering, domineering nymphomaniac. Some men might enjoy just those properties in a woman. De gustibus non disputandum est.Another is that Mike Hammer, incarnated here by Armand Assante, is the luckiest man alive. Everybody who shoots at him misses. And, man, do they shoot at him -- with M-16s and Uzis and other weapons. They try to electrocute him. They blow him up with mines. Yet he always escapes. And when he has an opportunity to shoot BACK you can bet HE never misses.The police can't be trusted. Only Mike's secretary, Velda, she of the long and lustrous blond tresses can be trusted. She's played by Laurene Landon, who is a paragon of beauty but who can't act, not that it matters.Many of the action scenes, and they are here in abundance, are in the slow motion that was fashionable at the time. They entered their decadent period years ago. I blame Sam Pekinpah for their persistence.Armand Assante is the best performer in the film, even if the film itself is tripe. Second Best award goes to Judson Earney Scott, a magnetic actor, as the sex-driven, twisted madman. You can't take your eyes off the guy. He resembles Peter Greene, another very convincing villain.

duke1907 This actually a combination of two Spillane books "I the Jury" and "The Body Lovers" This is not a great film, but good. The action and plot are pretty good and Assante gives a decent performance, but the thing that I remember the most is just how damn sexy Barbara Carrera is in this movie. I watched this movie with my mom on cinemax one night when I was in junior high school and I had to sit with a pillow on my lap. She blows away Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct. She's very tempting at the end when she confronts Mike Hammer and he's got to make a life and death decision. This movie belongs to her. She has been good in other movies, but this is her best performance. It's worth watching for any fan of Barbara Carrera and sleazy action movies