THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 16, 1995 TAG: 9504180510
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E6 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Movie review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines
KILLING TIME may not be a felony, but in the case of ``Jury Duty'' it's murder.
To be perfectly fair, there are a few laughs, but precious few.
I will admit, and an embarrassing admission it is, that I have chuckled a few times at Pauly Shore. His seemingly ad-libbed irreverences can be quite funny, when they seem spontaneous and when they are cloaked in the naivete of a little boy who wants to strike back at his elders. If Pauly ever gets through puberty, he will have no career. This could be a problem, since he's at least in his mid-20s.
He had his funny moments in ``The Son-in-Law'' when he was the city dude who had to adjust to rural ways. But things got worse when he had his hair cut for ``In the Army Now.''
In rating Pauly Shore flicks, a dubious task at best, I'd rate ``Jury Duty'' ahead of ``In the Army Now'' but behind ``The Son-In-Law.''
In this one, there are a few references to the O.J. trial, but only a few. (Most of them are used on the TV ads to make potential moviegoers think this is an outright spoof of the trial). Pauly, again with the short hair and the lame wit, is sponging off Mom (Shelley Winters) until the meal ticket runs out. He's the kind of kid (acting 11) who refuses coffee because ``it might keep me up all day.'' When Shelley, looking like Shelley Winters should never look, runs off to Vegas for a honeymoon, her boy, whom she calls ``Puddin','') is left with no freebies.
He decides to accept jury duty (a hotel room, three meals a day, and $5 a day). There are some comic moments when he dreams up ways to avoid short-term cases. He gets what looks like a safe, long-term, gig - the trial of Carl Wayne Bishop (Sean Whalen) the so-called Drive-Thru Killer.
This is when the movie stops - still. For the rest of the dreadfully long running time, Pauly is asked to do nothing more than stall the trial. In the process, he also stalls the movie.
Scenes from ``12 Angry Men,'' a great film about the judicial system, flash in the background as Pauly is the hold-out juror who feels the accused serial killer is innocent. Tia Carrerre, formerly the main squeeze of those two guys in ``Wayne's World,'' is the gratuitous love interest - and really gratuitous. Abe Vigoda, looking understandably tired, is cast as the judge.
Pauly Shore fans, those who are left, might be better off renting ``Encino Man.'' The rest of the world would be better off renting ``12 Angry Men,'' or even ``Ernest Goes to Jail.''
Come to think of it, if you have some dusting to do, you have more interesting pastime than watching ``Jury Duty.'' ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
MOVIE REVIEW
``Jury Duty''
Cast: Pauly Shore, Tia Carrere, Stanley Tucci, Shelley Winters.
Director: John Fortenberry
Screenplay: Neil Tolkin, Barbara Williams, Samantha Adams
Music: David Kitay
MPAA rating: PG-13 (off-color, bathroom jokes)
Mal's rating: One star
Locations: Cinemark and Greenbrier in Chesapeake; Circle 4 and
Maingate in Norfolk; Pembroke and Surf-n-Sand in Virginia Beach.
by CNB