Just watched this movie again... - The Client (1994) Discussion

[–] anroab 8 years ago

Yes, I have it in DVD and I love it. Great acting and all.

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[–] shadaif 8 years ago

Most (not all, but most) of the Grisham books transfer well to the screen. You can watch them again and again and notice new things. The all-star casts add to the appeal of these films as well.

"The end of the shoelace is called the...IT DOESN'T MATTER!"

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[–] tomatosauce6808 8 years ago

The rainmaker sucks and I haven't seen the chamber. I love the client, the firm, a time to kill, and the runaway jury. Been far too long since I saw the pelican brief though.

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[–] db20db (16147) 5 years ago

Just rewatched it. A favorite, darkly humorous scene and ensuing dialogue was when Mark tells Reggie, " I just locked a Mob guy who was trying to kill me in the morgue..." with an attitude of mischievous glee and triumph one would expect from a streetwise 11 year old. Even the killer, Barry the Blade, had a wicked grin on his face the next day when hearing of that outcome. Great, entertaining legal thriller !

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[–] PrimeMinisterX (8289) 5 years ago

I guess I'll mention that I also joined the "just watched it again" club.

It's been so long since I last saw it that I remembered almost nothing about it. But upon review, I can say that it's a pretty good movie! The cast is great and the story is interesting, if perhaps overly pulpy at times.

While this was the breakout role for Brad Renfro (RIP)--it's crazy that he landed this leading role with no other acting credits--it's really Susan Sarandon who makes this movie for me. She's excellent and she plays the character of Reggie with such authenticity and heart.

I wouldn't say this is the BEST of the Grisham adaptations, with my personal favorite being The Rainmaker, but it's certainly a good one and much better than some of the lesser films that were based on his books, like Runaway Jury.

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[–] db20db (16147) 5 years ago

I agree with your assessment of Susan Sarandon in the movie. She was excellent.

The Rainmaker is also a favorite of mine; just rewatched it recently for the umpteenth time. A favorite line of dialogue from that one : "One little woman from Memphis bankrupted them sons a' bitches."

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[–] PrimeMinisterX (8289) 5 years ago

Ha ha. That's a pretty good line.

Glad to hear you also enjoyed The Rainmaker. Look at the last comment from that tomatosauce guy right above yours: "The rainmaker sucks and I haven't seen the chamber. I love the client, the firm, a time to kill, and the runaway jury."

I can't disagree with that more. The Rainmaker is great, while Runaway Jury was very underwhelming.

Speaking of Memphis, I always liked how Grisham would set a lot of his stories in that town. It always made for an interesting locale for the films and no one else was setting movies there.

Did you ever notice that the Grisham adaptations just completely dried up? These movies were hot shit in the 90s and there were several of them but in the early 00s they just stopped coming. Grisham has continued to write books but the last book to be made into a film was Runaway Jury in 2003. It's as if Hollywood just suddenly said, "Fuck it, we're getting out of the John Grisham business." I wonder why that was exactly.

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[–] StinkyPoopyPants (2680) 5 years ago

I noticed that as well. But that seems to be how it works with Hollywood. They will follow some fad and then it ends and onto a new one. I have not seen Rainmaker or Runaway Jury yet but loved the others. I would love to see a movie version of The Testament. I love that novel!

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[–] PrimeMinisterX (8289) 5 years ago

You really should check out The Rainmaker. It's a fun film with a relatively young Matt Damon and Claire Danes. Definitely recommended.

Regarding Hollywood, yeah, it's like they just suddenly got bored with him or something. I haven't taken the time to look, but I have to assume that the later films weren't doing the same box office numbers that the earlier ones did. Because if Grisham was still a cash cow I just can't imagine the studios would lose interest in cashing the checks.

I know he has continued to publish novels every year all the way up to the present. Surely some of the better ones would make for good films?

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[–] StinkyPoopyPants (2680) 5 years ago

I'll watch it. I think it's on one of the movie channels right now.

I'm not sure why they wouldn't keep making his books into films either. They have plenty of material to choose from. I'd rather see more John Grisham novels on the big screen than Nicholas Sparks crap.

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[–] PrimeMinisterX (8289) 5 years ago

Check out The Rainmaker and let me know what you think of it.

I talked to a buddy of mine and he said that Grisham's novels started to decline in quality, enough so that he just quit reading them even though he had been an avid reader for years. So I guess a decline in story quality combined with a drop in box office returns resulted in a lack of interest from Hollywood studios. Maybe one day we'll see a new wave of stories from him hit the screen though. I hope so.

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[–] StinkyPoopyPants (2680) 5 years ago

I will do that!

I can understand that. I would imagine it would be hard to come up with new material all the time as a writer but I don't know. He's talented for sure but he does follow a formula so I can understand why people might start losing interest. That happened with me and Stephen King.

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[–] db20db (16147) 5 years ago

Actually, I enjoyed all of those movies and I was never aware he also wrote A Time to Kill and The Pelican Brief. The Chamber was another recent rewatch and I thought Gene Hackman was excellent in that one.

Yes, your observation about Grisham is both puzzling and disappointing. The guy sure has a talent for crafting great legal thrillers.

Come to think of it, I seem to remember a thread on the GD board awhile back addressing that very thing, a marked decline of films in that genre so maybe that pattern is not just about Grisham.

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[–] PrimeMinisterX (8289) 5 years ago

You're the first person I've ever seen praise The Chamber. Everyone else I've talked to about it says it sucks and it only has a 12% on RT, so I have avoided it. I should probably give it a chance just so I can say I've seen all the Grisham films.

I actually was the poster who made the thread about the decline of the legal thriller genre. As someone who has always enjoyed such films, I really think it's a shame that the industry seems to have entirely turned its back these kinds of films. I don't understand why. Is it just because they are so enamored with big tentpole blockbusters that they don't have confidence a good legal thriller would sell anymore?

The last such film that I am aware of to be release theatrically was The Lincoln Lawyer in 2011. Here's The Numbers' info on that movie:

https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Lincoln-Lawyer-The#tab=summary

That's $107 million from combined theatrical box office and home video sales. Add to that whatever the film made from rentals and TV rights and, with a $40 million budget, that sounds like a pretty good return.

Here's Grisham's full list of novels:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Grisham#Bibliography

That's a lot of material to mine for new movies.

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[–] db20db (16147) 5 years ago

I just did a search on him to discover his most recent material. Can you spot the ironic comment I did in this interview? https://www.pbs.org/video/why-the-reckoning-is-a-first-for-john-grisham-1546386182/

Addendum: Actually, I praised Hackman's performance not the movie, The Chamber. I think its rating is close to accurate, not terrible but watchable.

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[–] PrimeMinisterX (8289) 5 years ago

Interesting interview.

The line that stood out to me was the one about his wife telling him to "stop preaching and go write another Firm."

What about you?

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[–] db20db (16147) 5 years ago

Near the end, where he spoke about Americans having an "insatiable appetite" for legal thrillers. So it does boil down to Hollywood. He's still writing and selling captivating stories. Hollywood just appears to have abandoned that genre.

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[–] PrimeMinisterX (8289) 5 years ago

From what I can tell, only one of his legal stories was adapted after the 90s and that was Runaway Jury in 2003. It only made $80 million on a $60 million budget so I'm sure that didn't help. Before that, in 1998, The Gingerbread Man came out and it only made $1.5 million (?!). I don't even remember that film coming out.

So it sounds like the box office for his movies was headed downward, which I'm sure had an effect on the studios wanting to move forward with more films.

It's interesting that his books are apparently continuing to sell well, or at least well enough for the publishers to keep putting them out year after year. I wonder what this says about the publishing industry vs the film industry.

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[–] db20db (16147) 5 years ago

And according to this, the genre is not ailing: https://crimereads.com/the-20-best-legal-thrillers-of-the-last-20-years/

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[–] PrimeMinisterX (8289) 5 years ago

Hmm.

Many of those films are relatively old at this point so I wouldn't say they speak to the health of the genre in 2019. After all, it covers a 20 year span.

It looks like five of them were made in the last five years, and of those five I don't know that any were hits. The Secret in Their Eyes, for instance, has a 39% on RT and only made $35 million on a $19 million budget. Marshall fared better with critics, but only made $10 million.

Reasonable Doubt I've never even heard of.

Denial I actually saw and it was a pretty good film. But I'm not sure how many people actually watched it.

The Judge was also pretty good and is probably the closest thing to a hit from those five films.

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[–] db20db (16147) 5 years ago

I saw Reasonable Doubt and wouldn't consider it a great legal thriller. As far as I know, this is probably the most recent of the genre I've seen https://moviechat.org/tt3503406/The-Whole-Truth. I thought it was weak, sometimes implausible. Even The Chamber, with all its bad press you said you encountered, is a much better story.

Also, I think Murder in the First (1995) should have been included in that list. Not only is it better than some of the other examples, it's based on a true story.

We really do need something new from Grisham.

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[–] PrimeMinisterX (8289) 5 years ago

I actually saw The Whole Truth. I agree it's implausible and the story just goes in a weird direction.

I had been anticipating that one because the director, Courtney Hunt, had made a pretty interesting debut eight years earlier with Frozen River. If you haven't seen that one and enjoy a good indie, you should give it a look. It doesn't look like she has any upcoming projects listed on IMDB so I fear The Whole Truth may have sunk her career before it even really got started.

I haven't seen Murder in the First. I'll have to add it to my list of films to check out.

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[–] db20db (16147) 5 years ago

I've seen Frozen River and yes, it's a good little flick about everyday, believable characters.

If you're not aware, I also recommend The Verdict (1982). Not only is this one of my favorites in the genre, I also think it's one of Paul Newman's best performances.

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[–] PrimeMinisterX (8289) 5 years ago

I actually watched The Verdict for the first time just a few days ago. I guess I'm on a legal thriller kick right now.

I thought it was good, but a little slow. It probably could've been 20 minutes shorter and lose nothing of the story's impact. But it's well acted, photographed and directed, and the story is interesting enough.

I couldn't believe that Lumet, Mamet and Newman were all involved in the same movie. Amazing.

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[–] PrimeMinisterX (8289) 5 years ago

Just found this:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2017/06/30/why-did-hollywood-stop-making-john-grisham-movies/?noredirect=on

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[–] db20db (16147) 5 years ago

Why am I not surprised ? The ' superhero cash cow ' has been constantly on my mind during this discussion as somehow being involved.

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[–] PrimeMinisterX (8289) 5 years ago

I think he hit the nail on the head when he said that adult dramas in general just don't do well at the box office anymore. It's not that people don't want to see these kinds of movies, it's that they don't want to pay to see them in the theater.

Instead, the adult drama is now the domain of the direct-to-video market, whether that means a Netflix original or something produced independently. Or perhaps such films will get a limited theatrical release first and then hit the Redbox/streaming market very soon after.

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[–] db20db (16147) 5 years ago

This makes sense. I haven't been to a theater in years despite the fact that a matinee ticket price here is only about $4.

I much prefer a good legal thriller in the comfort of my home with no distractions.

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[–] PrimeMinisterX (8289) 5 years ago

Oh, I go to the theater quite a bit--probably a couple of times a month on average--but I admit that I am guilty of mostly just going to see big blockbusters on the big screen. I guess I feel like those are the kinds of films that are really going to have the biggest impact with the big screen and the surround sound. I don't need all that to watch people sitting around and talking in a court room.

Grisham's films might be an exception though, because they were almost like legal action movies.

20 years ago though I'd go to the theater to see any film that looked interesting. I even remember going to see A Civil Action in the theater when it came out in '98.

Hollywood's in a weird place right now. It's a shame that a film like Driving Miss Daisy probably would not be a box office hit today.

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[–] db20db (16147) 5 years ago

The draw to a theater is the same for me, the visual appeal and the surround sound. The last one I saw was Jurassic World.

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[–] PrimeMinisterX (8289) 5 years ago

Last thing I'll mention from that article was that Grisham said he had contracts out for film projects based on multiple books of his, but that those projects had been in development for years.

I wonder if we'll ever see any of them come to fruition. It's weird how in Hollywood films can just get stuck forever in development hell like that.

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[–] db20db (16147) 5 years ago

That struck a chord with me as well and also kind of irked me.

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[–] Faridah (1325) 5 years ago

I just started watching it and already loving it. My heart goes out to the little brother witnessing all of this.