I, the Jury (1982)
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38% of users liked it
(341 ratings)
Larry Cohen wrote the screenplay to this updating of Mickey Spillane's notorious 1947 novel. Cohen was originally engaged to direct the film as well but was pulled from the director's chair after a week's worth of shooting because he had already run up the budget by $100,000; he was… More Larry Cohen wrote the screenplay to this updating of Mickey Spillane's notorious 1947 novel. Cohen was originally engaged to direct the film as well but was pulled from the director's chair after a week's worth of shooting because he had already run up the budget by $100,000; he was replaced by television director Richard T. Heffron. In this 1982 I, the Jury, Mike Hammer (Armand Assante) is a Vietnam veteran who wears hip duds and drives around in a bronze Trans Am in much the same way as Robert Mitchum's Philip Marlowe was refurbished for Michael Winner's re-make of The Big Sleep. After a cheesy rip-off of a James Bond-style credit sequence, the story kicks in. One-armed detective Jack Williams (Frederick Downs) is murdered. Jack was Hammer's best friend, and Hammer decides that he will become a one-man vigilante squad and seek vengeance on the person responsible for his death. He enlists the aid of his vivacious secretary Velda (Laurene Landon) and is also helped and hindered by police-chief Pat Chambers (Paul Sorvino). Hammer latches on to the killer's trail, then the film veers in a radically different direction from the book, introducing government conspiracies and mind-control techniques by the CIA and the Mafia. Also introduced is Hammer's love interest Charlotte Bennett (Barbara Carrera), an administrator of a kinky sex clinic (depicted as a psychiatrist in the original novel). ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
- Directed By
- Richard T. Heffron
- Genres
- Drama, Action & Adventure, Mystery & Suspense
R,
- In Theaters
- Apr 22, 1982 Wide
- On DVD
- Jul 26, 1990
- Studio
- Fox
Critic Reviews
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Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
Like most other of Spillane's Hammer series put to celluloid it comes out well-short of the novel.
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James Kendrick, Q Network Film Desk
The central fault in this updating is Mike Hammer, whose character was lost in the shuffle while updating from the fifties to the eighties.
See more critic ratings and reviews on Rotten Tomatoes
Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)
Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)
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Cast
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Armand Assante
as Mike Hammer
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Barbara Carrera
as Charlotte Bennett
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Laurene Landon
as Velda
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Alan King
as Charles Kalecki
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Geoffrey Lewis
as Joe Butler
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Paul Sorvino
as Pat Chambers
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Judson Earney Scott
as Kendricks
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Barry Snider
as Romero
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Julia Barr
as Norma Childs
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Jessica James
as Hilda Kendricks
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Frederic Downs
as Jack Williams
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Lee Anne Harris
as First twin
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Lynette Harris
as Second Twin
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Mary Margaret Amato
as Myrna Williams
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Corinne Bohrer
as Soap Opera Actress
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Jack Davidson
as Eric Clavel
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Daniel Faraldo
as Danny
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Ernest Harada
as Chef
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F.J. O'Neil
as Goodwin
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Larry Pine
as Movie Director
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William G. Schilling
as Lundee
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Don Pike
as Evans
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Alex Stevens
as 1st Cab Driver
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Joe Farago
as Assistant Director
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Richard Russell Ramos
as 2nd Cab Driver
- Norm Blankenship
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Bobbi Burns
as Sheila Kyle
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Alan Dellay
as Cameraman
- Lee Doyle
- Herb Peterson
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H. Richard Greene
as Gentleman at Bar
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Michael Miller
as Victor Kyle
