The Pelican Brief

Misleading title. Should be called "The Pelican Long"

John Grisham is the Dean Koontz of authors.

Coincidentally I was wearing my pelican briefs when I watched this.

My dislike of Julia Roberts is offset by my like of Denzel Washington. The movie, anyway, isn't particularly exciting.

Great cast in a tv movie.

The Pelican Brief came out the same year as the Firm, and was a much better film. This was one of Roberts best early films and Washington is always good. This movie is better than most other Grisham adaptations.

Denzel has this magic ability to always be right near the phone booth when someone calls. Quite impressive knowing there’s probably 10.000 of them in the city. Other than a chance to laugh at the plot holes, there’s a lot in the movie that caters to brewing the fatal elixir of total boredom and total confusion. I even downloaded the ebook to look for more insight in some very strange character decisions in certain scenes

This film starts off like it's the great successor to Pakula's paranoia trilogy, and it's a treat. Dense dialogue weaves a good conspiracy, and there's some real suspense invoked by the persistent spectre of the G-man, always shown to be following or listening. And then about halfway through the film takes too big a bite off the bombast, disrupting the meticulously established tension. The previously frightening men in suits turn into completely useless henchman, and it's a tremendous bore.

A little hard to understand at times, and not all that fun.

It isn't terrible it just get so boring at times.

This is a reasonable crime thriller film. It looks quite dated now (it was released in 1993) and my main criticism of it is that its a bit too cheesy/sentimental at times, in a slightly eye rolling kind of a way. Julia Roberts plays the main character, Darby Shaw - her performance is ok but I did feel she played up a little to the vulnerable female type role but if thats the script then thats the script. It seemed a little cliche and dated but there are some decent action type scenes.

Det er sjov at se hemmeligheder lagres på store gamle disketter. Julia er som altid dejlig, Denzel som altid en skabelon...

Okay thriller, but nothing memorable here.

We need to bring back the 90s legal thriller. It may be my favourite genre after the 80s/90s erotic thriller. Maybe an erotic legal thriller exists. I will find it one day. Looking up other John Grisham adaptations, I learned that "Christmas with the Kranks" is based on a novel of his. One day I will share that info in a review, if I ever watch that, but until that day, I feel like it's important enough information to share here.

Moderately paced and suspensful thriller with strong characterisations and a decent plot line. Worth watching

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ok

Well it starts strong as a well-paced 90s political thriller with good production value. For the first little while I genuinely wasn't sure who to trust. But then in the second half of the film things got very predictable, and the ending was pure cheese. Too bad, it had the potential to be great but ended up being just watchable.

Been awhile

Competent, but bland drama.

even though the movie is very transparent, it was captive and good to watch.

I hereby declare Denzel Washington to be the most generic actor for the most generic films in the history of Hollywood.

Roberts and Washington make this film a delight to watch, and Pakula directs it skillfully.

Pretty good.

10/11/2009 Julia is great, as always :)

This movie is not really anything new or ground breaking but it is still enjoyable. Denzel Washington and Julia Roberts are both likeable in the lead roles.

okay movie

From what I remember, it wasn't bad

the novel is far better!!!! watch it for denzel washington.

The typical conspiracy but very well performed.

Holds up surprisingly well compared to most other 90s thrillers.

Reasonable, good performances but not grasping the attention of the viewer.

This is a well-filmed legal thriller with a solid pair of protagonists (Washington and Roberts are in good form) and a decent amount of suspense and intrigue, but ultimately the dense political/legal talk that saturates the story makes it much too difficult to follow for it to be an enjoyable watch all the way through- and the drawn-out ending does little to redeem it.