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Firm, The
List Price: Unknown [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Movie:
"The Firm" has great elements to it; we certainly are presented with a cast of remarkably talented actors, but slow pacing and dull spots in director Sydney Pollack's film serve to slow down the movie too much. In terms of Grisham adapations, this is not the best(I still think the best remains as Francis Ford Coppola's "The Rainmaker"), but at the same time, it's not the worst one, either.
Tom Cruise stars as Mitch McDeere, a recent graduate that is getting offers from many of the country's top law firms. Rather than going with some of the major firms, he decides to go with a small one based out of Memphis, based on what they can offer him. The only problem is, he doesn't know what exactly they are up to behind the scenes, and the criminal element they are associated with.
Moving with his wife(played by Jeneane Tripplehorn) to the city, everything seems to be going just fine for a time, until the young lawyer starts to unearth what the law firm has been up to. The more he finds, the angrier they become, until he finds himself running for his life. We know from early on that the law firm, which includes good performances from Gene Hackman and Wilford Brimley, is up to no good. I've honestly never read the book, but the film version simply takes too long to get started; we know where it's going, so the slow pacing becomes frustrating. The audience is ahead of the film, in other words.
The film certainly is not lacking in great actors; Gene Hackman, Ed Harris, Wilford Brimley, Cruise and more populate the picture and give enjoyable performances, but their characters don't make for great villians. A little editing here and there out of the film's overlong 153 minutes could have helped the pace along, which would have maybe made for a more entertaining picture. As is, the length also serves to subtract some of the tension from the movie. The final product is a movie of good moments here and there, but they don't add up to a great overall whole.
The DVD
VIDEO: Paramount's anamorphic transfer of "The Firm" is good, but there are some imperfections worth noting. In general, the image quality delivers with a sharp, clean picture that has good detail. Colors are fine as well, looking natural and solid, with no visible problems. Flesh tones are fine as well, looking natural.
There is really only one problem that I found noticable, although I didn't find it hugely distracting. Although a good portion of the picture looks clear, there are occasions where marks on the print used are noticable. Also, there are one or two traces of shimmering and pixelation, but these are not distracting. Paramount has offered good image quality for this effort, but not quite great.
SOUND: This is not a terribly intense film in terms of audio, chosing to keep the score by Dave Grusin(who recently composed the score for director Pollack's "Random Hearts", as well) as the element used to commonly set the tone of the film. The score sounds fine, well-recorded and clean. Dialogue is clear and nicely integrated, as well. The audio is fine, but not remarkable in any way.
MENUS:: The main menu is essentially recycling the cover art; as usual, Paramount has used non-animated main menus.
EXTRAS: 2 trailers.
"The Firm" has great elements to it; we certainly are presented with a cast of remarkably talented actors, but slow pacing and dull spots in director Sydney Pollack's film serve to slow down the movie too much. In terms of Grisham adapations, this is not the best(I still think the best remains as Francis Ford Coppola's "The Rainmaker"), but at the same time, it's not the worst one, either.
Tom Cruise stars as Mitch McDeere, a recent graduate that is getting offers from many of the country's top law firms. Rather than going with some of the major firms, he decides to go with a small one based out of Memphis, based on what they can offer him. The only problem is, he doesn't know what exactly they are up to behind the scenes, and the criminal element they are associated with.
Moving with his wife(played by Jeneane Tripplehorn) to the city, everything seems to be going just fine for a time, until the young lawyer starts to unearth what the law firm has been up to. The more he finds, the angrier they become, until he finds himself running for his life. We know from early on that the law firm, which includes good performances from Gene Hackman and Wilford Brimley, is up to no good. I've honestly never read the book, but the film version simply takes too long to get started; we know where it's going, so the slow pacing becomes frustrating. The audience is ahead of the film, in other words.
The film certainly is not lacking in great actors; Gene Hackman, Ed Harris, Wilford Brimley, Cruise and more populate the picture and give enjoyable performances, but their characters don't make for great villians. A little editing here and there out of the film's overlong 153 minutes could have helped the pace along, which would have maybe made for a more entertaining picture. As is, the length also serves to subtract some of the tension from the movie. The final product is a movie of good moments here and there, but they don't add up to a great overall whole.
The DVD
VIDEO: Paramount's anamorphic transfer of "The Firm" is good, but there are some imperfections worth noting. In general, the image quality delivers with a sharp, clean picture that has good detail. Colors are fine as well, looking natural and solid, with no visible problems. Flesh tones are fine as well, looking natural.
There is really only one problem that I found noticable, although I didn't find it hugely distracting. Although a good portion of the picture looks clear, there are occasions where marks on the print used are noticable. Also, there are one or two traces of shimmering and pixelation, but these are not distracting. Paramount has offered good image quality for this effort, but not quite great.
SOUND: This is not a terribly intense film in terms of audio, chosing to keep the score by Dave Grusin(who recently composed the score for director Pollack's "Random Hearts", as well) as the element used to commonly set the tone of the film. The score sounds fine, well-recorded and clean. Dialogue is clear and nicely integrated, as well. The audio is fine, but not remarkable in any way.
MENUS:: The main menu is essentially recycling the cover art; as usual, Paramount has used non-animated main menus.
EXTRAS: 2 trailers.
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