The big-screen adaptations of John Grisham's frantic legal thrillers are a bit of a mixed bag, from the Tom Cruise-driven success of The Firm to Francis Ford Coppola's dismal The Rainmaker. Runaway Jury falls somewhere in between.

A New Orleans office worker is shot dead and his widow calls on respected lawyer Wendell Rohr (Hoffman) to bring a civil suit against the manufacturers of the offending weapon.

But self-defence is what the gun-makers are all about, and they hire Rankin Fitch (Hackman), a notorious 'jury consultant' (i.e. fixer), to rig the trial in their favour.

Twelve jury members are duly selected, once Fitch has illicitly vetted them for suitability. He's happy with all his pawns, even if Juror #9, Nick Easter (Cusack), does fancy himself as the class clown.

Fitch should have dug deeper. It turns out that Easter has his own agenda and is controlling the jury from within, aided on the outside by spunky accomplice Marlee (Weisz). Their scheme is simple: the side that stumps up the most cash wins.

It's all straight out of the courtroom suspense-thriller handbook - sub-plots are developed and discarded with wild abandon, coincidence rules and everyone gets an opportunity to shout.

There are so many familiar faces in 'blink-and-you'll-miss-'em' roles (Luiz Guzman, Jennifer Beals, Orlando Jones) that the cutting-room floor must have been a real mess.

Still, Hackman and co are obviously enjoying themselves, as will those in the mood for a slice of slickly-made tosh.

Elliott Noble