True Believer
Starring:James Woods, Robert Downey Jr., Margaret Colin, Yuji Okumoto, Kurtwood Smith, Tom Bower, Miguel Fernandes, Charles Hallahan, Sully Diaz, Misan Kim, John Snyder, Luis Guzmán, Graham Beckel, Tony Haney, Joel Polis, Will Marchetti, Maureen McVerry, Abigail Van Alyn, Deborah Offner, Thomas Wagner
Director: Joseph Ruben
Studio: Sony Pictures
Product Type: DVD
Editorial Review:
Amazon.com
Eddie Dodd (James Woods) is a former '60s radical lawyer who now spends his time cynically defending drug dealers for the big bucks. But an idealistic young protégé (Robert Downey Jr.) convinces him to take one case from the heart: a young Korean immigrant unjustly accused in a gang slaying. Woods (complete with add-on ponytail) fairly hums with energy once he gets cooking here. Playing the been-there-done-that mentor--not to mention legal gadfly--gives Woods plenty of opportunity to run off at the mouth with spicy one-liners and zingers. But it also allows him to do some real acting, capturing Eddie's denial and sense of disappointment in himself. Plus his vehicle is a not-too-shabby mystery by thrillmeister director Joseph Ruben (Sleeping with the Enemy). --Marshall Fine
Average customer rating:
- Great Legal Thriller!
- i loved it
- Best Legal Drama Out There
- "A good fight is one y'win!"
- Excellent drama with suprise ending
|
True Believer
Starring: James Woods , Robert Downey Jr. , Margaret Colin , Yuji Okumoto , and Kurtwood Smith
Director: Joseph Ruben
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD
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Beckel, Graham
| ( B )
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Bower, Tom
| ( B )
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Colin, Margaret
| ( C )
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Fernandes, Miguel
| ( F )
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Hallahan, Charles
| ( H )
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McVerry, Maureen
| ( M )
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Okumoto, Yuji
| ( O )
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Polis, Joel
| ( P )
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Smith, Kurtwood
| ( S )
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Snyder, John
| ( S )
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Woods, James
| ( W )
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Ruben, Joseph
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- Best Seller
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ASIN: B000056WR2
Release Date: 2001-04-03 |
Amazon.com
Eddie Dodd (James Woods) is a former '60s radical lawyer who now spends his time cynically defending drug dealers for the big bucks. But an idealistic young protégé (Robert Downey Jr.) convinces him to take one case from the heart: a young Korean immigrant unjustly accused in a gang slaying. Woods (complete with add-on ponytail) fairly hums with energy once he gets cooking here. Playing the been-there-done-that mentor--not to mention legal gadfly--gives Woods plenty of opportunity to run off at the mouth with spicy one-liners and zingers. But it also allows him to do some real acting, capturing Eddie's denial and sense of disappointment in himself. Plus his vehicle is a not-too-shabby mystery by thrillmeister director Joseph Ruben (Sleeping with the Enemy). --Marshall Fine
Customer Reviews:
Great Legal Thriller!.......2007-04-12
This movie is by far among the greatest legal thrillers I've seen, not only because the writing and directing are superb, but James Woods' acting performance is nothing short of spectacular. The variations he projects in his character expressions--with so many subtle nuances--make him 100% believable and fetching as that character. And when his sense of right is piqued, he explodes in the most compelling, absorbing, credible way--one which just pulls you another foot deeper into the story, kind of the way quicksand pulls you in: you just can't get out, nor do you want to.
In this story, the Woods character is fighting not only for an innocent man's life, a prisoner doing time, but even more important, he's fighting for his own life--his sense of self-respect, honor, and decency, none of which he feels in his earlier law practice while defending and acquitting sleazeballs whom he knows should be in prison instead wrecking society with their crimes.
I watched this movie a second time the night after I watched it the first time and got even more out of it. Buy it and keep it. It's far batter than most of the John Grisham legal thriller movies.
No question about it: James Woods is one of the most underrated actors today. He performed almost equally as well in "Indightment" the McMartin child abuse case.
I've omitted talking about the plot because you can obtain that from many of the below reviewers.
i loved it.......2007-03-20
it takes all kinds, as I noticed someone thought this was boring. Wow! Clever dialogue, sharp acting, scary violence, moving innocence trodden under the heel of official corruption and cynicism, if this is boring I have no idea what to suggest.
There are more good one liners in this movie than in a Fred Allen retrospective. At the very beginning the young idealistic apprentice lawyer who has come to work with the great Eddie Dodd, mistakes the pony tailed defense lawyer for the cocaine dealer he is defending! Boy is he embarrassed.
Later, when Dodd confronts the neo nazi brotherhood about whether they were behind his street attack, the guy with the rifle standing in the house decorated with swastikas says: "if we were behind it, you wouldn't be here now".
When the dirty cop points a gun at him, fires a round past his temple and sugests he back off, he slows briefly but says, scared but resolute, "sorry guys, can't do it, I've gotta be in court."
You may not enjoy it, but i am a cheapskate with over 100 copied vhs tapes from the tube, and I am about to plunk down hard cash to buy this one. Along with Witness, Fugitive, Don Juan de Marco, One Eyed Jacks, The Sting, True Lies, and a few others, this goes in my collection of movies to watch more than once.
The unappreciated reference above was to a scene where the mother of the innocent convict says: "We asked everywhere for a lawyer to help us, and everywhere they mentioned your name." Oh? says Eddie Dodd, genuinely flattered, "What did they say?". She replies, "They all say, you work cheap."
And the brilliant bad guy DA is one of the classic hateable guys in film, the more than cold father of the kid who shoots hiimself in "Dead Poets Society". i hope this is enough, not to persuade you, but to let you decide for yourself, whether to try it.
And I hope the bored guy above donates his copy to the library. It is at least 4 stars but i gave it 5 to balance off the absurd 1 star review just mentioned.
Best Legal Drama Out There.......2006-02-17
My wife had been fed up with all of the legal dramas I was maknig her watch. Being a third year law student she always netpicks the details. But the story in this fil overrides the legal fallacies, making True Believer a great drama that centers around a lawsuit.
"A good fight is one y'win!".......2005-04-07
James Woods is erstwhile civil liberties attorney Eddie Dodd, his idealism long since forsaken for 4th Amendment violation-under-every-bed cynicism, & Rbt. Downey, Jr., is his summer intern (well, autumn intern) Roger Barron. Woods character based loosely on Frisco criminal def. lawyer J. Tony Serra.
Dodd's conscience-bending guilt submits to Roger's yuppie charm, & the two pursue the mysteries of why a young Korean gang member is serving time for murder & now's offed a member of some supremacist cult in prison. Woods's Dodd is light years beyond over the top with this, but an excellent supporting cast (Downey, Jr., ["...so we can get off guilty little pricks!"], Margaret Colin, Miguel Hernandez, & "70s Show"'s Kurtwood Smith as a D.A. with a closet full of diced-up skeletons) & brisk dialog make him seem right @home there. To the paranoid, conspiracy-soaked veteran & witness to the original crime: "Cecil, are you what heroes are made of?" Cecil: "I did two tours in 'Nam."
If you can get past the new twist on the climactic courtroom scene & the veritable litany of continuity issues here, "True Believer" is one of the most watchable flicks I've seen---meaning, I can sit thru the whole thing without once hitting the pause button or pondering my full bladder.
The great scene in Eddie's kitchenette (with the de rigueur Chinese food) is especially instructive. When Downey, Jr.'s, Roger spouts armchair activist rhetoric ("We all think it's a good fight."), Woods's Dodd lets loose with a tirade against bleeding-heart do-goodism that would make Bill O'Reilly cringe.
Excellent drama with suprise ending.......2005-03-25
James Woods was great as a burned out "I'll give this job one more try" kind of character who risks his life to discover a deeply buried truth, "his client really is innocent" and his career as an attorney is reborn. Too bad James Woods doesn't get enough parts in Hollywood but I suspect the bottom line is he is not part of the "inner circle" (he's a Reublican).
![True Believer [Region 2]](http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/21CYT6X605L.jpg)
Average customer rating:
- Great Legal Thriller!
- i loved it
- Best Legal Drama Out There
- "A good fight is one y'win!"
- Excellent drama with suprise ending
|
True Believer [Region 2]
Starring: James Woods , Robert Downey Jr. , Margaret Colin , Yuji Okumoto , and Kurtwood Smith
Director: Joseph Ruben
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD
General
| Drama
| Genres
| DVD
| Video
Beckel, Graham
| ( B )
| Actors & Actresses
| Stores
| DVD
| Video
Bower, Tom
| ( B )
| Actors & Actresses
| Stores
| DVD
| Video
Colin, Margaret
| ( C )
| Actors & Actresses
| Stores
| DVD
| Video
Fernandes, Miguel
| ( F )
| Actors & Actresses
| Stores
| DVD
| Video
Hallahan, Charles
| ( H )
| Actors & Actresses
| Stores
| DVD
| Video
McVerry, Maureen
| ( M )
| Actors & Actresses
| Stores
| DVD
| Video
Okumoto, Yuji
| ( O )
| Actors & Actresses
| Stores
| DVD
| Video
Polis, Joel
| ( P )
| Actors & Actresses
| Stores
| DVD
| Video
Smith, Kurtwood
| ( S )
| Actors & Actresses
| Stores
| DVD
| Video
Snyder, John
| ( S )
| Actors & Actresses
| Stores
| DVD
| Video
Woods, James
| ( W )
| Actors & Actresses
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Ruben, Joseph
| ( R )
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DVDs Under $14.99
| Today's Deals in DVD
| Special Features
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( T )
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Similar Items:
- Best Seller
- Cop
- Indictment - The McMartin Trial
- The Onion Field
- The Hard Way
ASIN: B00005CDB3 |
Amazon.com
Eddie Dodd (James Woods) is a former '60s radical lawyer who now spends his time cynically defending drug dealers for the big bucks. But an idealistic young protégé (Robert Downey Jr.) convinces him to take one case from the heart: a young Korean immigrant unjustly accused in a gang slaying. Woods (complete with add-on ponytail) fairly hums with energy once he gets cooking here. Playing the been-there-done-that mentor--not to mention legal gadfly--gives Woods plenty of opportunity to run off at the mouth with spicy one-liners and zingers. But it also allows him to do some real acting, capturing Eddie's denial and sense of disappointment in himself. Plus his vehicle is a not-too-shabby mystery by thrillmeister director Joseph Ruben (Sleeping with the Enemy). --Marshall Fine
Customer Reviews:
Great Legal Thriller!.......2007-04-12
This movie is by far among the greatest legal thrillers I've seen, not only because the writing and directing are superb, but James Woods' acting performance is nothing short of spectacular. The variations he projects in his character expressions--with so many subtle nuances--make him 100% believable and fetching as that character. And when his sense of right is piqued, he explodes in the most compelling, absorbing, credible way--one which just pulls you another foot deeper into the story, kind of the way quicksand pulls you in: you just can't get out, nor do you want to.
In this story, the Woods character is fighting not only for an innocent man's life, a prisoner doing time, but even more important, he's fighting for his own life--his sense of self-respect, honor, and decency, none of which he feels in his earlier law practice while defending and acquitting sleazeballs whom he knows should be in prison instead wrecking society with their crimes.
I watched this movie a second time the night after I watched it the first time and got even more out of it. Buy it and keep it. It's far batter than most of the John Grisham legal thriller movies.
No question about it: James Woods is one of the most underrated actors today. He performed almost equally as well in "Indightment" the McMartin child abuse case.
I've omitted talking about the plot because you can obtain that from many of the below reviewers.
i loved it.......2007-03-20
it takes all kinds, as I noticed someone thought this was boring. Wow! Clever dialogue, sharp acting, scary violence, moving innocence trodden under the heel of official corruption and cynicism, if this is boring I have no idea what to suggest.
There are more good one liners in this movie than in a Fred Allen retrospective. At the very beginning the young idealistic apprentice lawyer who has come to work with the great Eddie Dodd, mistakes the pony tailed defense lawyer for the cocaine dealer he is defending! Boy is he embarrassed.
Later, when Dodd confronts the neo nazi brotherhood about whether they were behind his street attack, the guy with the rifle standing in the house decorated with swastikas says: "if we were behind it, you wouldn't be here now".
When the dirty cop points a gun at him, fires a round past his temple and sugests he back off, he slows briefly but says, scared but resolute, "sorry guys, can't do it, I've gotta be in court."
You may not enjoy it, but i am a cheapskate with over 100 copied vhs tapes from the tube, and I am about to plunk down hard cash to buy this one. Along with Witness, Fugitive, Don Juan de Marco, One Eyed Jacks, The Sting, True Lies, and a few others, this goes in my collection of movies to watch more than once.
The unappreciated reference above was to a scene where the mother of the innocent convict says: "We asked everywhere for a lawyer to help us, and everywhere they mentioned your name." Oh? says Eddie Dodd, genuinely flattered, "What did they say?". She replies, "They all say, you work cheap."
And the brilliant bad guy DA is one of the classic hateable guys in film, the more than cold father of the kid who shoots hiimself in "Dead Poets Society". i hope this is enough, not to persuade you, but to let you decide for yourself, whether to try it.
And I hope the bored guy above donates his copy to the library. It is at least 4 stars but i gave it 5 to balance off the absurd 1 star review just mentioned.
Best Legal Drama Out There.......2006-02-17
My wife had been fed up with all of the legal dramas I was maknig her watch. Being a third year law student she always netpicks the details. But the story in this fil overrides the legal fallacies, making True Believer a great drama that centers around a lawsuit.
"A good fight is one y'win!".......2005-04-07
James Woods is erstwhile civil liberties attorney Eddie Dodd, his idealism long since forsaken for 4th Amendment violation-under-every-bed cynicism, & Rbt. Downey, Jr., is his summer intern (well, autumn intern) Roger Barron. Woods character based loosely on Frisco criminal def. lawyer J. Tony Serra.
Dodd's conscience-bending guilt submits to Roger's yuppie charm, & the two pursue the mysteries of why a young Korean gang member is serving time for murder & now's offed a member of some supremacist cult in prison. Woods's Dodd is light years beyond over the top with this, but an excellent supporting cast (Downey, Jr., ["...so we can get off guilty little pricks!"], Margaret Colin, Miguel Hernandez, & "70s Show"'s Kurtwood Smith as a D.A. with a closet full of diced-up skeletons) & brisk dialog make him seem right @home there. To the paranoid, conspiracy-soaked veteran & witness to the original crime: "Cecil, are you what heroes are made of?" Cecil: "I did two tours in 'Nam."
If you can get past the new twist on the climactic courtroom scene & the veritable litany of continuity issues here, "True Believer" is one of the most watchable flicks I've seen---meaning, I can sit thru the whole thing without once hitting the pause button or pondering my full bladder.
The great scene in Eddie's kitchenette (with the de rigueur Chinese food) is especially instructive. When Downey, Jr.'s, Roger spouts armchair activist rhetoric ("We all think it's a good fight."), Woods's Dodd lets loose with a tirade against bleeding-heart do-goodism that would make Bill O'Reilly cringe.
Excellent drama with suprise ending.......2005-03-25
James Woods was great as a burned out "I'll give this job one more try" kind of character who risks his life to discover a deeply buried truth, "his client really is innocent" and his career as an attorney is reborn. Too bad James Woods doesn't get enough parts in Hollywood but I suspect the bottom line is he is not part of the "inner circle" (he's a Reublican).
Average customer rating:
|
60 Minutes - True Believer (September 24, 2006)
Manufacturer: CBS
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ASIN: B000IONFR8
Release Date: 2006-09-28 |
Description
Airdate: 09/24/06 Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had her first brush with terrorism while still a young girl living in Birmingham, Alabama. Rice lost a friend when bigots bombed the 16th Baptist Church near her house, killing four little girls. Rice says growing up in the segregated south inspires her to work for democracy worldwide. To relax, Rice plays chamber music with friends in her Washington apartment, and she invites Katie Couric in to hear them practice.
![True Believer [Region 2]](http://www.germanelectronics88.com/noimage.gif)
Average customer rating:
- Great Legal Thriller!
- i loved it
- Best Legal Drama Out There
- "A good fight is one y'win!"
- Excellent drama with suprise ending
|
True Believer [Region 2]
Starring: James Woods , Robert Downey Jr. , Margaret Colin , Yuji Okumoto , and Kurtwood Smith
Director: Joseph Ruben
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD
General
| Drama
| Genres
| DVD
| Video
Beckel, Graham
| ( B )
| Actors & Actresses
| Stores
| DVD
| Video
Bower, Tom
| ( B )
| Actors & Actresses
| Stores
| DVD
| Video
Colin, Margaret
| ( C )
| Actors & Actresses
| Stores
| DVD
| Video
Fernandes, Miguel
| ( F )
| Actors & Actresses
| Stores
| DVD
| Video
Hallahan, Charles
| ( H )
| Actors & Actresses
| Stores
| DVD
| Video
McVerry, Maureen
| ( M )
| Actors & Actresses
| Stores
| DVD
| Video
Okumoto, Yuji
| ( O )
| Actors & Actresses
| Stores
| DVD
| Video
Polis, Joel
| ( P )
| Actors & Actresses
| Stores
| DVD
| Video
Smith, Kurtwood
| ( S )
| Actors & Actresses
| Stores
| DVD
| Video
Snyder, John
| ( S )
| Actors & Actresses
| Stores
| DVD
| Video
Woods, James
| ( W )
| Actors & Actresses
| Stores
| DVD
| Video
Ruben, Joseph
| ( R )
| Directors
| Stores
| DVD
| Video
Used DVDs
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| Video
| Action & Adventure
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| Animation
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( T )
| Titles
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| DVD
| Video
Similar Items:
- Best Seller
- Cop
- Indictment - The McMartin Trial
- The Onion Field
- The Hard Way
ASIN: B00005956O |
Amazon.com
Eddie Dodd (James Woods) is a former '60s radical lawyer who now spends his time cynically defending drug dealers for the big bucks. But an idealistic young protégé (Robert Downey Jr.) convinces him to take one case from the heart: a young Korean immigrant unjustly accused in a gang slaying. Woods (complete with add-on ponytail) fairly hums with energy once he gets cooking here. Playing the been-there-done-that mentor--not to mention legal gadfly--gives Woods plenty of opportunity to run off at the mouth with spicy one-liners and zingers. But it also allows him to do some real acting, capturing Eddie's denial and sense of disappointment in himself. Plus his vehicle is a not-too-shabby mystery by thrillmeister director Joseph Ruben (Sleeping with the Enemy). --Marshall Fine
Customer Reviews:
Great Legal Thriller!.......2007-04-12
This movie is by far among the greatest legal thrillers I've seen, not only because the writing and directing are superb, but James Woods' acting performance is nothing short of spectacular. The variations he projects in his character expressions--with so many subtle nuances--make him 100% believable and fetching as that character. And when his sense of right is piqued, he explodes in the most compelling, absorbing, credible way--one which just pulls you another foot deeper into the story, kind of the way quicksand pulls you in: you just can't get out, nor do you want to.
In this story, the Woods character is fighting not only for an innocent man's life, a prisoner doing time, but even more important, he's fighting for his own life--his sense of self-respect, honor, and decency, none of which he feels in his earlier law practice while defending and acquitting sleazeballs whom he knows should be in prison instead wrecking society with their crimes.
I watched this movie a second time the night after I watched it the first time and got even more out of it. Buy it and keep it. It's far batter than most of the John Grisham legal thriller movies.
No question about it: James Woods is one of the most underrated actors today. He performed almost equally as well in "Indightment" the McMartin child abuse case.
I've omitted talking about the plot because you can obtain that from many of the below reviewers.
i loved it.......2007-03-20
it takes all kinds, as I noticed someone thought this was boring. Wow! Clever dialogue, sharp acting, scary violence, moving innocence trodden under the heel of official corruption and cynicism, if this is boring I have no idea what to suggest.
There are more good one liners in this movie than in a Fred Allen retrospective. At the very beginning the young idealistic apprentice lawyer who has come to work with the great Eddie Dodd, mistakes the pony tailed defense lawyer for the cocaine dealer he is defending! Boy is he embarrassed.
Later, when Dodd confronts the neo nazi brotherhood about whether they were behind his street attack, the guy with the rifle standing in the house decorated with swastikas says: "if we were behind it, you wouldn't be here now".
When the dirty cop points a gun at him, fires a round past his temple and sugests he back off, he slows briefly but says, scared but resolute, "sorry guys, can't do it, I've gotta be in court."
You may not enjoy it, but i am a cheapskate with over 100 copied vhs tapes from the tube, and I am about to plunk down hard cash to buy this one. Along with Witness, Fugitive, Don Juan de Marco, One Eyed Jacks, The Sting, True Lies, and a few others, this goes in my collection of movies to watch more than once.
The unappreciated reference above was to a scene where the mother of the innocent convict says: "We asked everywhere for a lawyer to help us, and everywhere they mentioned your name." Oh? says Eddie Dodd, genuinely flattered, "What did they say?". She replies, "They all say, you work cheap."
And the brilliant bad guy DA is one of the classic hateable guys in film, the more than cold father of the kid who shoots hiimself in "Dead Poets Society". i hope this is enough, not to persuade you, but to let you decide for yourself, whether to try it.
And I hope the bored guy above donates his copy to the library. It is at least 4 stars but i gave it 5 to balance off the absurd 1 star review just mentioned.
Best Legal Drama Out There.......2006-02-17
My wife had been fed up with all of the legal dramas I was maknig her watch. Being a third year law student she always netpicks the details. But the story in this fil overrides the legal fallacies, making True Believer a great drama that centers around a lawsuit.
"A good fight is one y'win!".......2005-04-07
James Woods is erstwhile civil liberties attorney Eddie Dodd, his idealism long since forsaken for 4th Amendment violation-under-every-bed cynicism, & Rbt. Downey, Jr., is his summer intern (well, autumn intern) Roger Barron. Woods character based loosely on Frisco criminal def. lawyer J. Tony Serra.
Dodd's conscience-bending guilt submits to Roger's yuppie charm, & the two pursue the mysteries of why a young Korean gang member is serving time for murder & now's offed a member of some supremacist cult in prison. Woods's Dodd is light years beyond over the top with this, but an excellent supporting cast (Downey, Jr., ["...so we can get off guilty little pricks!"], Margaret Colin, Miguel Hernandez, & "70s Show"'s Kurtwood Smith as a D.A. with a closet full of diced-up skeletons) & brisk dialog make him seem right @home there. To the paranoid, conspiracy-soaked veteran & witness to the original crime: "Cecil, are you what heroes are made of?" Cecil: "I did two tours in 'Nam."
If you can get past the new twist on the climactic courtroom scene & the veritable litany of continuity issues here, "True Believer" is one of the most watchable flicks I've seen---meaning, I can sit thru the whole thing without once hitting the pause button or pondering my full bladder.
The great scene in Eddie's kitchenette (with the de rigueur Chinese food) is especially instructive. When Downey, Jr.'s, Roger spouts armchair activist rhetoric ("We all think it's a good fight."), Woods's Dodd lets loose with a tirade against bleeding-heart do-goodism that would make Bill O'Reilly cringe.
Excellent drama with suprise ending.......2005-03-25
James Woods was great as a burned out "I'll give this job one more try" kind of character who risks his life to discover a deeply buried truth, "his client really is innocent" and his career as an attorney is reborn. Too bad James Woods doesn't get enough parts in Hollywood but I suspect the bottom line is he is not part of the "inner circle" (he's a Reublican).
![True Believer [Region 2]](http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/2142G1ZTWSL.jpg)
Average customer rating:
- Great Legal Thriller!
- i loved it
- Best Legal Drama Out There
- "A good fight is one y'win!"
- Excellent drama with suprise ending
|
True Believer [Region 2]
Starring: James Woods , Robert Downey Jr. , Margaret Colin , Yuji Okumoto , and Kurtwood Smith
Director: Joseph Ruben
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD
General
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ASIN: B00005B0IS |
Amazon.com
Eddie Dodd (James Woods) is a former '60s radical lawyer who now spends his time cynically defending drug dealers for the big bucks. But an idealistic young protégé (Robert Downey Jr.) convinces him to take one case from the heart: a young Korean immigrant unjustly accused in a gang slaying. Woods (complete with add-on ponytail) fairly hums with energy once he gets cooking here. Playing the been-there-done-that mentor--not to mention legal gadfly--gives Woods plenty of opportunity to run off at the mouth with spicy one-liners and zingers. But it also allows him to do some real acting, capturing Eddie's denial and sense of disappointment in himself. Plus his vehicle is a not-too-shabby mystery by thrillmeister director Joseph Ruben (Sleeping with the Enemy). --Marshall Fine
Customer Reviews:
Great Legal Thriller!.......2007-04-12
This movie is by far among the greatest legal thrillers I've seen, not only because the writing and directing are superb, but James Woods' acting performance is nothing short of spectacular. The variations he projects in his character expressions--with so many subtle nuances--make him 100% believable and fetching as that character. And when his sense of right is piqued, he explodes in the most compelling, absorbing, credible way--one which just pulls you another foot deeper into the story, kind of the way quicksand pulls you in: you just can't get out, nor do you want to.
In this story, the Woods character is fighting not only for an innocent man's life, a prisoner doing time, but even more important, he's fighting for his own life--his sense of self-respect, honor, and decency, none of which he feels in his earlier law practice while defending and acquitting sleazeballs whom he knows should be in prison instead wrecking society with their crimes.
I watched this movie a second time the night after I watched it the first time and got even more out of it. Buy it and keep it. It's far batter than most of the John Grisham legal thriller movies.
No question about it: James Woods is one of the most underrated actors today. He performed almost equally as well in "Indightment" the McMartin child abuse case.
I've omitted talking about the plot because you can obtain that from many of the below reviewers.
i loved it.......2007-03-20
it takes all kinds, as I noticed someone thought this was boring. Wow! Clever dialogue, sharp acting, scary violence, moving innocence trodden under the heel of official corruption and cynicism, if this is boring I have no idea what to suggest.
There are more good one liners in this movie than in a Fred Allen retrospective. At the very beginning the young idealistic apprentice lawyer who has come to work with the great Eddie Dodd, mistakes the pony tailed defense lawyer for the cocaine dealer he is defending! Boy is he embarrassed.
Later, when Dodd confronts the neo nazi brotherhood about whether they were behind his street attack, the guy with the rifle standing in the house decorated with swastikas says: "if we were behind it, you wouldn't be here now".
When the dirty cop points a gun at him, fires a round past his temple and sugests he back off, he slows briefly but says, scared but resolute, "sorry guys, can't do it, I've gotta be in court."
You may not enjoy it, but i am a cheapskate with over 100 copied vhs tapes from the tube, and I am about to plunk down hard cash to buy this one. Along with Witness, Fugitive, Don Juan de Marco, One Eyed Jacks, The Sting, True Lies, and a few others, this goes in my collection of movies to watch more than once.
The unappreciated reference above was to a scene where the mother of the innocent convict says: "We asked everywhere for a lawyer to help us, and everywhere they mentioned your name." Oh? says Eddie Dodd, genuinely flattered, "What did they say?". She replies, "They all say, you work cheap."
And the brilliant bad guy DA is one of the classic hateable guys in film, the more than cold father of the kid who shoots hiimself in "Dead Poets Society". i hope this is enough, not to persuade you, but to let you decide for yourself, whether to try it.
And I hope the bored guy above donates his copy to the library. It is at least 4 stars but i gave it 5 to balance off the absurd 1 star review just mentioned.
Best Legal Drama Out There.......2006-02-17
My wife had been fed up with all of the legal dramas I was maknig her watch. Being a third year law student she always netpicks the details. But the story in this fil overrides the legal fallacies, making True Believer a great drama that centers around a lawsuit.
"A good fight is one y'win!".......2005-04-07
James Woods is erstwhile civil liberties attorney Eddie Dodd, his idealism long since forsaken for 4th Amendment violation-under-every-bed cynicism, & Rbt. Downey, Jr., is his summer intern (well, autumn intern) Roger Barron. Woods character based loosely on Frisco criminal def. lawyer J. Tony Serra.
Dodd's conscience-bending guilt submits to Roger's yuppie charm, & the two pursue the mysteries of why a young Korean gang member is serving time for murder & now's offed a member of some supremacist cult in prison. Woods's Dodd is light years beyond over the top with this, but an excellent supporting cast (Downey, Jr., ["...so we can get off guilty little pricks!"], Margaret Colin, Miguel Hernandez, & "70s Show"'s Kurtwood Smith as a D.A. with a closet full of diced-up skeletons) & brisk dialog make him seem right @home there. To the paranoid, conspiracy-soaked veteran & witness to the original crime: "Cecil, are you what heroes are made of?" Cecil: "I did two tours in 'Nam."
If you can get past the new twist on the climactic courtroom scene & the veritable litany of continuity issues here, "True Believer" is one of the most watchable flicks I've seen---meaning, I can sit thru the whole thing without once hitting the pause button or pondering my full bladder.
The great scene in Eddie's kitchenette (with the de rigueur Chinese food) is especially instructive. When Downey, Jr.'s, Roger spouts armchair activist rhetoric ("We all think it's a good fight."), Woods's Dodd lets loose with a tirade against bleeding-heart do-goodism that would make Bill O'Reilly cringe.
Excellent drama with suprise ending.......2005-03-25
James Woods was great as a burned out "I'll give this job one more try" kind of character who risks his life to discover a deeply buried truth, "his client really is innocent" and his career as an attorney is reborn. Too bad James Woods doesn't get enough parts in Hollywood but I suspect the bottom line is he is not part of the "inner circle" (he's a Reublican).
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