The Defenders: Choice of Evils (TV Movie 1998) Poster

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Wonderful possibilities, strong cast, disappointing failure.
Doctor_Bombay1 May 1999
Great cast, including E.G. Marshall in a reprise of his role in the 60's TV series, John Laroquette, Beau Bridges, Mark Blum, good premise, familiar territory--more than enough for a good-ole courtroom whodunit.

But this presentation begins to unnerve almost immediately. Martha Plimpton's upstart young attorney is so annoying, it throws the whole meter of the drama off the rails, time after time.

Her dialogue is so trite, so predictable, that it gives the viewer absolutely no room to let her character provide the conflict that's necessary to give the story some depth. Her delivery is so harsh you almost reach for the volume-down button every time she speaks.

Lack of subtlety, in the story, and the dialogue are really the major culprits, Even the scenes without Plimpton are cliché, and heavy-handed. Plimpton's performance is merely the cherry on top.

It's a real shame.
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3/10
I Won`t Defend This TVM
Theo Robertson26 June 2003
Warning: Spoilers
!!!!! SLIGHT SPOILERS !!!!!

This started off with a deeply controversial columnist called Jack Casey having a newspaper slammed in his face with the words " You b@stard . How can you say these things about me " shouted at him . This is a scenario I can relate to at a future point with a film maker cornering me in a Hollywood bar wanting to know why I`ve been writing bad things about his film . My defence would be " If people decided to make films I`d like I`d stop making cruel comments at the IMDB " I digress

So anyway Caey has to pysically defend himself and is found guilty of murder. If the TVM had stopped at this point it might of hit the rates of mediocre but shot itself in the foot by deciding to continue for another 80 minutes , the more it goes on the more unlikely it gets with Casey commiting another murder . The two things I hated were firstly the mythical nonsense that lawyers are are motivated by justice . No they`re not - They`re motivated by money , though to be fair this is something that happens in all court room dramas where the defence attorney is shown to be a crusader in the name of justice so perhaps I shouldn`t be too harsh . I`m going to be harsh about the dialogue though where MJ Preston tells the inmate of a maximum security prison to " Sit down and listen to the facts of life " Think about that for a moment MJ tells a prisoner in an American maximum security prison to " Sit down and listen to the facts of life " Hasn`t she seen an episode of OZ ?

Some other things I found about the USA after watching this...

1 ) Guards in prisons think all black men look the same

2 ) Illegal immigrants always do the right thing and invite lawyers to dinner

3 )People who say " Motherf***er " and F*** you " also use the words " Goddamit " and " Scumbag " a lot

4 ) It`s okay to kill cops

5 ) You have no chance of becoming a female lawyer if you`re pretty
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