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I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

This movie is so topical I can hardly believe it. The director of the FBI sits with the president in the oval office and says, "So you want me to back off the investigation for a while?" Could be Comey and Trump. The similarities are chilling. I guess nothing ever changes.If you'd like to know what's going on behind the scenes as Trump, Sessions, Comey, Rosenstein, Mueller, and the comatose GOP Congress debates Trump's involvement as a Russian spy, watch this movie. It will put meat on the bones that you see every day in the news. Denzel and Julie are terrific, and the script is wonderful. I don't know who all these people are who call this movie boring, they must be TRANSFORMERS fans or something. Not a boring minute for a mature movie goer. Every bit as good as ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN.

I have to tell and affirm that movies made in the 90's have more substance and intelligence than recent ones. The movie is centered on intelligent discussion, so you need to concentrate to follow the plot. Though I haven't read John Grisham at all, I love the movies based on his novels. So far have watched A Time to Kill, Runaway Jury, The Firm, The Client; and I think the legal elements make the thriller more exciting.Being a fan of Denzel Washington, he aptly fits into the role and love the way he moves confidently, with practiced ease. Julia Roberts looks pretty, and gives a commendable performance as the scared legal student on the run. When she remarks her brief was 'ludicrous', I never expected it to form the crux of the plot (though the movie was titled about a brief), I mean what can a law student discover that the FBI cannot? But that's the way John Grisham thinks, and it's interesting.I was a bit disappointed that there were no court scenes as I love courtroom dramas. Nevertheless, the movie keeps you at the edge of the seat, as you keep trying to find out who were the perpetrators of the murder. I found myself wanting to know more even after Roberts reveals the content of her brief to Washington, and was quite satisfied in the end.

This movie shows how capitalism deals with environment in the US. The story is similar to what the international oil companies (IOCs) does worldwide. This is particularly true for developing countries where the inefficient government and chaotic situation allows them to go far more than they go in US. The movie also successfully demonstrates the interrelations among corrupt politicians, government officials and the big corporations. However, it depicted an ideal role for the media which is rarely the case. What I believe that, mostly because of the benefits from commercials of IOCs, the media mostly favors the powerful corporations. The most important point is that, while it tells the story, the movie does not bore the viewer. I strongly recommend wide viewing of this movie and then think about the case when the OICs operate in a freer environment. I would also wait for similar movies which speaks about Middle Eastern or Nigerian version of such stories. Happy viewing.

The Pelican Brief begins with 2 judges being killed in suspicious circumstances. Aspiring law student Darby Shaw (Julia Roberts) has her own theory of why these particular judges were killed and she believes that the killings are politically motivated. Darby decides to write down her theory of what she believes has happened in a document that she calls 'The Pelican Brief' . This is initially done as a sort of 'assignment'. However, when news of the existence of the Pelican Brief gets out, those that are responsible for the killings do everything in their power to get their hands on this document putting Darby and everyone else around her in danger.I wasn't quite sure what to expect from this film as I hadn't read the John Grisham novel upon which this film is based on prior to seeing it. One thing I did, at least expect, was an exciting and fast paced legal and political thriller. The problem with this film is that it moved at a snail's pace and for me was just far too 'talky'. There were good moments in the film and at times it was quite exciting, but it was uneven and felt far longer and far more drawn out than was necessary.As well as being somewhat dull at times, the screenplay didn't make sense at times - I'm still not sure how Julia Roberts knew that the guy in the lift was going to try and kill her (it's possible I might have missed something there as I'll admit that my mind was wandering from time to time due to how bored I was getting with the film). There is also a scene where Darby makes a phone call to Gavin Vereek (John Heard) and asks him to meet her - she's never met him before so she asks him to wear a long sleeve shirt and red cap and asks him how tall he was (this was to make sure that she ends up speaking to the right person). Vereek ends up getting killed and the killer had bugged his phone and recorded the conversation. As a result, he assumes the identity of Vereek in order to kill Darby. I was OK with all of this, but what made me laugh was when he started to put all the clothes on in Vereek's hotel room. OK fair enough, a long sleeve shirt is a fairly generic item of clothing, but a red cap? What the odds of someone having one of those? It just felt a little contrived and a little bit too convenient.The performances from the actors do save the film somewhat; Julia Roberts was particularly good in her respective role. Denzel Washington stars as newspaper reporter Gray Grantham and he helps Darby with her investigations and it is he that ultimately publishes the article which exposes the 'truth' behind the conspiracy. Washington is good in his respective role and his charisma alone is enough in this film.What really let the Pelican Brief down was its dull screenplay; it wasn't particularly exciting or suspenseful and there weren't really any great plot twists. Even the ending felt a little bit anti-climatic. I was expecting a tension fuelled final court scene like we've seen in previous legal thrillers such as A Few Good Men or more recently in The Lincoln Lawyer. The final 30 minutes were pretty good and it's a shame that the rest of the film wasn't as enjoyable. Perhaps part of the problem is that I went in with high expectations - I usually enjoy legal thrillers as they are generally exciting and interesting, but I didn't get that feeling when watching this film. I found large parts of the film to be dull and I also felt that it was far too long. It's not an awful film, but there are far better legal thrillers out there.