Customer Reviews

Double Jeopardy

5 star:		(79)
4 star:		(54)
3 star:		(43)
2 star:		(31)
1 star:		(23)

 

 

This highly suspenseful thriller showcases Ashley Judd's tremendous talent. Not only is she a phenomenal actress, but also her physical abilities in this movie were impressive. Tommy Lee Jones is as good as he always is. His performances always look so effortless, but never less than stellar. The decision to pair Judd and Jones was genius. They played well off of each other, and had a commanding on screen presence. What a great movie that leaves you guessing on the outcome until the very end!

When you get this on DVD or video when it comes out, you won't want to put this on pause. Ashley Judd plays Libby PArsons, a young woman who has everything she could want . . . until her husband is declared dead after his blood is found on the deck of their yacht, and she is caught with the knife by the Coast Guard. Evidence in court points towards her, she is incarcerated in prison, then by accident learns her husband Nick has faked his death! Hearing she cannot be convicted for murdering him twice, she begs for parole and escapes from her parole officer, an alcoholic, down-on-his-luck job-hater Travis Layman(Tommy Lee Jones, who is virtually recreating his US MARSHALLS role) to track Nick down. There's some great action scenes in the process and some unexpected and unusual plot twists, especially towards the end. So summing up, this movie is well worth watching and very hard to fault.

This 1999 film stars Ashley Judd as a woman who is convicted of killing her husband. His body is never found and the audience knows she's been framed. While she's in prison she finds out she can never be tried for the same crime twice, so when she gets out she goes hunting for him. Naturally there is a darling little child involved and naturally our heart goes out to the woman who's been terribly wronged. Tommy Lee Jones is cast as her parole officer who runs a half-way house. She spends a lot of time running away from him and this leads to some wonderful chase scenes. At one point they are both underwater after she's been handcuffed inside a car.

There are no real surprises in the film, just some fine acting, good photography and a fast-paced script that throws Ashley Judd and Tommy Lee Jones into conflict. In spite of the formula however, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Therefore, I suggest it as a escape film to keep you mind involved in the perils of the people on the screen instead of focusing on your own day-to-day issues. Recommended.

Will she shoot him?

Double Jeopardy is the name of a law where a person can not be convicted twice for the same crime. Ashley Judd is a woman convicted of killing her husband. She is sentenced to 6 years of prison and taken away from her child. After a year she finds out that her husband is alive. Thus setting up the question, "Will she shoot him?"

Double Jeopardy is one of those Hollywood ventures where the commercial ruins any suspense or intrigue the film has. As we meander through this tale there isn't any shockers or brilliant acting. Academy award winner Tommy Lee Jones has never looked so bored. His character is an almost carbon-copy of the character he has played in two Fugitive movies. Bruce Greenwood plays a jerk as he has always played on the big screen. And as for Ashley Judd, she does the best she can with this two dimensional character as she tries desperately to bring credibility to it. This poor, poor woman needs a juicy role where we can see her act like I know she can. Maybe the DVD will have some good special features.

In general I'm no fan of Ashley Judd, but as it seems this movie is often trashed just as much as some of hers that deserve it much more, I thought I'd defend this one a bit. It's a taut thriller in which she's framed for murdering her husband and sent to prison, even though it turns out the husband faked his death. On getting out of prison she persues her still-living husband, seeking custody of their child. Having been told that the principle of double jeopardy would make her immune from prosecution if she then did go on to actually kill him, she uses that claim to pressure him to turn over the child. One major criticism leveled against this movie is that that's not really how the title principle workes - that one CAN be prosecuted for killing someone previously presumed dead even when one has been already convicted of that person's supposed "murder". I guess one could call that a significant flaw in the movie. But, let me say it all works out in the end so that no invocation of double jeopardy would be necessary anyhow (I'll say no more to avoid spoilers). For whatever flaws, it's a tense thriller throughout. The one problem that mystifies me is why the DVD won't play right on my player. I bought what I was advised was the best brand of DVD player, and I've had no trouble with any other movie on it. But the first DVD I bought of DOUBLE JEOPARDY started having its sound skip about midway through the movie and then completely hung up to an indefinite still picture further on. Thinking the DVD effective, I exchanged it for another copy, but the other copy did exactly the same at the very same places! Just to make sure I later checked out a library copy, and it did exactly the same as well. Is it just something about my otherwise perfect DVD player, or something strange about the movie? I can make it all play by starting each chapter separately after the point of first malfunction. But a continuous playing of the whole movie seems to be impossible on my player.

This is SO different from most things I have seen! The plot is wonderful and you have high class suspense and funny remarks! When Ashly Judd and hubby go on a romantic boating get away, Judd's husband sets her up for his murder. While in prison for 6 years for "killing her husband," she finds out, accidently, that her husband is alive and well! When she gets out, her plan is revenge and getting her son back. Jones, her parol officer, must capture her for leaving "past curfew." (tee-hee) This makes for Judd not only the hunter, but the hunted. All and all a wonderful movie! The adventure, drama, and suspense is wonderful and I recommend anyone with GOOD TASTE(! ) to see it!

This is such a great movie. Although it's not so new anymore, I still watch it every now and then. It's fantastic. For a change it's great to see a female lead take control of a situation and get revenge like she did. I especially love the scene at the charity auction where her husband hears her voice as she makes a secret bid. It's priceless. Filmed mostly in the beautiful heart of the French Quarter in New Orleans, it's a great thriller with good acting and a great storyline. I love seeing the bad guys not getting away with their crimes. Good performance from Tommy Lee Jones too.

If DOUBLE JEOPARDY had any brains, it would be dangerous. Then again, if DOUBLE JEOPARDY had any brains it probably wouldn't have been made. Vacuous , bereft of anything resembling logic, common sense, or respect for itself or its audience, it is a movie made either by morons or for morons.

The movie takes its title from the legal precept that no person can be tried twice for the same crime. In this case, the crime is the murder of Libby Parsons' (Ashley Judd) husband during a boating excursion. Covered in blood, she wakens to find her husband Nick (Bruce Greenwood) missing, and is subsequently tried and convicted for his murder. In prison, she discovers that her husband is in fact alive. Upon her release, she breaks her parole and begins her search for Nick while being pursued by parole officer Travis Lehman (played by a weary Tommy Lee Jones).

Plot holes abound. Libby never awakens when Nick paints her with blood and sloshes around all of this manufactured evidence. (Further, the filmmakers never reveal where he acquired all of this blood in the first place.) Her lawyer never asks the coroner's office to analyze the blood to prove that it is in fact Nick's. Libby is convicted, presumably, of first-degree murder but does not seem to be in one of the more violent prison wards. She is released on parole after serving seven years but is not put under any kind of intensive supervision. She outruns sherrif's jeeps on a beach but is captured once the officers pursue her on foot. Upon her arrest, Lehman leaves her handcuffed to to his car while he gets a cup coffee but leaves his keys in the ignition, providing her with a means of escape. And, curiously, the media seems absent from all of this. Apparently not one news program along the lines of 20/20 or DATELINE or 48 HOURS sends a reporter out to cover her story at any time. Has television lost interest in beautiful murderesses, unjustly accused?

The cast is strong, but the characters are underwritten and the performances are uninspired. Ashley Judd never convinces the viewer that she is capable of bloodlust or cunning. Further, though she wears dowdy clothes once she leaves prison, one never believes that she has done any hard time. Jones, in playing Lehman, has filed the serial numbers from the character of Sam Gerard in THE FUGITIVE. It is virtually the same character, but given an unconvincing backstory. Bruce Greenwood plays Libby's husband with the right amount of smarm but is otherwise one-dimensional.

Much has been made of the female empowerment aspects of DOUBLE JEOPARDY, but in reality the movie does little to empower women. Libby acts like a victim throughout, and in at least one instance allows herself to become victimized. Goldie Hawn throwing off her veil at the end of PRIVATE BENJAMIN does more to empower women than Libby does drawing a bead on her slime of a husband.

This movie rests on two key plot elements. Since neither of them work, it falls flat on its face before the end of the first reel. A sociopathic husband fakes his death and frames his wife (Ashley Judd) for his own murder so that he can then collect two million dollars paid dutifully by a life insurance company into a trust fund for his little boy. Anyone who's tried to get two cents via an insurance claim will chuckle at the thought of a company paying up as the woman convicted for his murder starts her prison term. But there's worse to come. Inside a curiously friendly women's penitentiary, and with her full makeup intact, Judd conveniently meets an ex-lawyer con who informs her that, since she's already been tried for murder, she could kill her still-very-much alive husband and be immune from prosecution by claiming double jeopardy, whereby nobody can be tried twice for the same crime. Hello? If she subsequently kills her husband, then she was wrongfully convicted the first time, since there can have been no crime. No first crime, no double jeopardy. They would throw away the key.

But why worry about logic in a formulaic and lazy bubblegum movie like this? Tommy Lee Jones is asleep throughout. Ashley Judd shows enormous but barely used potential. Bruce Beresford directs like he's wading through molasses. Did he even care? No suspense and no thrills are unpardonable sins in a movie purporting to be a suspense thriller. Don't waste your time on this clunker.

I think I have worn out my video of Double Jeopardy. Am going to buy the DVD. I must have watched this movie 50 times!

What do I love about it? I love the scenery! Filmed in beautiful British Columbia and New Orleans. The outdoor scenes are so magnificent! And the part in the movie when Libby Parsons is interred in the New Orleans mausoleum. How creepy was that!

Bruce Greenwood was totally slimey as Libby's two-timing husband. And Tommy Lee Jones was superb as the alcoholic rehab supervisor.

And if you are aware of Hitchcock's movies and the McGuffin theory, you will see that the Kozinski painting was the McGuffin in this movie.

How wonderful to see the street scenes of New Orleans before Katrina. The movie spoke to the essence of New Orleans scene.

One of the favorite movies in my collection.