Who wouldn't want Gene Hackman on their side?

Class Action
Gene Hackman as Jedediah Ward
Mary Mastrantonio as Maggie Ward
Laurence (Larry) Fishburne


Class Action is a featherweight film, so you won’t find any in-depth analysis here.

This is a fairly low-key film about a father and daughter with a frosty relationship who square off against each other in the court room. On the one side is the daughter representing the big, bad corporation. On the other is the father representing the little guy. I’ve only seen it a couple of times, but I’ve always found it entertaining.

I love Gene Hackman. Love, love, love him. Superman, Unforgiven, Crimson Tide are great movies. He’s awesome in Heist. Hoosiers is fun because of him. He even makes Uncommon Valor kick ass, and that has a dorky Patrick Swayze in it! And let’s not forget Royal Tennenbaums. I asked my dad to take me to see this when I was 15 (rated R, for some freakin’ reason) because even back then I loved him.

Oh wow. I just checked imdb, and Hackman’s going to be 80 next year. He’s actually 5 months OLDER than Clint Eastwood. I never would have guessed that. He sure didn’t look older than him in Unforgiven.

Oh, Robert David Hall! CSI connection (I stopped watching when Fishburne came along)! I think he looks a lot better with a beard.

Ric Flair! Those were the days.

Because this film is rated ‘R’, my dad had to take me to see this when I was 15. I never understood why the rating was that high. There’s no violence, and no sex. The most skin you see is a woman’s shoulder. At the most, this movie is PG-13.

There’s a point fairly early in this film where Mary Mastrantio screams. As crazy as this sounds, her scream sounded familiar. Sooo, I looked her up on imdb, and now I know why. In the same year this film came out, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves was released. The only two things I usually ever think about concerning that film is how much Kevin Costner annoys me and how great Alan Rickman is. I never think about the name of the actress who played Maid Marian. However, the one thing I will *never* forget is that when the Sheriff of Nottingham captured her, she screamed “Robin” over and over again. Even at 15, I was embarrassed for all women at her behavior. Turns out that that scream made more of an impression than I ever imagined. Who knew you could identify someone by their scream?

Fred Thompson! Amazing how different a man can be when someone tells him what to say.

Oh, the mom’s dead. What a cheap catalyst to bring father and daughter together on an emotional level. That’s pretty messed up. I kinda liked her.

Wow. I so don’t care about Maggie Ward’s relationship with her boyfriend. Minesweeper is much more interesting.

Laurence Fishburne, Larry in this film, does a very good job considering he’s given next to nothing to do. This is right before he really broke out on his own. I know Boyz in the Hood came out around that time, and What’s Love Got to Do With It was only a couple of years down the road. He really is a remarkable actor. The thing I find interesting is that in all his scenes with Hackman, Fishburne is pretty low key. But when he is playing across Mastrantrio, he knocks his performance out of the park. I wonder if he just wasn’t comfortable working with Hackman.

The music sounds like an 80s leftover track. I remember that even the great song in the end, "If You Don’t Know Me By Now," had a resurgence in popularity in the late 1980s.

This movie features a major court case, but there is not too much court room action. It’s more of a family drama centering around a father and daughter that don’t understand each other. Gene Hackman is great on both levels. On the other hand, while I think Mary Mastrantonio is quite good just playing his daughter, she is mediocre in many of her other scenes. The movie is all right, simple, and is held up fairly well by Gene Hackman. Plus, Hackman and Mastrantonio genuinely seem to be father and daughter. Their scenes together are the best in the film.

Half way through the movie, I was reminded of that more recent film, Runaway Jury. That film was certainly better than Class Action, but the level intensity Hackman exhibits in both films is fairly similar. The only difference is that Hackman was given better lines in Runaway Jury. Oh, and he got to act with Dustin Hoffman, which made him look even better.

Though I don’t recommend buying this film, if you love Gene Hackman as much as I do, it’s worth a rental. He’s very good in this.