Just Cause MPAA Rating: R Entertainment: +3 Content: -3 1/2

Florida's Everglades are the backdrop to the gruesome rape and murder of Joanie Shriver, an 11-year-old girl. Bobby Earl Ferguson (Blair Underwood) is convicted for the crime and faces death by electrocution. He solicits Paul Armstrong (Sean Connery) to represent him. Armstrong's wife (Kate Capshaw) wants her husband to take Ferguson's case because she was the prosecutor on Ferguson's phony kidnapping charge nine years earlier and feels guilty about it. Chief of Police Tanny Brown (Laurence Fishburne) is certain of Ferguson's guilt. He and Armstrong argue over the facts in Ferguson's case until Armstrong discovers new evidence based on testimony of another death row inmate, Blair Sullivan (Ed Harris). From then on, it is a non-stop heart-pounding rollercoaster ride. The problem is that it is a one-way ticket on a trip of fear that feeds on your worst nightmares. The performances are riveting and will definitely keep you interested.

However, the subject matter is just sick and grisly. Photographs of the dead child are extremely disturbing and explicit. In addition, several people are shown after they have been brutally murdered. The intensity of the movie, combined with the viciousness of the killer, make this movie difficult to sit through. Equally disturbing is the misuse of Scripture. Sullivan quotes Ecclesiastes to Armstrong to point him to the murder weapon, telling him "to seek and you shall find." Also, he gives quite the speech to Armstrong about accepting Jesus as Savior. The implication is that Sullivan has the power to kill him at any time and Armstrong had better be ready to meet his Maker. JUST CAUSE will keep you on the edge of your seat. But chances are it will keep you up nights as well. Along with the violence comes disgusting foul language and graphic discussions of deviant sexual activity. A story about a child held at knife point and threatened with death, even though true, is not entertainment - it's news. And that is where it should stay.

Preview Reviewer: Sherry Oswald
Distributor: Warner Bros., 4000 Warner Blvd., Burbank, CA 91522